Gardens Party #3 - Rose Garden of the Tête d'Or park, Lyon, France.

I propose you today a small visit of the rose garden of the Tête d'Or park, Lyon, France.

To my delight, she is near my home and I go for walks as often as I can. The rose garden was created in 1964, the year of my birth, and from my first steps, my grandmother, a horticulturist, very frequently brought me wandering among the beds and lawns. At that time, I obviously paid no attention to the roses she showed me, but I like to believe that she knowingly planted those roses in my mind, to make them grow patiently.

I also like this place because it's not only a garden for rose lovers and learned nurserymen; we meet the bride and groom's weekend and their family come to make the traditional wedding photos, the joggers run across it, visitors to the museum of contemporary art come to refresh their minds on leaving. Film shoots regularly take over the place, lovers kiss under the porticoes... It seems that roses inspire life.

The rose garden actually includes 3 complementary rose gardens;

The Roseraie du Parc de la Tête d'Or (also known as the International Roseraie): on nearly 5 hectares it groups more than 8800 roses of 450 different varieties. The ideal is to visit it in May-June
The historic rose garden of the Botanical Garden: refurbished in 2014, it contains 270 varieties of roses, the main varieties of which were created by nurserymen from the Lyon region.
The competition rose garden: created as a trial rose garden in 1931, it continues today its vocation of testing and experimenting with new roses from all over the world. Each year it is the occasion of an international competition on the first Friday of June and awards the title of "most beautiful rose in France". It contains more than 2000 roses.

We should also note the effort made by gardeners over the past 10 years to implement environmental management of their crops. Today, no phytosanitary products are used for cultivation. Insect control, in particular aphids, is carried out using "Integrated Biological Protection" techniques, with the release of ladybird larvae and small hymenoptera (Aphidius colemani, Aphidoletes). The rose gardens have reached a point of balance, thanks in particular to a diversification of plants (perennials, bulbs, flowering shrubs) which constitute a true ecosystem where prey and predators coexist. The least resistant rose varieties have been replaced by varieties known for their resistance...

In 2006, the International Rose Garden of the Park was awarded the "Garden of Excellence" label by the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS), which ranks it among the 20 most beautiful rose gardens in the world!

For more information..:
https://www.jardinsdefrance.org/parc-de-tete-dor-roseraie-gestion-ecologique/
https://www.lyoncapitale.fr/culture/La-roseraie-historique-de-la-Tete-d-Or-fait-peau-neuve/

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator