Filed under: Gardening, Flowers, Garden Tours
Getting to know the faces and stories behind our favorite gardens. Today: Brooklyn Botanical Garden Rosarian Sarah Owens.
Cranford Rose Garden, Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Photo: Marie Viljoen
Sarah Owens is the Rosarian in charge of the 100-year-old Cranford Rose Garden in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York City.
1. Why do you garden?
For the joy of being alone, I am closest to the origin of life. Some call it God or Allah. For me, something different, free from human construction and complication. I feel simple, not female, not male, only one. May sound new-age silly but it's true. And each season, I learn something new and different.
2. Who or what inspired you to garden?
I started when I was a young child helping my family with a large vegetable garden and my mother's fussy rose garden. My fondest memory is following behind the tractor when it was time to dig the potatoes. I was allowed to get as filthy as I wanted as long as I retrieved all the potatoes. I wanted to smother myself in the smell of the fresh earth. Gardening was just a part of life growing up. I watched my maternal grandmother find refuge in nature. Even after a debilitating stroke, she would work daily weeding, hoeing, planting. She had such quiet strength.
3. What was the first plant you grew?
The first I remember growing all by myself were beans. The thought of being able to eat what I produced was incredibly empowering.
4. How often do you garden?
Monday to Friday and often on weekends in spring and fall
5. What is your USDA zone?
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is in zone is 6b-7 depending on the micro climate in the garden. Some spots in the Cranford Rose Garden, like on the hill may even be 7b, as in the winter the wind passes right over and the sun shines all day. I know when there's a foot of snow on the rest of the garden, I can always head there to find a warm clear spot.
6. What size is your garden?
The Cranford Rose garden is about two acres. About 1.7 of that are rose beds.
Rosarian Sarah Owens. Photo: Dodo Loechle
7. What plant has most disappointed you?
That's difficult. All plants, when given appropriate conditions, will perform and serve a purpose. I adore begonias but cannot for whatever frustrating reason, grow them indoors.
8. What plant has made you happiest?
Roses. When they are at the height of their glory, they are incredibly giving of their fragrance, bloom form, hip display, foliage ... I could praise them on and on. If selected with careful consideration, they are a plant for all seasons.
9. What do you love about your garden right now?
I love the riot of color that happens when the roses are at peak bloom with their companion annuals and perennials.
10. What do you feed your garden?
I feed the roses Rose Tone once in spring along with massive amounts of alpaca manure, horse manure, compost, corn meal, fish, kelp....
Roses in the Cranford Rose Garden. Photo: Marie Viljoen
11. What would you like to grow, but can't?
I would love to do the noisettes and tea roses proper justice in a warmer, less humid climate. I also adore tender bulbs, salvias, and things that require better drainage and milder winters.
12. Food, flowers, native or ornamental?
All of the above together in one big green orgy.
13. Most inspiring garden writer, thinker, blogger, personality?
I always liked Gertrude Jekyll's color and texture combos, Sydney Edison's poetry, Piet Oudolf's bold sweeps and quiet whispers.
14. What plants do you dislike?
Not a fan of bindweed. Grrrr!!!
15. Would you like more sun or more shade?
SUN and a little shade to hide under in August.
16. Where is your favorite public garden?
I would love to do the noisettes and tea roses proper justice in a warmer, less humid climate. I also adore tender bulbs, salvias, and things that require better drainage and milder winters.
12. Food, flowers, native or ornamental?
All of the above together in one big green orgy.
13. Most inspiring garden writer, thinker, blogger, personality?
I always liked Gertrude Jekyll's color and texture combos, Sydney Edison's poetry, Piet Oudolf's bold sweeps and quiet whispers.
14. What plants do you dislike?
Not a fan of bindweed. Grrrr!!!
15. Would you like more sun or more shade?
SUN and a little shade to hide under in August.
16. Where is your favorite public garden?
Other than my own?! Hanbury Botanici, Monet's Giverny, Odile Masquillier's La Bonne Maison, Wave Hill's vistas and collections, New York Botanical Garden's conservatory. I am constantly taking inspiration from Max Patch in the Smokies, the Poconos, seashore, etc. I'm sure there are many more I haven't visited that will be added to the list!
Read more about Sarah at 66 Square Feet and watch her appearance on Martha Stewart...