Tips for photographing roses 13: Seek out the rare

It is much easier to get a lovely picture of an individual flower or even a small cluster of blooms than to take a good shot of the whole plant in a garden setting. If you see a shapely plant covered in fresh, open blooms, please give it a try, even if you tend to have more success with individual flower shots.

Great shrub or climber shots of roses in full flower in an attractive context are surprisingly rare. They simply don’t exist for many varieties.

I’m not confident about taking this kind of shot myself, but when the picture before you is so lovely, you have to have a go! This picture shows shrub and climbing roses near the peak of flower in a wide border around David Austin’s Plant Centre in Albrighton, England.