Chapter 2 - Part 3 - The North Rose Garden

As we entered through the North arch of this hedge, we found a spectacular garden. Here the path split to run up each side of a large raised planter. The planter was raised about 2 feet above the path and had a finely crafted granite ledge just large enough to sit on all the way around it. I could tell at once that this was once a very formal rose garden. It was obvious that great attention and preparation had gone into this area as the soil was highly amended and the entire area had a very formal overtone. Unfortunately the entire planter was full of weeds and grasses, now flourishing in the well prepared and rich soil. Most of the roses were dead and old branches of thorns cluttered the area. A rose had managed to survive here and there and a couple had even thrived but the entire look was far from congruent with the original formal plan. This planter was about 10 feet wide and stretched north at least 500 feet. “Why did I make this bed so large?” I questioned out loud. The spirit shrugged and smiled and whispered, “One can never have too many roses!”

How true I thought. “This must be cleaned and prepared so that there will always be room when I find a rare or beautiful rose. Let us continue our tour for now though,” I said. We walked along the rose bed, stopping occasionally to admire a bloom that had managed to survive amidst the neglect.

Now this stately rose bed was flanked on each side by what appeared to be a country style garden. Large groupings of Iris, Gladiolus, Amaryllis, Daffodils, and Hyacinths bloomed profusely here. They had propagated and thrived and taken over and their beauty was a welcome addition to the otherwise weedy and un-kept North Garden. The bulbs were backed by a back drop of 4-foot tall mounds of green ewe followed by a neatly spaced row of stately and tall Italian cypress. This gave the North Garden long formal site lines that was very impressive and formal looking. If the rose bed hadn’t been such a mess the area would have been quite grand. We finally reached the end of the long rose bed and found a large semi-circular terrace area with a trellis supported by formal grecian style columns. From this terrace you could see out over a great valley. This was quite an elevated place and the hill below was gracefully terraced down to the banks of a placid lake. The pillars were set with 2 pillars close then a space of about 10 feet and then another set and so forth around the edge of the semi circle. Each opening seemed to perfectly frame a different picture of the surrounding countryside. It was a grand, grand place. I noticed that thee vines that were gracefully trained around the pillars and up on the trellis above were mostly dead. They appeared to have been wisteria. I thought, “What a shame they are all dead.” The Spirit then pointed out a small green bud on one of them. I smiled because I knew that there was now hope and that with care maybe some of the ancient plants could be revived. We stayed in this place and viewed the surrounding landscape for quite some time.