The Friends of St Mary’s have started the exciting task of organising their third Ross Open Gardens Weekend, this time on the weekend of June 15th and 16th, 2019. This is a week earlier than previous years, and they hope this means that more roses will be blooming in the gardens.

In 2015 and 2017, they opened 20 gardens.  They hope to have the same number for 2019, but a number of those who have previously opened have decided to take a year off, so they are actively seeking new gardens (within the town) to join them in opening their gates. In previous year’s gardeners have felt that the work needed to prepare their garden for opening is more than compensated by the positive reactions of those who come to visit.

The Friends take all responsibility for administration, publicity and ticket sales, leaving the gardeners, on the day, the pleasant task of welcoming their visitors.

The Open Gardens weekend is a wonderful time for the community of Ross-on-Wye to come together. You can enjoy the opportunity to visit gardens previously hidden behind hedges or walls, while helping to raise money to help keep the fabric of the ancient Parish Church in good condition. 

Ancient buildings, especially listed ones, are always more expensive to maintain than modern ones.  The Friends of St Mary’s is a charity which aims to bring together the town and  congregation to jointly take responsibility to maintain our historic building, with its iconic spire, for the succeeding generations, as our forebears have.

If you would like to learn more about opening your garden please call Peter Reynolds, the Open Gardens organiser on 01989 564830 or 07741741709. If you have a friend in town with a beautiful garden, please suggest to them they might want to join in.

However, if visiting gardens is more your forte, please put the date in your diary. Perhaps also invite your friends and relatives for the weekend so that they too can share the pleasure.