Tuesday, April 26, 2011

You absolutely must go to the Antique Rose Emporium

The first weekend in April is the renowned Antique Weekend in Round Top and the surrounding towns. My mom and I ventured out there as a last minute weekend getaway. IMG_2523My big find was this old piece of fence. It serves two purposes in the garden, decoration and a barrier to my dogs running through this bed chasing after squirrels.

On our way back to Houston, I thought we could swing by the Antique Rose Emporium since it was on our way home, well more or less on our way home.  I’ve heard about the Antique Rose Emporium for years, but I had no idea what was in store when we headed down the country roads to get there after days of shopping in Round Top and Warrenton.

The GPS took us on the scenic route, which was ok with us since we weren’t in a hurry and it was bluebonnet season after all.

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IMG_2251Upon arriving at the Emporium, it was obvious that it is more than a nursery. It is a destination. Even if you have no intentions of gardening in your lifetime, this is a beautiful place to take a leisurely stroll along the garden paths.

We spent the first hour or so of our visit just wandering around the gardens.

We were also lucky enough to be there during their first Fragrance Festival which I will talk about more in a future post.



 

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The rose is Queen of Bourbon
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Columbines
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Dianthus with an unknown purple flower
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The poppies were planted in abundance in many of the front gardens.
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I LOVE this bottle tree!
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The final resting place

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Now, you know I did not go home empty handed. My mom gave me the great idea of starting a rose garden and I knew just the place for it. I had my list of fragrant roses that I liked from the Fragrance Festival so we started rose shopping. The staff at the Emporium are extremely knowledgeable, turns out that many of the ones on my list smelled great, but did not have the growth habit I was looking for.

Below are the 4 roses I purchased. The photos are all from the Antique Rose Emporium.

Cecile Brunner

Maggie

Le Vesuve

And the popular Earthkind rose, Belinda’s Dream.

5 comments:

  1. I have wanted to visit this garden center since I first met them in the pages of Southern Living~What a stunning garden and is it ever inspiring. gail

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  2. Sounds like the perfect trip. Nice roses you came home with. I like your old fence, too.

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  3. I was at ARE this past weekend and I didn't come home empty handed either! You chose some beautiful roses. I need to look up Le Vesuve since I've not met it before.

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  4. You got some GOOD looking roses there! That is such an awesome place...I'd even use the term ENCHANTING. I wasn't able to get out there this year due to my work schedule.
    Thanks for the virtual tour. It made up for it.
    David/ :-)

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