Washington Post Highlights Mable Ringling's Rose Garden

While Ringling In Bloom is attacting folks finding their way through flowers this weekend, a Washington Post travel piece is telling visitors to stop and smell the roses, too.

Freelance travel writer and blogger Judy Wells' piece published Thursday, Feb. 28, spotlights the handy work of Mable Ringling of the famous circus family, who has an exquisite rose garden on the grounds of the Ca' d'Zan at the Ringling Museum of Art. What is amazing is that thise garden turns 100 this year, which makes it the oldest maintained rose garden in the Sunshine State, according to the Washington Post.

Curator Lauretta Bestpitch filled in the writer with some key details of Mable Ring's gardening history:

"The original garden was a bit smaller than the current one, and none of the rose bushes planted by Mable have survived, but replacements have been selected from hybrid perpetuals, China tea roses, hybrid musk and other varieties available during that era. “Always in the helter-skelter color pattern like she had it,” Bestpitch said.

There are 317 named varieties among the 1,200 rose bushes. They range from small Red Home Runs to Old Timers with blooms as large as one’s head."

The museum is giving grounds and gardens tours at 10:30 a.m. through March 3 as part of Ringling In Bloom and costs $10 for museum members and $20 for the general public.

The piece also highlighted Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, too, for its renowned collection of living plants:

"Of the 200-plus botanical gardens in the United States, only one, the Selby, concentrates on epiphytes, plants that grow on another plant without taking sustenance from it. The Spanish moss draping trees in the South isn’t a moss but an epiphyte, as are a large number of orchids."

Which tended gardens are your favorite in Sarasota? Tell us in the comments