Urban Rose Garden

Although 2020 has seen many of our plans change and forced us to work in entirely new ways, our gardens remain a positive respite that despite whatever is going on in the world remain a constant source of stress relief and happiness. Photos of Madame Isaac Periere taken June 2020 at Elizabeth Park I began 2020 with a couple of garden initiatives- firstly to visit more public rose gardens, and secondly to expand my collection of roses into old garden varieties - Both of which I have done. Now in regards to visiting more rose gardens, this hasn't been the easiest year to travel and many public spaces have been closed or open with limited access. Early in the year I took several trips to Elizabeth park in Hartford, CT and joked that I had seen the park full of dormant roses so many times that I probably wouldn't get back to see them in bloom. That was foreshadowing at its finest, but I was intent on getting back down. I was able to visit a couple of weekends ago and will be

As spring is nearing closer it’s hard not to get excited for the upcoming growing season. Especially with the abnormally warm start to the year, the roses are already beginning to show signs of life. This will be my first year growing several varieties of old garden roses (roses from before 1867 when the first hybrid tea was introduced) but its fun to think about what led me to where I am which is essentially my obsession with David Austin roses. At my very core I am a researcher. I cherish many memories sitting around the family encyclopedia (google for kids that were born before 1990) looking up information on everything that I could possibly want to know. I was the type of kid that wrote reports for fun. Fast forward back to my adulthood and I am still odd and everything that I find interesting becomes researched until I know as much as I possibly can. So after my first season of gardening, I had decided to add Mr Lincoln, and was giddy and looking forward to the following seas

Aside from enjoying roses in the garden for obvious reasons, I also love to harvest fresh blooms for culinary purposes including floral tisanes. During the growing season this is done easily by taking a stroll through one of my rose beds to see which plants might have a spare flower or two for the taking. During the off season however this is a little tougher, and this brings me to one of my favorite winter past times. Along with going over the David Austin catalogue in addition with various seed catalogues (and quite honestly whatever other garden inspiration I can get my hands on) I also enjoy perusing rose based or inspired products including soaps and lotions, artwork, and of course dried rose buds or petals. The trouble with the later has always been finding a reputable source to purchase from at an affordable price. I am pretty sure that I have tried every rose based tea on the market, some of them I enjoy and others not so much. I usually end up adding rose water to

Winter can be a bleak time of year in the northeast and I must admit that for a lifelong New Englander I am not fond of the cold at all. This means that rather than skiing, snowshoeing, or participating in any of the other outdoors activities that require enduring the cold I am much more likely to be found inside by the fire place looking through seed catalogues or David Austin's latest "book of roses." By February however I am feeling a bit of cabin fever and we are usually plotting our next adventure. Also being stuck indoors with so much cold outside usually inspires big dreams of what the garden will bring this current season, and so the two will usually marry into some type of garden experience, whether its the Boston Flower show in March or hunting for indoor plants or seed starting goodies early. This year i have planned to experience the many gems (some hidden and others not so much) throughout New England, and by gems I mean rose gardens. Our travels thi