Rosa

Meise Botanic Garden loves roses...

The herbarium preserves the unique 'Herbier des Roses', a herbarium of the genus Rosa, collected from across all continents by botanist François Crépin during the second half of the 19th century. This herbarium is invaluable for rose research all over the world.  

The library holds an exceptional collection of books and historical illustrations on roses, such as those by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, John Lindley and Carl Gottlob Rössig.  

In the Rose Garden, we put the botanical rose in the spotlight. More than 100 different species are planted according to family ties in a landscaped garden designed as 2 intertwined spirals. Recent DNA research provided the information for this unique approach. Follow the spirals, and learn how wild rose species migrated from Asia to America and Europe. People began to cross-pollinate, and thus our garden rose was born. On the outside of the Rose Garden, we planted a selection of cultivars that represent the history of rose cultivation in a nutshell. For this, we chose mainly resistant, prize-winning plants from Belgian rose growers.