Welcome to the first episode of Heirloom™ Garden Tours, a series created to celebrate real gardens and the people who bring them to life. Each tour invites you into a space shaped over time, where each bloom tells a story.
Donna’s Garden Tour
Meet Donna, whose home invites you to stop and smell the roses. Her garden quite literally stopped us in our tracks and inspired us to leave a note in her mailbox asking for a tour. Located in Newberg, Oregon, Donna’s garden is impossible to ignore. More than 50 roses frame her home and line the path to a secret climbing garden.
Grown in Donna’s Garden
Discover the roses that bring Donna’s garden to life.
The Albrighton Rambler® takes center stage at the entry of Donna’s garden and, as she says, “a rambler will make you feel like you are the best gardener on the planet.” Eager to grow, it quickly climbs walls and trellises, rewarding you with continuous blooms and a light, musky fragrance.
Paul’s Himalayan Musk blooms once but it is so spectacularly prolific. Donna's rose started as a small arbor but has grown to cover her entire porch, cascading down with blooms.
Distant Drums is the first shrub rose lining the pathway in front of Donna’s home to bloom. The rare coloring of this plant makes it easy to spot with a bronze-brown center and petals in lavender, pink, and yellow.
Summer Wine grows across an arbor with graceful, single petals and an intoxicating scent.
Cécile Brünner™ blooms once with delicate, soft pink, sweetheart blooms covering the entire plant.
The Impressionist is a favorite with blooms in varying shades of apricot, raspberry, and blush.
The Pilgrim® is a classic David Austin Rose adding butter yellow, highly ruffled blooms to an arbor in Donna’s secret garden.
Strawberry Hill® is one of many climbers creating a tunnel in Donna’s secret garden; this David Austin features fluffy, highly ruffled petals.
Gertrude Jekyll® is the first climbing rose to greet Donna each spring with gorgeous sprays of rich pink blooms and a fragrance that draws you near.
Eden Climber® looks like a rose from a Victorian catalog with vintage looking petals in pastel pinks, creams, and yellows that bloom repeatedly throughout the season.
Crown Princess Margareta® anchors the climbers' tunnel with ruffled blooms in soft apricot and orange with a delicious, fruity fragrance.
Teasing Georgia™ rounds out Donna's collection of climbers with large, cupped blooms that fade from deep yellow to pale butter.
Gardens like Donna’s are not built in a day, but they begin the same way, one rose at a time. Now's your chance to step outside and plant something beautiful of your own.
Keep up with Donna's garden by following along here @once_upon_a_garden_.