For this Backyard Garden Trip, we’re heading off to my two hometowns, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Norwich, Connecticut. These are both secret gardens of sorts. The garden at the Mayflower Society House is located in downtown Plymouth but is hidden enough that even some locals are unaware of it. The Memorial Rose Garden in Mohegan Park in Norwich is truly an awe-inspiring rose garden. Surprisingly, it is known to locals but not many others.
The Mayflower Society House
The Mayflower Society House is a museum and library. Behind it is a beautiful garden that highlights the grounds of the home. A center walking path cuts through the garden and provides benches for resting among the flowers. Large trees provide shade over the lawn. For a few years, Mayflower Brewing Company used this as the location for their beer garden. Around this time, I heard many comments from locals that I knew had never been back here. The garden is in the backyard of the Mayflower Society House at 4 Winslow Road.
The Memorial Rose Garden at Mohegan Park
The Memorial Rose Garden at Mohegan Park is another secret garden. Mohegan Park itself is an oasis in the city of Norwich. Primarily a wooded park, it also has a pond, walking trails, playgrounds, and fields. The rose garden is tucked away off of Judd Road on the southern tip of the park.
The rose garden has trellis after trellis of roses with symmetric plotting of rose bushes planted throughout. There are 2500 rose bushes, with 120 varieties of roses. The garden is never crowded as it truly is a hidden gem. This is the kind of place that should be written about in national, or at least regional, publications but for some reason is not.
There is a small pavilion on the northern side of the rose garden. From here, take in a bird’s eye view of the rose garden. The roses begin blooming fully in June, but different varieties make appearances throughout the summer. So a trip during the warmer months will be fruitful. The rose garden is located at the corner of Judd Road and Rockwell Street in Norwich.
Come along for another Backyard Garden Trip….
For more Backyard Garden Trips, check out the first and second garden adventures.
