This Spring something new is growing at Rosehill Gardens

Rosehill Gardens builds outdoor event space

By Jill Draper

Rosehill Gardens is reinventing itself. In recent years, the small garden center on 135th Street in Martin City has seen retail customers drift down the road to shop at larger operations and big box stores. But over the past months Rosehill staff have been busy turning a gravel lot that previously held containers of shrubs into a landscape showcase.

By May the one-acre space will be mostly complete and will feature a pond, outdoor fireplace, patio and deck, with a cascading stream and plant-lined meandering pathways. Just east of the space, an existing courtyard between two buildings has been reconfigured and spruced up. New beds have been added for more color and greenery, old railroad ties have been replaced by rock block walls and a water feature is being added.

The garden center also has finalized a partnership with Somerset Ridge Winery to offer wine and sparkling hard cider by the glass or bottle. A portion of a nursery greenhouse will be turned over to small-scale production of these beverages. The winery is planning a series of events that include tastings and live music.

Individuals and businesses will be able to rent the new patio space and the courtyard area for parties, weddings, catered luncheons, outdoor meetings and receptions.

“There’s been a lot of demand for that, but the setup wasn’t ideal,” says Curtis Stroud, owner. “We thought, why not repurpose the space and make it more unique. Now Rosehill serves three functions—a retail center, an event space and a showcase for customers who want to see how plants look in a landscape setting.”

Rosehill landscape designers Jason Opheim and Mike Peltier say soon they will be transferring evergreens up to 15 feet tall and shade trees up to 30 feet tall from Rosehill Farms to create a park-like environment around the pond. Uncommon ornamentals such as Serbian Riverside spruce and Coralburst and Velvet Pillar flowering crabapple trees will be grouped around beds of roses, viburnums and a variety of grasses. Pockets of annual color will include classics like begonias, impatiens and petunias plus exotic tropicals like palm trees and birds of paradise.

“We want to show examples of complimentary groupings of trees, shrubs and flowers,” says Peltier. “It will be like a big estate yard.”

“People will be able to see what their own property could be in five years,” adds Opheim. “We can tell them, ‘Here’s your look.’”

Both the newly landscaped area and the renovated courtyard will have electrical connections, says Stroud, who is still determining rental rates and other details. For more information, contact Rosehill Gardens at 816-941-4777