In no particular order I will start with the garden of friends, those of Mendocino Rose, Gregg Lowery, and Jon Dodson coming immediately to mind.

Two public rose gardens appeal to me greatly, the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden for its encyclopedic collection and useful resemblance to my own garden, and the Sacramento Historic Cemetery Rose Garden for its historic associations and sheer beauty.

But my absolute favorite rose garden to visit is located right outside my own kitchen door.

Rosefolly

I'm with Rosefolly, favorite is in the back yard!

Another fave is the public garden in Farmers Branch, TX where over the last few years they have been conducting test gardens for Earthkind Roses; I need to check to see if they are still conducting the tests.

In October they have Rose Dango, give talks and demonstrations; the weather is usually gorgeous, just an all around pleasant day!

I left an important word out of my message. The SJHRG does not at all resemble my garden. I meant to say that it has a climate resembling that of my garden. It is about 10 or 12 miles away and conditions are reasonably similar, though we have a higher elevation and different soil.

Rosefolly

I have to admit, going to gardens for roses has not always been a top pick for me, but I love visiting gardens.

I do enjoy looking at the beds at AC Postel across from the old Mission in Santa Barbara. Mostly cause there is a big variety, the beds have enough to really see how the plants look/smell/age and is is so easy to stop by.

I enjoy taking the Garden tour at Hearst Castle to enjoy their roses, statuary and buildings. They had a tour that allows you to wander the grounds, I hope they offer that one again this year.

I also enjoy the grounds of the Music Academy of the West, the May Madness rummage sale and then wander the grounds. I think I enjoy it because it reminds me of my childhood, my dad would bring me along as he dropped in on clients to talk gardening. Lots of big estates in Montecito Mom also worked at an estate that had lovely terraced gardens and a giant rose garden.

I also like the grounds of the historic buildings, the old ranches-missions. Those seem much more relaxed and easier to wander. Visited a lot of those too as a kid.

I have only visited Descanso gardens once, but I enjoyed seeing how they displayed the gardens and used the plants in the landscape. We used to go to the local botanical gardens a couple of times a month.

I like the Descanso Gardens.

I LOVE the Sacramento City Cemetery's Historic Rose Garden (1000 Broadway, Sacramento) a place that completely altered my view of gardens and roses.

I also love the San Jose Historic Rose Garden, San Jose, CA.

The only really local garden that uses Old Roses as I love to see them used is the Historic Rose Garden at the Stagecoach Inn, Ventu Park Rd., Newbury Park, CA. It's small, but it's good.

Jeri

The Heritage Rose Foundation had their yearly meeting at San Simeon a few years ago. We took that garden tour. It was a wonderful meeting. I will not soon forget it.

R

I was fortunate enough to visit the Hearst Castle gardens and enjoyed all the wonderful giant hybrid teas that seem to grow so effortlessly in California. I was disappointed not to see more of the older varieties from the Castle's heyday but was still well satisfied with my tour.

I don't know that many rose gardens but my favorite is at the LA Arboretum in Arcadia. The design is wonderful with white painted wood and wrought iron and brick structures and theyve selected beautiful perennials for underplanting. Always well maintained. It is a small collection though.

I like Descanso. In part of the rose section there is an area where roses are growing in a wild thicket, looks romantic. It looks a bit like Pennsylvania hedgerows where roses grow wild. Nate

If you get a chance to visit the city of Atlanta in May or June, be sure to check out the Atlanta Botanical Garden. They have a small but I think quite good collection of heirloom roses. We visited it a few years ago to enjoy the extensive collection of orchids, and stumbled upon the rose garden all unexpected.

R

My favorite rose places to visit are Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham [am meeting a friend there tomorrow for our semi-annual picnic there and an all day rosefest!], Tyler, Tx. where I visit Chamblees Rose Nursery, the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden. The Houston Rose Society has a spring rose garden tour that I love to attend. I might also mention that I love visiting places that have roses for sale...already have my list made for the ARE trip tomorrow!
Judith

My number one would be Mottisfont Abbey. In peak season it is magical. I could go again and again. Like Rosefolly I love Jon Dodson's garden. It is a small perfect rose paradise. The Sacramento Cemetery garden is something that I hope no one misses. The fact that all the roses are survivors from our California rose heritage is wonderful. To me having them in a cemetery is fabulous as I love cemeteries. The Vintage home garden has a special place in my heart. I will never forget my first time there when I was just beggining to learn about old roses. I saw roses I had only read about blooming in profusion. I actually became dizzy. Like Rosefolly I do love my own garden, though I have to say it is a scene of strife where I fuss over making everything as perfect as I can. It is absolutely meaningful though not necessarily pleasureable always.

I debated adding Mottisfont Abbey to my own list. It is my absolute favorite of the beautiful public rose gardens I have seen in England. In the end I decided to list Jon's garden instead.

