The peak of the year for me is late June, when the rambler roses bring summer to a glorious climax. And, as many of us find it hard to accommodate as many as we would like of these luxuriant monsters, that is also the time to visit the garden at Moor Wood in Gloucestershire.

That is where Susie and Henry Robinson grow the National Collection of rambler roses - 120 of them. They grow them up walls, up trees, over walls, on walls, and cascading down steep banks. They grow the best, and they also grow some lesser varieties, because the point of a national collection is not only to delight, but to ensure that the old varieties of garden plants are preserved so that unfashionable or uncommercial plants are not lost to future generations.

Henry and Susie took over responsibility for the gardens of the family home and farm at Moor Wood in the early 1980s. The house, cottages and garden are situated in a small wooded valley. Mature yew hedges and low stone walls create a pleasing counterpoint to large areas of grass and trees, and above Garden Cottage walled terraces are built into the hillside, providing a wonderful playground for roses to ramble about on. Part of a laurel hedge has recently been removed from alongside the drive to the house because its roots were a risk to the drains - and, coincidentally of course,- to make space for a few of the 170 ramblers on Henry's "wanted" list.

When Henry and Susie began contemplating the rather neglected garden and looking for ideas of how to begin its revival, a friend who was involved with the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens suggested that they might contribute a collection of rambler roses. Henry told me that "this seemed a sensible theme round which to hang the reconstruction of the garden.. Since then it has become a fascinating hobby."

However, they are very clear that they are not attempting to set up rigid rows of sample plants. While the labelling is conscientious, accurate and conveniently always about eye level, Henry asserts "it is a family home first, a garden second and a national collection third.. ..We're a rambly type garden,... we can't make it all immaculate and I don't want to make it all immaculate...a certain amount of romantic disorder is a happy compromise." Some people may be a little out of touch with the realities of gardening on this scale, and with the nature of rambler roses. Henry tells me that visitors sometimes ask how they manage the deadheading. But even if 120 rambler roses somehow don't get deadheaded, a great many of them, especially those on the walls, do get pruned.

Henry prunes for control, understandably, and to keep the flowering spread all the way up the wall, when the instinct of the roses is to shoot right up to the top and do all their flowering there in celebration of their arrival. Their shoots are trained sideways, also to help restrain this antisocial behaviour: gently bending the shoots encourages buds to break all along the stems. Henry points out that this happens naturally when a rose grows into a tree and begins to arch out of the support. He believes that the best way to grow ramblers is in trees and over sheds, though he adds "whenever I plant a rose into a tree the tree falls over." This results in a rose mound instead, and the reason it happens is Henry's preference for choosing trees which are already looking a bit weary as hosts for his roses.

They don't spray the roses at Moor Wood, although some do get diseased. The principle method of disease control is a big blob of manure. Henry tells me this works two ways, by stimulating the roots near the surface and by burying the spores from old diseased leaves. He also cuts out any dead or diseased wood ruthlessly.

I inevitably asked for some recommendations. Amongst the smaller, more manageable ramblers Henry suggested Goldfinch (a egg yolk yellow flower) and Princess Louise (soft pink, also found as Baltimore Belle). And "one of the most spectacular large roses is rosa Wickwar... a smashing rose." Wickwar is a village not far from Moor Wood, but this enthusiasm is not just local loyalty. A nursery owner also recently recommended it to me. It has good grey green foliage, single white flowers and a lovely scent.

The "great smell" is one of the reasons for Henry's love of ramblers. He is not at all troubled that they only flower once: "because when they have their moment of glory it's very special and you can enjoy that moment... when they're over you say "see you again next year."

Published ? don't remember! But do go and see it if you can.

Moor Wood, Woodmancote, Glos GL7 7EB tel 01285 831 397 henry@moorwood.fslife.co.uk

open for NGS June 29th 2008, 2-6pm

Anne Wareham