The cemetery is in the process of being pruned right now. From what I have seen you can go from the last week of April through the third week in May. Early May is probably best.

Lance

Carol,
Peak bloom in the cemetery tends to be the 3rd week of April give or take a week. Early May is probably too late. That being said, given the variety of bloom, no matter when you come in early spring, there should be plenty in bloom. The garden does not really peak all at once. It you time it for the peak bloom of the teas, the once bloomers may not be at peak yet. We can have very hot weather in early spring that can accelerate bloom in a short period of time. I'll let Anita know about this thread and she may be able to give you more real time input.
We'd love to have you come to open garden, but if you come at another time I'm sure that there are volunteers who could meet you.
Janelle

Here is a link that might be useful: cemetery website

Hi -
Don't have much to add to Janelle's comments. April is usually the best month for us - by early May, things can be quite past their prime. In a usual year, the banksiae and Ramona start blooming in mid-Mar, with some of the teas and chinas joining in soon after, and peaking by the beginning of April. We often have the HPs at their peak for open garden, and some of the early climbers. However, we had one year in which only the earliest roses were blooming in mid-April's Open Garden, and another year in which things were mostly bloomed out.

There's no way to tell what this year will bring. I think the roses should fare pretty well through these storms, so long as no tree limbs land on them. We've gotten the climbers pruned and tied to their structures, and the cemetery soil is deep and sandy, so the extra rain shouldn't hurt a thing.

I'll be gone from mid-Mar to early April. I'll post how things are looking before I leave. Janelle's right - we'd love to meet you in the cemetery whenever you come, and if I'm not in town, others will step in. The greatest joy is sharing it with others who love roses.

Right now, the cemetery is closed on Wed and Thurs and city holidays, because of budget problems. We're hopeful we'll be back to being open seven days a week when we go back on Daylight savings time, but we don't know.
Anita

Thank you! I love the oldest roses the best, so I'll visit at the early end of bloom time. Probably just before the end of March. But as long as the roses are either labeled or there's a good map to find specific roses by, no escort needed. It would be terrific though if I happened to meet another OGR fanatic. I'll be in touch via GardenWeb as we get closer to the time. And meantime, I'll take out my copy of "The Quest for the Rose" and anticipate seeing some of these beauties in person.