To me it is the Europa-Rosarium Sangerhausen because it is an overwhelming place of 32 acres of thousands upon thousands of roses. I went back the other day to rec.gardens. roses, the old Usenet site, to reread my impressions from my visit in 1998. I was so full of it that I wrote a very long account of my impressions a couple of days after coming home. I went back for the 100th anniversary in 2003. It is a rose museum more than a rose garden although there are landscaped parts and lots of trees.

I would love to visit Sangerhausen someday. Your description makes it even more appealing.

If anyone visits the South Island of New Zealand, they will find a small but very lovely garden of old roses in Christchurch. It is part of the larger and quite beautiful botanical garden, and was re-done fairly recently. There is also an even smaller but quite nice collection in Queenstown, also on the South Island. I would imagine that there are more, but those are the ones I have seen. Roses do abound there.

Rosefolly

Huntington Gardens is nice, but has a limited selection of roses I specifically want. (I love Huntington, and it's rose gardens are lovely, but somewhat limited).

Descanso, however, has a ridiculous number of roses. During peak, it's crazy awesome to visit. I pretty much only go to Descanso, though, during rose peak and perhaps to see the lilacs blooming. While Huntington, I can go anytime of year and have a very nice time.

San Jose Heritage Rose Garden was extremely informative for the same reasons as Descanso, there's just SO MANY ROSES and unusual ones... I could spend a whole day studying them, especially at peak. I hope I can go again this spring, but I don't think I'll have time to pop up north. (Huntington and Descanso are really close to me)

I haven't been to any private rose gardens around here, though. That would be nice to do sometime. I live in the Santa Clarita area, but visit burbank, pasadena and la a lot.

My favorite 5
1.'The Florentine' which is the Old Rose garden at Morcom Amphiteatre of Roses' on the corner of Olive Street and Oakland Ave. in Oakland, California. Walk down the long staircase and look at the dates of introduction on the signs, inside the oval stone-walled area. If the dates are between 1804 through the late 1900's you're in the right place.. I love this park because in summer I enjoy walking on the outer paths where it is green and leafy with a few acres of tall trees..In early spring the Banksiae are in bloom among the trees, and also the wild roses we got from Miriam Wilkins estate.
There is a gigantic rose that has been there for more than a decade, that I think must be R. brunonii and a couple R. moschata planted by the Noisettes. There are c. 2 dozen different cultivars of Pernetiana roses, and Tea and Chinas. a huge Catos Cluster' which on Manettii has grown to be more than 18 feet tall. It's a great place to ramble.. There are two modern rose gardens, too and a reflecting pool. Because by city law, the roses cannot be sprayed with anything, I go there to get cuttings from some of the healthier roses for our area... with my permission slip on hand.
2. Vintage gardens home garden. My idea of heaven, especially the south side of the house garden where two 25'+ tall 'Long John Silver' rosebushes bloom showing huge silvery white powder puff like roses, past those are many of the once blooming roses including 'The Garland' which are planted in a lush grassy area planted with other bushes, purple clematis, foxglove, increasing the beauty to a crescendo.
3. San Jose Heritage Rose garden. I do wish it had a shaded area with seats, and a drinking fountain and closer bathroom facilities for the aged, and the infirm. I've gotten heat exhaustion there more than once.

4.Lovely Luanne has a beautiful rose garden. Her yearly "whiffing event" is coming up soon. We've been neighbors for several years, in Oakland, and now in Richmond, California.. It takes a beautiful heart to grow beautiful roses...which she does..

5. The Berkeley Botanical Garden' in California. I love their R. odorata and apothecary roses, and R. arvensis all planted near the Chinese Medicinal garden where R. rugosa and R. chinensis spontaneaa (sp?) are growing. Their R. odorata is covered with hundreds of large saucer like golden-yellow blossoms and blooms between March and April depending on how warm or cold its' been. It was more than 30 feet tall the last time I ooohed and ahhheed over it.
I've been a tiny bit miffed at the folks who run that garden for their planting vivid red Florabundas ("for color") in their Old Rose Garden as I think it misleads the public. Theres' not a single Gallica in the Old Rose Garden and many of them, with the Hybrid Chinas would bloom well up on the hills where at least some frost and winter chill comes in winter.

Lux.

I haven't been to enough gardens to get up to 5.

My favorite is obviously the Columbus, OH Park of Roses with somewhere along the lines of 12,000 roses if I remember correctly.

After that, I actually enjoy my local nursery because they carry 400 varieties of roses to choose from, so that's always a delight to see.

The only other place I have been was actually last week and it was outside the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. It's not very big, but they have a small garden of maybe 100 or so roses to look at. The big kick about those roses is they are THICK mature roses. I saw a few roses there with 6 inch thick canes coming from the bottom...most definitely the epitome of a "shrub" look that I don't see often in Ohio .