I was very fortunate to help lead a recent Botanical Garden trip to Tuscany. While there, we toured many of Italy’s famous gardens: Ninfa, La Foce, Gamberaia, Villa Lante and others. It’s very humbling to walk amongst cypress trees that are several hundred years old or to wander through elegantly contoured boxwoods. I almost wish Cleveland Botanical Garden was located in zone 7- then we could grow those stately cypresses year round! The typical Italian style of these ancient gardens draws from a fairly simple palette of plants: boxwoods, junipers, cypresses, wisterias, lemon trees and roses. Of course, there are exceptions and some gardens have a more diverse collection of perennials. One of the more special plants we saw was an incredible white rose with a red center called ‘White Rock’. In doing a quick search, we’ve been unable to locate that particular cultivar here in the U.S. It may be that we will need to source it from Italy. If you know where we might find this unique rose, let us know!

‘White Rock’ Rose