During the past decades Botanic Garden Meise has been building an elaborate collection of wild roses comprising 125 of the approximately 150-200 known taxa. In addition the gardens collections hold also 115 horticultural accessions. To disclose this rich and attractive collection the garden opted for an innovative concept that makes the collection worth visiting the whole year round. This is a challenge as the flowering peak of most wild and old cultivated roses is only very short in early summer. In addition, tender plants need to be integrated as orangery plants.
The heart of the 9000 m2 large rose garden is landscaped as two spirals entangeling one another. Each spiral represents a major group of wild roses as found in molecular phylogenetic research. One spiral represents a clade with Asian and European roses, while the second spiral includes Asian and American species. At the center of these spirals, the oldest extant group of roses is found, the desert roses. Each plant bed will house plants from different clades, as found in recent molecular phylogenetic studies of roses. Biogeographic and molecular clock data are available, making it possible to take visitors along the intriguing story of the origin and the natural history of roses.
Around the spirally arranged plant beds with wild species roses, the story of old and modern garden roses will be told. This story starts with the historic Chinese and European roses and unfolds towards the origin and evolution of modern rose hybrids with a focus on resistant selections and winners from local breeders.
This approach allows for integration of a pleasant walk through the garden with the possibility to organise educational programs on different themes as plant evolution, classification, hybridisation and the role of modern molecular studies in resolving relationships in a both natural and cultivated plant group.