Andrea opens his Garden of a Hundred Roses, and time stops, while the intense perfume of the roses reveals their presence.
The garden was born, like any private garden, from the owner’s passion. In the case of Andrea Emiliani gardening, besides being his great passion, is also his profession.
Passion that is born and grows together with Andrea, thanks to his mother’s love for roses among which he grew up and that prompted him to start a collection. In this garden there are, for the most part but not only, the English roses created by David Austin, a very famous (among connoisseurs) overseas hybridizer.
The David Austin rose collection on display in Andrea’s garden is the largest in the world, even larger than the private collection of Austin himself, a particularity that drives fans all over the world so far.
But why English roses are so special? They are the kind of roses we often admire in romantic still life paintings depicting vases full of flowers, they are ancient roses, now hybridized to make them flourish several times during the year (the original ones bloomed only once a year) while maintaining the shades of color, the supple bearing, and, above all, the scent of the old ones.
The Umbrian climate is favorable for the cultivation of roses, including the English ones, even if they need some extra care and, certainly, Andrea’s skill for such a copious production. The garden, not surprisingly, is dotted with trees with not too thick foliage, in order to allow the sun’s rays to radiate the roses, and at the same time to protect them from the strong summer heat, not really suited to the British temperatures for which these roses were conceived.
The botanical collection is totally marked, each name and its information can be read from each rose. The names of the roses fascinate me a lot, obviously they were given to them by those who created them who, used, among others, names of loved ones, of characters from English literature and of English history, as well as of famous English gardeners. At this news my first thought is to see the rose “Jane Austen”, my favorite English author! It is an apricot-colored rose, very romantic and fragrant, with a typical conformation of old English rose: with the internal “cup” petals of a more intense color and the exteriors that tend to become everted, with a lighter color.
Irises and peonies, other flowers loved by Andrea, act as a counterpoint to the roses in the garden.
Among climbing and bushy roses, walking in this sea of colors, you can smell the different scents… the only way to discover them is to come and see the garden, sink your nose among the thousand petals, fill your eyes with wonder and abandon yourself to the romanticism of this corner of paradise.
Benedetta Tintillini
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