by MSV Director of Gardens Perry Mathewes
Our Rose Garden is starting to look good right now. Each year in early June, these shrubs burst forth with a flush of flowers that is very showy, before they settle down to a simple procession of flowers for the rest summer. I could write a small novel trying to describe the beauty of each of these different types, but since a picture is worth a 1000 words, let’s just settle for a photo essay.
The garden consists of 6 large planting beds. The four closest to the Glen Burnie House feature selections of hybrid teas, grandifloras and floribunda types.
Here are two fabulous hybrid teas – ‘Sugar Plum’ and ‘Fragrant Cloud’:
[Sugar Plum]
[Fragrant Cloud]
This classic grandiflora ‘Queen Elizabeth’ always rules the garden:
[Queen Elizabeth]
In the last few years, we have added a lot of floribunda type roses, to give us an abundance of blooms and color. Looking particularly showy right now are ‘Gilded Sun’ and ‘Rainbow Sorbet’:
[Gilded Sun]
[Rainbow Sorbet]
Look at the bud to see where the floribunda rose ‘Black Cherry’ gets its name:
[Black Cherry]
And this floribunda rose ‘Violet’s Pride’ was developed to honor the Downton Abbey character Lady Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham:
[Violet’s Pride]
To the west of these four planting beds is a rose arbor and two beds that feature old garden roses that are quite different in form, flower and often more scented. Separating these two groups is a hedge of hybrid musk roses called ‘Ballerina:’
[Ballerina rose hedge]
[Ballerina]
On the arbor are several climbing roses including this fabulous climber ‘Dortmund:’
[Dortmund]
Look for the small sweet flowers of the ‘Fantin Latour’ cabbage rose, sometimes known as a centifolia type rose:
[Fantin Latour]
The ‘Moroccan’ rose is a hybrid perpetual rose:
[Moroccan]
Look for the spectacular striping of the Bourbon rose (this class is named for the French family, not the drink) called ‘Variegata di Bologna:’
[Variegata di Bologna]
One of my personal favorites is the hybrid multiflora rose ‘Veilchenblau’ with amazing dark coloring:
[Veilchenblau]
This year we do seem to more deer in the garden than ever before. I just hope they don’t get hungry and eat the beautiful hybrid musk rose ‘Will Scarlet’ right behind them:
[Rose Garden with deer]
[Will Scarlet rose with deer]