Denver Rose Society

06/19/2026

This Sunday, the roses come to the Gardens.

The 2026 Denver Rose Show is this Sunday, June 21, and this year's theme is "Stars and Stripes — Red, White and Bloom". Hundreds of roses grown by Front Range gardeners will be on display at Denver Botanic Gardens, judged for the season's top honors — Queen, King, and Princess of Show — alongside rose arrangements and photography.

We've been doing this since 1948, and it's still one of our favorite afternoons of the year. Our Consulting Rosarians will be there to answer questions, whether you grow forty roses or have been thinking about planting your first.

Sunday, June 21 · 1–4 p.m.
Mitchell and Gates Hall, Denver Botanic Gardens (1007 York St).
Free with Gardens admission, no RSVP needed.

Details and directions: denverrosesociety.org/event/2026-rose-show/

If you've been before — what's the first thing you head for when you walk in?

📍 Denver Botanic Gardens

Photos courtesy of Gordy Holmes, DRS member and photographer 🌹

06/18/2026

We visited the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House on Sunday, June 7, and toured the Boulder Valley Rose Society's Hardy Rose Demonstration Garden.

The Boulder Valley Rose Society has maintained this garden for more than 25 years without chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or pesticides.

Anne Stetina from the Boulder Valley Rose Society walked us through the garden's history — the donating, planting, and decades of maintaining it — and Mikl Brawner, owner of Harlequin's Gardens, who helped establish the garden before the tea house even opened, joined to share the story from the design side.

Thank you to our friends at the Boulder Valley Rose Society for hosting us, and to Anne Stetina and Mikl Brawner for being so generous with their time, knowledge, and stories about this special garden.

If you missed it, the Hardy Rose Demonstration Garden is free and open to the public any time — well worth pairing with a stop at Harlequin's Gardens or the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens on the CU campus.

Photos by Gordy Holmes, DRS member and photographer. 🌹

06/11/2026

It's beautiful. It's free. It smells divine. And it's been a Denver tradition for almost 80 years.

The Denver Rose Society held its first Rose Show in 1948. On Sunday, June 21, we'll do it again — hundreds of roses grown by local gardeners on display at Denver Botanic Gardens from 1 to 4 p.m. For nearly eight decades, growers across the Front Range have brought their finest blooms here to compete for the season's top honors — Queen, King, and Princess of Show — and to see their careful work judged against the best in the region. Consulting Rosarians from the Denver Rose Society will be on hand all afternoon to answer your rose questions.

Have a rose (or two) you’d like to enter? Bring them in. You don't need to be a Rose Society member or a seasoned exhibitor — the show has divisions for novices across cut blooms, arrangements, and photography, and experienced members will help you tag and place your entries. Find more information on our website at:
�https://denverrosesociety.org/event/2026-rose-show/�

Free with Gardens admission.

Sunday, June 21 · 1–4 p.m. · Mitchell and Gates Hall, Denver Botanic Gardens .

06/05/2026

Denver rose lovers - you won't want to miss this!

06/03/2026

Garden Tour: The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse Gardens

Sunday, June 7 | 10:00 a.m. to noon
1770 13th Street, Boulder

Join us for a morning at one of the most distinctive rose gardens on the Front Range. The Teahouse itself is a gift from Boulder's sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan — handcrafted by more than 40 artisans, shipped to Boulder in 200 crates, and assembled in 1998. That same year, the Boulder Valley Rose Society planted the rose garden that now surrounds it.

The garden is BVRS's Hardy Rose Demonstration Garden — around 45 varieties of own-root, cold-hardy, disease-resistant roses, designed by Eve Reshetnik-Brawner and Mikl Brawner of Harlequin's Gardens. It's been maintained for more than 25 years without chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or pesticides. It's one of the best living examples on the Front Range of what's possible with the right varieties and consistent care.

Volunteers from the Boulder Valley Rose Society will be on hand to walk the garden with us, talk through the varieties, and share what they've learned from a quarter century of tending the plantings.
If you'd like to make a morning of it, two nearby gardens are worth a self-guided visit afterward: the Colorado Shakespeare Gardens on the CU campus and Harlequin's Gardens just north of town.

Parking notes: there's a parking garage at 14th Street and Canyon Boulevard, and the lot behind the Teahouse is open to the public on Sundays. The Teahouse sits on 13th between Arapahoe and Canyon.

Free and open to anyone curious about roses, gardens, or the Teahouse itself. No RSVP needed — just come.

Thank you to our friends at the Boulder Valley Rose Society for hosting us.

06/02/2026

The snow is gone. The heat is here. Here's what your roses need from you this month.

Barbara Kemp, Master Consulting Rosarian, walks through her June checklist for Front Range growers — feeding, watering, watching for pests, and what to do when temperatures start climbing into the 90s.

Swipe through the carousel, then read the full article on our blog:
https://denverrosesociety.org/june-rose-care-advice/

05/27/2026

A Boulder bouquet, courtesy of Sue and Sheldon.

Three first blooms, all submitted May 10.

'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' — Sue Longhini, Boulder.
"I grow many English roses but ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ definitely takes the title of THORNIEST! But dealing with the thorns is worth it when the bush is completely covered in these beautiful magenta blooms. Because of the May snow/freeze, many of my other shrubs’ new growth died, but the buds on this rose managed to survive and are already blooming!"

'Party Hardy' — Sheldon Drobot, Boulder.
"Also known as Nouvelle France, this shrub stops traffic every Spring! We get a ton of people just stopping by to see it.The rose bush is 8 or 9 feet tall and has a spectacular bloom every spring, with repeat blooms throughout the year."

'Fireworks' — Sue Longhini, Boulder.
"How cute is this miniature rose, ‘Fireworks’?!
It is always one of the first roses to bloom in my Boulder garden. The plant stays small, no more than 2’x2’, but always blooms like crazy. The variety of colors in the bloom certainly reminds me of fireworks! "

📷 Sue Longhini, Sheldon Drobot, Sue Longhini.

What's opening in your garden this week?

05/23/2026

NEW EPISODE!🌹 2022 A.R.T.S. ROSE TRIAL WINNERS
Dr. David Zlesak

On this episode, Dr. David Zlesak, Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin and a very accomplished Rose Breeder joins us to discuss the 2022 Rose Trial Winners of the American Rose Trials for Sustainability also known as A.R.T.S.
Listen at RoseChatPodcast.com

05/23/2026

05/22/2026

Sage advice from our Master Rosarians.

Thanks to everyone who came out for this year's annual pruning demo and workshop, and to Dave Ingram for teaching us the right way to prune and clean up our roses — with Mike Wood lending his expertise alongside him.

A special thank you to Sheriff Duane, his officer staff, and his crew for their help at the event and for the dramatic difference they've made in the garden.

Stop by the Jeffco Rose Garden sometime this summer to enjoy the beautiful blooms — and the updated garden with its lovely new waterfall.