The Royal National Rose Society's Garden near St Albans, http://www.rnrs.org.uk/, hosts the National Rose collection with some 1,800 rose varieties and over 30,000 rose bushes, old and historical varieties and companion planting. It is open from early June to early August each year, with the peak in late June. What a place to visit for a plant lover! 

Still, we were in for a special treat last Friday when the garden opened for the NGS in the evening from 18.00 to 20.00 and the gardens were basking in golden light. A heaven for a photographer as the so called 'golden hour' adds special atmosphere and brings the textures out in your photos. This happens at really unsocial hours in the summer: 5 am is the time for the sunrise. The evening light is a bit better at around 8 pm. 

I would have been in seventh heaven if not for a really strong wind but managed to take a few photos with my Nikon D800 mounted on a tripod and a Nikkor 105 mmf/2.8 macro lens, which I wanted to use to take a few close-up flower portraits, too

So here are the results. No names written down, as I want to come back to the gardens again to take more individual rose portraits this week. So watch this space..