Rosarium

A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses may be displayed alongside other plants or grouped by individual variety, colour or class in rose beds. Technically it is a specialized type of shrub garden, but normally treated as a type of flower garden, if only because its origins in Europe go back to at least the Middle Ages in Europe, when roses were effectively the largest and most popular flowers, already existing in numerous garden cultivars.

Origins of the rose garden

Of the over 150 species of rose, the Chinese '' Rosa chinensis'' has contributed most to today's garden roses; it has been bred into garden varieties for about 1,000 years in China, and over 200 in Europe. It is believed that roses were grown in many of the early civilisations in temperate latitudes from at least 5000 years ago. They are known to have been grown in ancient Babylon. Paintings of roses have been discovered in Egyptian pyramid tombs from the 14th century BC. Records exist of them being grown in Chinese gardens and Greek gardens from at least 500 BC. Many of the original plant breeders used roses as a starting material as it is a quick way to obtain results.

Most of the plants grown in these early gardens are likely to have been species collected from the wild. However, there were large numbers of selected varieties being grown from early times; for instance numerous selections or cultivars of the China rose were in cultivation in China in the first millennium AD.

The significant breeding of modern times started slowly in Europe from about the 17th century. This was encouraged by the introduction of new species, and especially by the introduction of the China rose into Europe in the 19th century. An enormous range of roses has been bred since then. A major contributor in the early 19th century was Empress Josephine of France, who patronized the development of rose breeding at her gardens at Malmaison. As long ago as 1840, a collection numbering over one thousand different cultivars, varieties and species was possible when a rosarium was planted by Loddiges nursery for Abney Park Cemetery, an early Victorian garden cemetery and arboretum in England.

British designers of rose gardens include Thomas Mawson, who created examples at Graythwaite Hall (his first major garden project in 1886) and other sites, including Bushey (1913). Another surviving old public rose garden is Jules Gravereaux's Roseraie du Val-de-Marne south of Paris in L'Haÿ-les-Roses, which was laid out in 1899 and remains the biggest rose garden in France.

List of public rose gardens

Public rose gardens are a feature of many towns and cities. Since 1995, the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) grants the Award of Garden Excellence. So far, 42 gardens have been selected. Notable gardens around the world include:

Argentina

* Rosedal de Palermo in the Parc 3 de Febrero in Buenos Aires was created in 1912 and restored from 1994 to 2008. It was granted the Award of Garden Excellence in 2012.

Austria

* Volksgarten, Vienna. A public park in the heart of Austria's capital, famous for its beautiful rose gardens with over 3,000 plants of more than 200 different cultivars of roses.

Australia

* Ruston's Roses in Renmark, South Australia houses the National Rose Collection of Australia (since 2005) and displays more than 4,000 modern and old garden varieties. The garden, which started life as a commercial fruit orchard, began supplying the cut flower trade and by the mid-1970s it focused entirely on supplying roses as both cut flowers and garden plants.
* Alister Clark Memorial Rose Garden, a rose garden in Bulla, Victoria, home town of the rosarian Alister Clark, containing all his surviving cultivars.
* Morwell Centenary Rose Garden in Morwell, Victoria, with over 4000 rose plants on an area of and a focus on rose breeders from Australia and New Zealand, both historical and modern. The WFRS granted the Award of Garden Excellence in 2009.
* Victoria State Rose Garden in Werribee, Victoria, with an extravagant garden design, where most rose beds are part of bigger features such as The Tudor Rose, The Federation Leaf, The Heritage Perimeter Garden and The David Austin Bud. It was granted the Award of Garden Excellence in 2003.
* Nieuwesteeg Heritage Rose Garden in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.

Belgium

* Coloma Castle, in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, six miles (10 km) south of Brussels has more than 60,000 rose plants of some 3,000 different varieties. These include a complete collection of Belgian-raised roses and an area devoted to historic roses. The largest rose garden features varieties grouped by country and by breeder.
* The Garden of Roses at Hex Castle at Kasteel Hex, containing an exceptional assortment of about 250 varieties in a restored formal Renaissance garden originally laid out in 1770. It was the first rose garden in Belgium to be granted the WFRS's Award of Garden Excellence in 1998.
* The International rose garden of Kortrijk in Kortrijk, West Flanders, on the grounds of Castle t Hooghe was redesigned in 2003/2004 after 45 years of existence. The garden has three sections: a garden presenting commercially available modern rose cultivars from around the world, a collection of historic and wild roses and an international trials garden. In 2012, it was granted the WFRS's Award of Garden Excellence.
* The Rose Garden at Vrijbroek Park in Mechelen consists of three rose gardens in a landscape park designed in the 19th century. The oldest is a formal rose garden, followed by a rose garden showcasing the history of the rose opened in 1994, and a garden presenting the wild roses of Belgium. In 2003, it was granted the Award of Garden Excellence by the World Federation of Rose Societies.

Canada

* The Rose Garden at the Montreal Botanical Garden has a collection of 10,000 roses in a modern rose garden with winding beds. It has an older section with modern varieties, needing a lot of winter protection to survive the Canadian climate, and a newer section with species, historic roses and hardy modern roses. It was granted the WFRS's Award of Garden Excellence in 2003.
* Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario has a Centennial Rose Garden in its Hamilton complex. Laid out in 1967, it features Floribunda and Hybrid Tea roses, as well as collections of old varieties.Dr. D. G. Hessayon, ''The Rose Expert'', Expert Books 2004, p. 126
* The University of British Columbia, Vancouver has a Rose Garden with Ocean and Mountain background views.

China

* Shenzhen Renmin Park in Shenzhen, Guangdong, in Southern China is a rose garden created in 2002. The garden hosts some 10 000 rose plants in a very humid climate. Most notable in the collection are the 23 ancient Chinese roses and the miniature roses grafted on species roses. The garden was granted the WFRS's Award of Garden Excellence in 2009.
* Zijing Park in Changzhou contains about 25 000 plants in over 1200 varieties and was distinguished with the WFRS's Award of Garden Excellence in 2012.

Denmark

* Gerlev Rosenpark near Frederikssund

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