ROSES FOR DAYS
A rose garden. Like strictly a ROSE garden. Within and hour and 15 minutes from my house? How am I just finding this beautiful place now?
Roses lining the stone pathway entrance to the garden
A rose garden. Like strictly a ROSE garden. Within and hour and 15 minutes from my house? How am I just finding this beautiful place now?
The Rudolf W. van der Goot Rose Garden (that’s a freaking mouth full) contains more than 3,000 roses of 325 varieties. There are very distinct sections of the garden including the Grandmother’s Garden which features roses popular before WW2…I mean who even thought that could be a thing but it is and it’s glorious. All the roses are clearly labeled with their name which is doubly amazing since the more I explore and paint roses I’m learning their names and characteristics…they don’t all look like roses from the grocery store kids. I fell in love with pink rose below named “Beverly”…so much so that as I bent down to look at her I literally said “Ohhhh helloooo Beverly.” The two teenagers standing 5 feet to my right absolutely judged my enthusiasm…it’s ok, I have teenagers so I’m used to it.
I feel like I showed up at an odd time in the garden where the front seem to be flourishing and the side gardens were either not blooming yet or already had. Either way I’m going back in a few weeks to check out what’s popping now as all the info I’ve read on the garden says they have blooms through fall. I found these beauties that were fading and while I normally gravitate towards lighter palettes the deep pinks and reds in these two really spoke to me. Expect to see a LARGE piece featuring these girls.
There were a lot of what I later found out were Japanese Beatles on a lot of the rose…every gardener who say the photos or the painting I made of the yellow rose below freaked out. I mean FREAKED OUT. I got texts and DMs on Instagram the second people say those little creatures and honestly they played right into the symbolism I was going for with the piece. (Click here to see the painting) I understand the disdain but I’m really into the idea of the rose not being a singular beautiful thing in the garden but that' it’s surrounded and effected by all the other elements of nature…sun, rain, bugs, bees, etc.
The garden is part of the former Mettler Estate which was at one time a working farm…the fountain, the trellises and this little stone house just make the place that much more magical. This was a trip that filled my heart with all the right inspiration.
For more information you can visit the Somerset County Parks website Somerset County Parks. Thanks for coming along with me…until next time.
Catherine