OARDC Rose Garden to Hold Open House June 9

Some 1,500 heirloom rose plants will be featured when OARDC's Garden of Roses of Legend and Romance holds a free open house June 9. (K.D. Chamberlain image.)

WOOSTER, Ohio -- Last year’s mild winter should mean “a grand display of blooms” this spring, said Kelly King, caretaker of Wooster’s Garden of Roses of Legend and Romance, which will hold its free annual open house from 9 a.m.- 2 p.m. on June 9.

The garden, which spans three acres and is home to about 1,500 heirloom rose plants, is part of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s Secrest Arboretum, 1680 Madison Ave.

The roses in the garden, which are also called antique, old garden or old-fashioned roses, should be in peak bloom at the time of the event.

“This garden is a one-of-a-kind garden,” King said. “It’s such a peaceful atmosphere. You’ll see birds, lots of flowers and walking paths until your heart’s content.”

Heirloom roses are types that came before the first modern hybrid rose in 1867. They feature a wide range of fragrances, plant forms, and flower shapes and colors.

About 500 different varieties are represented in the garden. “You’ll see roses that don’t even look like typical roses,” King said.

There will be self-guided tours, experts on hand to answer questions, dulcimer music, and the sale of a limited number of rose plants, all of them propagated from plants that grow in the garden.

Slated so far for the sale are these varieties (more may be added):

• Chevy Chase
• Queen of the Prairie
• Buff King
• Wind Chimes
• Hanseat
• Rosa Rugosa Alba
• Grootendorst Supreme (red)
• Wildenfelsgelb
• Lillian Gibson
• Henri Martin
• Cardinal de Richelieu
• Thalia
• Violecee
• Crimson Rambler
• Handel
• Dainty Bloomfield
• Berlin
• New Dawn
• La France
• Ardoisse de Lyon 
• Veilchenblaugh
• Thomas Lipton
• Ballerina
• Queen of the Musks

For more information, call 330-263-3612 or e-mail king.1364@osu.edu.

OARDC is the research arm of Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

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