Rose Gardens

Bare root roses have started appearing at our local garden center, with their thorny, twiggy shapes giving us hope and inspiration for beautiful spring and summer blooms. Living in California, almost every house in our neighborhood has a few rose bushes - low shrub varieties that seem to flower most of the year to big grandifloras and heirloom varieties. With roses on my mind, I painted the image above (Filoli's Rose Garden) and started thinking about all the other beautiful rose gardens I've visited over the years.

Here's a list of some of my favorites rose gardens near and far (in no particular order) :

1. Woodside, CA Filoli Rose Garden

2. San Jose, CA Municipal Rose Garden

3. San Diego, CA Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden (Balboa Park)

4. Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Mission Rose Garden

5. San Marino, CA The Huntington Rose Garden

6. Versailles, France Petit Trianon Rose Garden

7. Cap Ferrat, France Villa Ephrussi Rose Garden

8. Madrid, Spain Il Retiro Rose Garden

9. Mexico City, Mexico Our Lady of Guadalupe

10. Buenos Aires, Argentina Rosedal de Palermo

While we are still in the middle of January and the weather is a bit chilly, I can flip back through my sketchbooks and photos and be transported back to warm, sunny days and gardens filled with rich colors and fragrant breezes.

Enjoy!

Kathryn