We decided to combine the visit to the Roger Williams Botanical center with a visit to the Victorian Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden located in Roger Williams Park, Providence, Rhode Island.

Victorian Rose Garden
The Victorian Rose Garden is maintained by the RI Rose Society. Our visit occurred on June 14th -- the roses were in peak bloom and lovely! I had heard Mike Chute of the RI Rose Society speak about hardy, disease resistant roses for New England at the RI Flower Show. I was not disappointed! The roses were healthy, large and gorgeous!

To learn more about the RI Rose Society, check out this link:
RI Rose Society Web Site

The web site contains some photos showing what the garden looked like at the time of its planting and renovation in Spring 1999. You can see that the garden has matured and filled out since its initial planting. You can also print out a map of showing the rose variety names to take with you. This will help you identify the roses as many of the metal identification tags are hard to read or located too far back in the garden.

Japanese Garden
The Japanese Garden can be found behind the Carousel. These gardens were recently renovated in 2006. We were a little disappointed in the Japanese garden. Maintenance such as weeding and mulch is needed to improve the garden's appearance. Hopefully during a future visit the Japanese Garden will be in better shape.