COLUMBIA — If you love roses and drives to the Gold Country then Rosemary’s Roses is the place for you.

Rosemary’s Roses at 12600 Yankee Hill Road (off Sawmill Flat Road) in Columbia is staging its fall open garden. It is Tuolumne County’s largest rose garden, with over 1,300 roses.

You can meander along the paths, sit in the gazebo and rest while enjoying the view from the top of the garden. You can also bring a picnic to enjoy underneath the oaks.

Small groups and garden clubs are welcome.

The open garden runs daily starting this Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 16, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. They will be closed, though, this Sunday, Oct. 2.

Admission is $5 per person

Rosemary’s Roses nursery is open all year long and has over 1,000 container-grown own-root, hard-to-find roses for sale. There are 322 varieties. Species include old garden roses, shrubs, polyanthas, floribundas, grandifloras, hybrid teas, climbers, and miniatures.

Fall is an ideal time to plant roses. The roots will have time to become established before winter, and next spring the blooms will be more spectacular.

The garden was established in 1998. Beginning in 2005 they opened it to the public for tours during late May through mid October. Each of the 1,300 roses of all types grow in our garden, identified by name, type, date of introduction and color.

The nursery at Rosemary’s Roses was begun on March 23, 2005 with the aim of providing good quality container-grown roses, on their own roots.

Own-root roses have several advantages over budded roses:

• They are not grafted, hence no rootstock to take over if the original rose dies.

• They have a far better chance of survival during severe winters, as they can freeze to the ground and still spring back from their roots and bloom the following summer, whereas a budded plant might be dead, with only its rootstock sending up new shoots.

• Own-root roses have a much longer life than budded roses.

For more information call (209) 536-9415.