I've been waiting for the OK to spread this word:

Rosalia 2019: A Rose Festival

The Friends of Vintage Roses will host a special event in Sebastopol

on May 18, 2019, 11:00 to 3:00 pm.

Rosalia, the ancient Roman festival of roses, is the inspiration for this event, a time to rejoice in the beauty of flowers at the peak of Spring, to adorn ourselves and friends with roses, a reminder of our connection to the earth, and to dedicate bouquets of roses to those who have left this life.

The purpose of the event is to enlighten, to inspire and to delight all who join in on that day, a way of reaching out to those in our local community. The Friends want them to stop and smell the roses.

The Friends mission is to bring attention to their ongoing work -- of preserving a collection of living beauty, the thousands of roses curated in thier gardens in Sebastopol. they hope to inspire all of us to plant, grow and share roses with others. And they hope to illustrate very simply how roses have been grown through the ages, and how both old and modern roses can be used in the garden.

The Friends want thier fellow Californians to learn that roses are survivors, well adapted to our climate and to varying gardening conditions.

The event will take place at Wischemann Hall, adjacent to the Sebastopol Community and Youth centers, just a few blocks from town square and The Barlow.

Wischemann’s beautiful dance hall will provide the setting for an educational display of roses through history with hundreds of roses in bouquets.

The Friends are inviting rose groups in the North Bay Area to join in, and to share information about themselves. (Yes. The Heritage Roses Group will be there!) They will emphasize rose preservation groups and the work they are doing to keep roses alive, and to remind the public of our rose heritage.

Friends plan includes a showcase of some plantings in cemeteries in Northern California from Sebastopol to Sacramento to Mendocino. Roses adorning cemeteries began with the original Rosalia festivals in Rome.

Finally, to inspire more gardens to include roses, both old and new, they will stage a large sale of the old and rare roses they've propagated from their Sebastopol collection.

Other North Bay nurseries will join in, to offer a much larger plant sale of everything from annuals and perennials to shrubs and trees.

Rosalia will take place on Saturday, May 18, 2019 -- the day before the Celebration of Old Roses in El Cerrito, Sunday, May 19th.

That amazing event is a must see, and the coincidence of the two rose events in one weekend will, we all hope, encourage the attendance at both events.

The Celebration has for nearly 30 years shared Friends -- and Vintage's magical collection in the displays it mounts.

More details on Rosalia will be provided in further announcements via email and Friend's website over the next weeks and months.

Please spread the word and try to attend. Those of us in the Heritage Roses Groups will be there to greet you. And if you are able, volunteer to help with the mounting of this special event.

We hope to see the expression ‘Flower Children’ gain new meaning and new life!