Roses are in Rose Gilardi’s blood. Her parents and grandparents both grew roses in their gardens, and she herself grows more than 100 large rose plants and 400 miniature ones in her own garden in San Francisco’s Sunset District. She holds a lifetime membership in the American Rose Society — where she served on its national board of directors for six years — and has a five-decades-long membership in the San Francisco Rose Society, where she has served frequently on its board of directors.
She’s also a national and international rose judge and a master rosarian who has a miniature rose named in her honor. And she travels the globe to be around even more roses. For almost 50 years, she’s traveled throughout the world with the World Federation of Rose Societies — an organization of rose societies from 39 countries — every three years to attend World Rose Conventions.
On July 9, Gilardi will present an illustrated lecture, “A Tour of Remarkable French Rose Gardens,” at the upcoming Marin Rose Society’s monthly meeting. The lecture reflects on her trip to visit French rose gardens, with roses at the peak of their bloom. While it wasn’t her first time there, “every time I revisit a rose garden it gives a different impression,” she says.
“On this trip, I visited several gardens, from the famous Meilland garden in Antibes and Tête d’Or in Lyon to Bagatelle in Paris, with several gardens, public and private, in between,” she says. The name Meilland, .
