Roses of Elizabeth Park in Hartford, CT with Marci Martin

By Any Name – the Roses of Elizabeth Park

The rose garden at Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Connecticut is the oldest municipal rose collection in the United States. Rosarian Marci Martin is our guest this week. She is the President of the Connecticut Rose Society and a Master Rosarian with the American Rose Society.

Wealthy industrialist Charles M. Pond once owned the area that is now known as Elizabeth Park. When Mr. Pond passed away, he willed his estate to the City of Hartford with the stipulations that it be used as a horticultural park and be named for his wife, Elizabeth, who had died a few years earlier.

The first rose garden began about 100 years ago with around 100 bushes. Today there are 15,000. Marci and I discuss the renovation of the Heritage Rose collection at Elizabeth Park, some of her favorite roses of the past, and even a few that will be coming out in the future. We agree that Americans want disease resistance above all, and we lament the fact that fragrance has been pretty much bred out of today’s rugged new varieties. Marci recommends some roses from hybridizers like Ping Lim of Easy Elegance. I mention Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses who includes scent in his breeding program.

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