Believing that a rose garden is a family affair and that it is never too early to create an interest in roses, Jackson & Perkins Company of Newark, New York, constructed a special child’s garden of roses last June.
And to increase its “child-appeal,” the garden was planted with varieties from the Pustoccino family of roses and peopled with some of the lovable Walt Disney characters.
A miniature version of the child’s garden of roses was shown at the 1954 International Flower Show. Still, the permanent garden is in the seventeen-acre Jackson & Perkins public rose garden in Newark, New York.
Completely enclosed, the 34×48’ foot garden is more than an entity; it is a fantasy—a dream world where childish imaginations can run rampant.
A turreted tower, candy-stripe flagpoles, and other nurseries and structures lend realistic whimsy to the scene. But the structures and playthings are merely accessories to the rose plantings.
Home-planting Scheme
Landscape Architect Henry Aul, who designed the garden, artfully contrived a plan that is harmonious and yet consists of many separate plantings that could be used by themselves in a home-planting scheme.
For instance, at the base of each candy-striped flagpole is a triangular bed with three different rose varieties, PINOCCHIO, MARIONETTE, and RED PINOCCHIO.
The arrangement allows access to the flagpole, a rural route mailbox, or, to be even more prosaic, to a washing line pole.
Two variations of this idea, a circular bed around a bird bath and a half-moon bed of roses used with a garden birdhouse—it could just as easily be a lantern post or a pillar for a climbing PINOCCHIO could be used on almost any property. In the same way, two dozen plants are used as a floribunda hedge on either side of a flagstone pathway.
On each side, twelve plants are arranged so that two bushes of the creamy white MmuorgErri: stand guard at each end, while in between are beds of four Pinoretuos flanked by four Run PINOCCHIO bushes.
This colorful arrangement could be extended in a single line along one side of a driveway or in various combinations.
Foundation Planting
The use of floribunda roses as foundation plants is aptly demonstrated with a corner planting that, while used with a quaint tower, might easily be applied to the entrance to a house.
Another foundation planting ideal for a picture window appears by a picturesque natural-shingle facade of t small nursery and house.
Above, triangular rose beds are planted at the base of candy-striped flagpoles.
A lush bed of the current All-America floribunda, JIMINY CRICKET–COMpleiC with a figure of the insect that is Pinocchio’s conscience in the Disney film—serves as the background for a larger-than-life-size sandbox.
Parents who have taken their children through the Children’s Garden of Roses find this sandbox planting irresistible.
Another “child stopper” is the seesaw between two semicircular beds of floribunda roses. Figaro the Cat sits at the center of balance on the seesaw and works back and forth.
The sign that hangs above its entrance is basic to the whole idea of the Children’s Garden of Roses and the means it provides for releasing or stimulating imaginations.
It reads: “Adults Admitted Only When Accompanied by Children.”
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