Welcome
Freedom Gardens
Open Garden Days
Sundays in June
4, 11, 18 and 25 June 2023
10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Everyone is invited to Freedom Gardens' 26th Annual Open Gardens, Sundays 4, 11, 18 and 25 June, 10 a.m. to 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 1300 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 the Sangerhausen Rosarium in 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 opportaunity to see exactly which varieties are winter hardy in northern Ohio.
We grow nearly complete collections of Paul Jerabek's Ohio-bred creations and the Canadian Explorer roses, and have more than 110 different cultivars of David Austin's English roses. Rudolph Geschwind was the greatest rose hybridizer ever produced by the Austro-Hungarian empire, and we have a lot of his roses too. If you want to see the new disease-proof and often fragrant roses from Germany, we grow the full range here. We've rescued dozens of heirloom roses from the much lamented and now destroyed Gardens of Roses of Legend and Romance at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster, Ohio. Freedom Gardens now has what may be America's largest collection of hybrid perpetuals, the voluptuous, fragrant roses which defined the Victorian era. 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 your visit.
We also have a growing collection of noteworthy trees (including mature specimens of Acer maximowiczii and Rehder wingnut), an orchard, lily ponds, vegetables and berries grown the No Dig way, a new hosta garden (please direct all hosta questions to Susan!), many other plants and a multitude of song birds, frogs, dragonflies and newts situated on a bucolic eight-acre setting.
An interesting selection of winter-hardy potted roses, all propagated at Freedom Gardens, will be offered for sale. Regular visitors know that we always have a selection of highly sought-after roses not listed on the webpage, as well as specials offered only to in-person visitors. We have expanded our 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. There will be a portage toilet on site. Please do not smoke in our garden. There is no admission charge and no need to make a reservation.
We look forward to welcoming lots of rose friends every Sunday in June!
The map below is more useful than these things used to be, but still not perfect. Main thing: from State Route 88 take King Road south until it ends at Vair Road. Turn left, and we are 1000' (and fourth driveway) on your left.
Two notes:
- At the end of King Road our friends at Edge of Freedom Farms have a large sign pointing right. To reach us at Freedom Gardens please turn left.
- Recently, one of our neighbors paved their driveway and now some mapping apps think it is a road. It is not a road and will not lead you to our garden. After turning left on to Vair count the driveways to your left, paved or otherwise. We are the 4th one.
[There is indeed a "Ravenna Arsenal Street" but we as civilians have no access to it.]
Important note: These are the only days on which our garden is open without an appointment.