As rosarians, we are in constant pursuit of a rose garden whenever and wherever we are. During the rose peak blooming season, we love to see all rose gardens we can possibly see.  In this pursuit, we come across all types of garden designs.

On most of the public gardens we see, there is one element that seems to prevail.  Have you ever noticed that the rose garden in a public setting is always a formal garden? Elizabeth Park, the first municipal rose garden in America and located in Connecticut, and the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden at New York Botanical Garden (above photo) are fine examples of formal rose gardens.  For centuries, the Queen of Flowers seems to command a place in the garden where order and calmness prevail.

Formal gardens have been the gardener’s ultimate expression of man’s control over nature.  The greatest formal garden in the world…