Garden of Old Roses
Perhaps no other flower has been as mythologized and romanticized as the rose and our Garden of Old Roses is an immersive experience, featuring plants long cultivated for their beauty and fragrance. This beautiful area also provides stunning views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge!
Comprising many selectively cultivated species, this ethnobotanical collection is a rich source of genetic information revealing the many attributes that characterize modern-day roses, including fragrance and color. While roses have been hybridized by gardeners for hundreds of years into distinct classes, each with their own set of flower and leaf characteristics, this garden was created in 1982 to display the history of rose cultivation up to the development of modern hybrid tea roses.
The American Rise Society classifications reflect the botanical and evolutionary progress of the rose: Species (i.e. wild roses); Old Garden Roses (classes in existence before 1867); and Modern Roses (classes not in existence before 1867).
Collection Highlights
Included here are representatives of the most important “Old Garden Rose” classes, predating modern roses, which are planted in a layout common in English-style gardens of the 1800s. Growing among them are traditional companion plants such as hollyhocks, foxgloves, heucheras, Chinese forget-me-not, and snapdragons, giving the garden drifts of color between the rose bloom cycles.
Regions and History
According to the fossil record, roses are about 35 million years old. Currently, 100 to 150 species of the genus Rosa grow wild in Eurasia, North America, and North Africa. The oldest cultivated roses were grown for rose-petal syrups and conserves and were highly prized for skincare products. To the Romans, the rose was a sign of pleasure, the companion to mirth and wine, but was also used at funerals. Rose garlands were even thought to prevent drunkenness. And suspending a rose above a dinner table meant that all confidences would be kept—sub rosa means “done in secret.”
Banner photo: Saxon Holt