A Rose Garden for Romance
Have you ever noticed that in the old-fashioned novels, when people fall in love, they always seem to do it in a rose garden? Which leads me to believe that people in novels fell in love only in June, since things always seemed to be in gloriously full bloom.Rose gardens and romance go hand in hand. There must be something about those roses!
I assume that it was a totally sensual experience. The fragrance of the roses wafting into the air, the soft silken trail of fragile petals against the velvety lawn, the sheer beauty of all the magnificent blooms, and the feeling of seclusion that these gardens always seemed to evoke in the lovers.
I've never seen a rose garden like that in real life. I've seen rose gardens where rose after rose was spaced like a specimen plant, all leggy with lots of bare dirt around them. I've seen an old rose romantically twining around in an abandoned cemetery. I've seen a few roses in fairly romantic perennial gardens. But nothing like the stuff those old novels seemed to have had.
So I checked all my garden design books under "Romantic Rose Gardens" and came up with - nothing. Either romance is dead or the mixed border has taken over to such an extent that we've lost the very idea.
Therefore, I cannot tell you about how to create a perfectly romantic rose garden from personal experience, nor can I quote experts at you. I can only use the experience I've had in creating a romantic but modern secret garden, and a separate (but equally hidden) rose garden to create, for you and for my own satisfaction, the romantic rose garden of novels and dreams. My own rose garden needs to be redone next year - so this is not a useless exercise.
The first requirement for a romantic garden of any kind is that it gives one a sense of seclusion. A public rose garden is not a good place for a tryst - but one that is walled, or created in such a way that one must consciously enter it is perfect for romantic interludes. Therefore, you need an arbor, preferably covered with some gloriously scented climbing rose. 'New Dawn' is superb for this, as is 'Climbing Cecile Brunner' - which may be especially appropriate since it is also known as the "Sweetheart Rose.' This is your entrance - where you leave prying eyes behind and enter into your own special world.
Latest Articles