A MOTTISFONT-based National Trust gardener is jetting off to New Zealand and the USA to study roses.

Senior gardener, Jonny Bass, will be spending two months overseas on a fact-finding tour after being awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. Mottisfont Abbey, where Tom works, has the national collection of old-fashioned roses and the gardens are world famous.

Congratulating Jonny on receiving his fellowship, Mottisfont’s general manager, Paul Cook, said: “We are all so proud that Jonny will be representing our garden and the National Trust.

“The programme of activity sounds fantastic and I’m sure he will come back to Mottisfont with plenty of new ideas to help our rose garden and the wider estate gardens in the future. I cannot wait to read all of the great stories about his travels on his blog ,too!”

Jonny is due to leave on November 6 and his first destination will be New Zealand, where roses will be in full bloom. Here he will visit private collections in Auckland Christchurch and Dunedin and study techniques used to care for the flowers.

He will also be working at Christchurch Botanic Garden.

While in the USA, Jonny will based in Sacramento, where one of the world’s largest collections of heritage roses has been established, while in New York he will be working at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and he will also meet the president of the Heritage Rose Foundation Scott Stringer.

He is due to return to the UK on January 4.

Jonny said: “I’m really excited about the trip, especially visiting New Zealand, as I have never been before. The whole idea behind this is to gain knowledge and skills that I can bring with me back to Mottisfont.”