Stowe Center Awarded Jane Righter Rose Medal!

Award-winning roses in bloom in Hartford! 

Garden Club of America Awards Jane Righter Rose Medal to Harriet Beecher Stowe Center’s Heritage Rose Gardens 

Garden Club of Hartford at the Stowe Gardens Monday May 17, 2010 at 11 AM 

National award announced at the national Garden Club of America Annual Meeting, May 15, 2010 

May 16, 2010,  Hartford, CT     The national Garden Club of America presented the Jane Righter Rose Medal to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center on Saturday May 15, 2010 in recognition of “the outstanding cultivation and display of heritage roses and for honoring their value in … unique educational programs.”  Stowe Center Board chair, Christiana Gianopulos (Day Pitney LLP) accepted the Medal at the GCA Annual meeting held in Brunswick, NJ.

Nominated by the Garden Club of Hartford, the Stowe gardens are an important element of the Stowe Center’s historic landscape and were developed during many years of research and careful maintenance. On Monday May 17 at 11 AM, Nora Howard, president of the Garden Club of Hartford and other Garden Club members will visit the Stowe Center to view the roses in full bloom. The Stowe Center’s heritage roses include Harrison Yellow Roses (1840); Tuscany Superb Roses (1848); and pink Paul Neyon roses (1869). 

Katherine Kane, the Stowe Center’s executive director, noted, “The Stowe Center’s grounds are an oasis of beauty in a busy urban neighborhood.  Every spring our gardens surprise and delight all of our visitors with an array of seemingly ever-blooming beds on our grounds.  The singular beauty of the heritage roses is a shining example of how heritage – and history – enrich contemporary life. We are grateful to Nora Howard and all the members of the Garden Club of Hartford for their nomination of the rose gardens for this prestigious national honor and are proud to be associated with an organization with a rich history of civic engagement. We were surprised and pleased to find that Jane Righter herself was an admirer of Harriet Beecher Stowe and, as a child, corresponded with Stowe.   We believe they would each be pleased at this renewed association.”

The purpose of the Garden Club of America is to stimulate the knowledge and love of gardening, to share the advantages of association by means of educational meetings, conference, correspondence and publications and to restore, improve and protect the quality of the environment through education program and action in the fields of conservation and civic improvement.

The Stowe Center gardens are open for strolling year round.  From June through August, tours of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House include a guided tour of the surrounding gardens. Visitors may also use a self guided walking tour map, available on HarrietBeecherStowe.org and at the Visitor Center. Each year, the Stowe Center participates in Rose & Garden Weekend (in 2010, June 19 and 20) and Connecticut’s Historic Gardens Day (in 2010, June 27). School programs include “In Harriet’s Garden,” an exploration of Stowe, seen through her interest in gardens and painting.