Memorial Rose Garden at Kingwood Center

The Charles E. Nail Memorial Rose Garden at Kingwood Center is surrounded by the new herb garden, peony garden, exhibit hall and greenhouses. The rose garden is framed on one side by a curved pergola-covered brick walkway.

In traditional landscape style a stone urn, wooden bench set under the pergola and doorway to the exhibit hall create a symmetrical line one’s eye easily follows. The lawn is gently terraced with rectangular raised beds edged with stone. Additional square cornered and L-shaped rose-beds complete the garden pattern.

Mixed Plantings with Roses

Not only are public rose gardens peaceful places to sit and contemplate, but also often people tour gardens in search of practical advice on what to plant at home. The rose garden at Kingwood Center has excellent examples of individual and mixed planting ideas.

The display of floribunda Rosa ‘Tabris’ planted with Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ creates an easy to grow fragrant combination. It will attract butterflies and bees to any garden.

Another idea is found in the long rectangular rose bed edged with annual purple alyssum. This is a simple economical choice, adding a sweet scent, attracting pollinators and is a pleasant compliment to the roses strong structure.

Training clematis and climbing roses together up a trellis or along a fence is a popular mixed plant grouping. Unfortunately, the effort at Kingwood Center has not worked well. The pergola has robust clematis plants covering the wooden frame, however the climbing roses have not grown as expected.

Hardy Roses for Home Gardeners

The cultivars of shrub, floribunda and hybrid tea roses in the garden provide useful information for gardeners, all are appropriate for growing in a climate similar northern Ohio. The test garden behind the pergola is growing low maintenance roses. Notable examples from the rose garden collection include:

• Floribunda Rosa ‘Marmalade Skies’ has tangerine orange colored blooms. The plant grows 3 feet by 3 feet and won All America Rose Selections in 2001.

• Floribunda Rosa ‘September Mourn’ has pure white flowers on a disease resistant plant. This plant was dedicated to the Salvation Army and all first responders to the scene on September 11, 2001, in New York City.

• Shrub Rosa ‘Glamis Castle’ is an English David Austin type that has very fragrant white double flowers.

• Shrub Rosa ‘Bonica’ is known for its mass of small light pink blooms. The plant stays relatively short and is easy to grow with clematis or in large containers.

The rose garden at Kingwood Center was built in 1977, and grows almost 500 roses. Rather than specimen rose plant examples, the collection is focused on roses selected for plant hardiness, able to thrive in regions similar to Mansfield, Ohio’s zone 5.

The Kingwood Center has many gardens, indoors and outside to visit. The horticultural library is open free to the public, as are the gardens.