Rose Weekend
June 16, 17 & 18

America’s oldest public rose garden celebrates its 126th anniversary with free educational and family-friendly activities while showcasing the Helen S Kaman Rose Garden at the peak of its seasonal beauty.

All Events are FREE to the Public

Elizabeth Park Conservancy Celebrates Annual Rose Weekend

West Hartford, June 5, 2023 – America’s oldest public rose garden will celebrate its annual Rose Weekend on Friday evening, June 16, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday & Sunday, June 17 & 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Elizabeth Park, with a wide range of free educational and family-friendly activities. 

The annual event showcases Elizabeth Park’s stunning rose gardens at their peak of seasonal beauty, featuring thousands of rose bushes and arches in bloom.

Rose Weekend highlights include Kid’s Fun Night; poetry readings; free rose garden tours; painting in the Park by local artists; displays by community, cultural and arts organizations; a scavenger hunt for the whole family; and horticultural exhibitions, plus lawn bowling demonstrations and a bonsai exhibition.

Friday night, from 5 to 8, a wide variety of activities is planned for children under the big ten on the Rose Garden Lawn. Hosted by Kathy Kraczkowsky, Director of Park Operations, and EPC Board member Rosemarie Tate, there will be surprises and treats for all.

Saturday, June 17, presents Plein-Air Painters in the Park and Poetry in the Park. Area artists are invited to set up an easel wherever they like in the Park, and interact with visitors who will stop to watch them paint. Poetry in the Park, sponsored by The Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens and hosted by poet Anita Durkin, will take place from 1:00 p.m. to 3 p.m. under the tent on the Rose Garden Lawn. Featured poets include Frederick-Douglass Knowles reading from his collection “BlackRoseCity,” memories of a city youth growing up in Norwich, Connecticut, and Christina Baptista, who was chosen to sail aboard the 1841 vessel Charles W. Morgan. She will read from “Taking Her Back,” her collection that gives voice to the immigrant experience, particularly the Portuguese men who sailed aboard 19^th century whaling boats. Each reading will be followed by a Q/A session exploring the themes of 1) urban youth, racial/ethnic turf, what it means to belong, and feeling alienated in one’s own city and 2) the personal experience of whalers, the lives they lived in such cramped quarters, and how that impacted their humanity.

Additional events on Saturday include a Pond House Food Court from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; a tour of the University of St. Joseph School of Pharmacy Medicinal Garden in Elizabeth Park at 11 a.m.; and Thistle Lawn Bowling Club demonstrations at the lawn bowling area from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Falun Dafa Qigong group will hold exercise demonstrations on both days at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

June 18 is Rose Weekend’s Community Day, featuring displays by community, cultural and arts groups under the tent on the Rose Garden lawn from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., including a scavenger hunt for the whole family, and tulip bulbs for sale. Exhibitors include Advocacy to Legacy, Bonsai Society of Greater Hartford (on the John G. Martin Foundation Stage), CT Master Gardeners, Falun Dafa Qigong Movement, Hartford Artisans Weaving Center, Hartford Stage, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford, Mark Twain House, Playhouse Theatre Group, Rhododendron Society of CT, University of St. Joseph’s Campus Sculpture Project, and the Wadsworth Atheneum.

On all three days, EPC’s Rosarian Stephen Scanniello will lead tours of the Helen S Kaman Rose Garden at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. – meet at the flag pole in front of The Cottage.

For more information about Rose Weekend programs and activities, visit elizabethparkct.org/event/rose-weekend-2023.