arden designer Jo Thompson is known for her love of roses. She squeezes them in wherever a project permits and, in her show gardens, where she has freest rein, their sumptuous blooms crop up almost without exception. ‘Night Owl’ flashed its white eye in last year’s Wildlife Garden at RHS Hampton Court, while apricot ‘Buff Beauty’ and pink ‘Bonica’ made a picture-perfect combination in her exquisite Wedgwood Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2019. It was burnished, tawny ‘Hot Chocolate’ that attracted attention in Jo’s earlier gold medal-winning urban garden for Thrive, and, indeed, it was this very garden that brought the owner of this West London plot to Jo’s door with something
