Gardens open to the Public > Good gardens to visit (Ireland)

Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, Belfast

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ideasguy:
We had a lovely day out in this park today. (Per my posting this week, it came No 2 in viewer voting in our local TV program - Ultimate Ulster)

Roses are in full bloom, and this place is heaven on earth to rose lovers.
Theres thousands of roses, and I took a few hundred photos. Ive just had a look over them and will post some here tomorrow evening (Monday).

Have a read over the info on this web site:
http://www.rosemerald.co.uk/
Through my membership of the Rose Society of N Ireland, Ive been fortunate to make friends with many rose lovers. My good friend, the webmaster, Norman Beck, is also an International Rose Judge, and he is one of the team who judge the roses over a period of three years leading up to the final day of rose judging by an international panel, followed by the announcement of the awards.

My main purpose was to take photos of the 2008 award winners. They are already shown on Normans website, but I wanted to see the roses for myself. I wanted to first of all look at the winners this year, then look over the hundreds of roses, and pick my own "winners", based on how much they appealed to me.

Faced with thousands of roses is mind boggling. Where so you start? How to you begin conveying the beauty you are beholding?
Ive now developed a system for Lady Dixon Park:
Take photos of a) whole bed b) a little closer to get a closer look, shows foliage and height of plant, c) a photo with a number of blooms in good condition, d) a photos of a new bloom and finally the most important ? e) a photo of the plant label!
Makes it really easy to sort them out when I get home.
Sir Thomas &Lady Dixon Park is a photographers dream. All the plants are labeled  8)

I had another agenda - I wanted to pick a few roses for my garden. I'm looking for something mound shaped, height about 3ft which spreads to about 4 or 5 ft. I want lots of foliage, fragrance, and plenty of flowers over a long period.

If you are looking for a particular form of rose, let me know and I'll look out for something suitable. I'm sure you are already aware, theres a very wide variety of roses and there a very wide variety of forms of roses.

ideasguy:
Heres a few photos:

ideasguy:
Had an email from Norman this evening.


--- Quote ---We had the President of the World Federation of Rose Societies here this year and during his term (2 years so far) he has visited 34 countries.  In his speech at the Lord Mayor's dinner he said "the Belfast Rose Garden was often described as the most spectacular in Europe".  In his opinion, he said, "it is the most spectacular Rose Garden in the world!" 
 
We have been telling the Tourist Board and Belfast City Council for some time that they don't shout loudly enough about the Garden.  Maybe they will now sit up and take notice.

--- End quote ---

I'll do my bit!

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