Welcome
Open Garden Days at Freedom Gardens
Three Sundays in June
11, 18 and 25 June 2017
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Everyone is cordially invited to Freedom Gardens' 20th Annual Open Gardens, Sundays, 11, 18 and 25 June 2017, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. each day, at the homestead of Susan and Peter Schneider, 6193 Vair Road, Freedom Township, Portage County, Ohio.
Our collection of over 1200 different roses features newer and hard-to-find hybrid teas, floribundas, climbers and shrubs from the European nurseries, and heritage roses imported from Andre Eve in France, Peter Beales in England, and Martin Weingart, the nurseryman near Sangerhausen, Germany. Many of these roses cannot be seen anywhere else between Europe and California.
All of our roses are grown without winter protection, which provides an excellent opportunity to see exactly which varieties are winter hardy in northern Ohio.
We grow nearly complete collections of Paul Jerabek's Ohio-bred creations, and David Austin's English roses. Our rose garden has been featured in Horticulture and Ohio magazines and its story is told in Peter Schneider's most recent book, Right Rose, Right Place which Peter will of course be happy to sign during the Open Gardens.
We also have a growing collection of unusual trees, an orchard, lily ponds, many other plants and a multitude of song birds situated on a bucolic eight-acre setting.
An interesting selection of potted roses, all propagated at Freedom Gardens, will be offered for sale on a first-come, first-serve basis. Most of these roses are not available anywhere else. We feature the best of Paul Jerabek's introductions, and include an eclectic selection of winter-hardy roses from all classifications. Some of the highlights this year include the 1893 hybrid rugosa 'Cibles', which we believe has never been offered in the United States before, and some rarities from our famous hybrid perpetual collection including 'Souvenir de la Reine d'Angleterre' and 'Stammler.' Looking for the impossible-to-find orange-red Japanese climber 'Ho No-o-no-nami'? We'll have that too. Obviously the best selection of potted roses will be on Opening Day, 11 June.
For the first time this year, we will also be offering a selection of rare and choice lilacs propagated from our collection of nearly 100 correctly named cultivars.
We'll be open rain or shine (no rain dates). Children and picnickers are welcome. Freedom Gardens is a non-smoking environment. There is no admission charge and no need to make a reservation.
We look forward to seeing lots of rose friends on 11, 18 and 25 June!
The map below is more helpful than these things used to be, but still not perfect. Main thing: from State Route 88 take King Road (street sign barely legible) south until it ends at Vair Road. Turn left, and we are 1000' (and fourth driveway) on your left.
[There is indeed a "Ravenna Arsenal Street" but we as civilians have no access to it.]
Important note: our garden is not open at any other times.
BLOOM UPDATE
21 June 2017
Our beautiful June continues, and the roses have been refreshed by the rain showers earlier this week. David Austin's English roses are in full bloom, as are most modern shrub roses. Our huge collection of six decades of floribundas will be at peak bloom on Sunday, 25 June. It will also be an ideal day to see all of the stunning new disease-proof roses from Kordes in Germany, as well as our collection of 80+ hybrid perpetuals. So it will be a day to look into the future as well as the past. Sunday will be the last day we are open to the public this year (and we still have an excellent selection of hard-to-find potted roses for your consideration). We hope you will join us for what will be one of the most spectacular rose days of the summer.