Liza Rutherford and her husband Tim can hardly believe their eyes.
They’re surrounded by a colorful kaleidoscope of red, white and pink roses everywhere. The flowers are by their feet and even above their heads, nestled into rows of flowering arches.
“Oh my, it’s spectacular,” Rutherford said while standing in front of an ivy-covered gazebo that looks like it’s straight out of a fairytale.
“What a special place!” she said.
That magical place is the Helen S. Kaman rose garden at Elizabeth Park in Hartford. It’s the country’s oldest public rose garden with some variety of flowers dating back to the garden's opening in 1904. It’s also the third largest rose garden in the United States, according to the Elizabeth Park Conservancy. At its peak in mid-to-late June, the garden will have more than 10,000 roses in bloom.
“My sibling visited last week and was like, ‘Wow, your slice of heaven is incredible,’” said Liz Castle, who works at the garden seasonally and is just as awe-struck by its beauty as the people who visit it.
While some of the roses are native to the garden, others come from suppliers in California, New York and Texas. One variety of rose was even borne out of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana back in 2005. Local gardener Peggy Martin left her home during the hurricane, came back to find everything flooded, but found one hardy rose still growing near her tractor shed after two weeks of being submerged underwater. The rose has since become a symbol of resilience and hope, becoming the state flower of Louisiana this year.
“It's an honor to be able to tend to this land and these gardens,” Castle said.
Although the garden is big, the team that manages it is small. The rose garden has one full-time employee, four seasonal workers and a crew of volunteers who begin prepping the garden months in advance. This year, the work started in mid-March.
“It's very meditative,” said volunteer Meg Zimmer, as she knelt on a mat and hacked at the soil, pulling up weeds by their roots. “Just being able to watch things as they grow and see the results of your efforts.”
Betty Hogan, one of the garden’s seasonal workers, said visitors often ask which rose is her favorite, but that depends on the time of day and the sun.
“If I come in at 7 o'clock in the morning, that rose that I see will be a totally different rose by the end of the day. The heat of the day opens the roses, they change colors, they change their odor, the scents change. It's just amazing the difference,” said Hogan, who got so inspired by the garden that she now grows her own roses at home.
“I did not have any roses in my yard before I started working here and I now have 22 in my yard, so it's kind of a sickness,” she joked.
Sitting a few feet away is another seasonal employee, Janet Cemanes, who found out about the garden on a first date.
“I fell in love upon seeing the garden. I said, ‘Can I work here?’” Cemanes said.
One year later, that first date blossomed into a marriage and Cemanes’ other dream eventually came true too: she now works in the garden three days a week.
“You need a place where you can be happy and you can be useful and you can be appreciated,” Cemanes said.
“If the time I spend here is beneficial to those people who need the garden, then I think I have done my part,” she said.
The rose garden will host tours, poetry readings and painting sessions in honor of its 122nd anniversary the weekend of June 20-21.
Áine Pennello is a Report for America corps member, covering the environment and climate change for Connecticut Public
