28 June 2019
The Rose Garden of Peace: Best Unconventional Therapy
''The Rose Garden of Peace” is a collection of roses, hundreds of different varieties of roses. It is a well-kept, loved and lived rose garden, located in front of a nursing home for elderly people in the Municipality of Induno Olona (Varese) in Via Maciachini, 9.
The ‘Roseto' was born in an area where there was a dense conifer forest, destroyed by a violent storm in the summer of 2011.
The first to have the idea of replacing the trees with roses was Elio Bigi, gardener and historic florist of Induno Olona: ''Since 1913 here in the village every year in May a festival of cut roses is organised'', he says, ''therefore proposing a rose garden seemed to us the best way to honour this tradition''. The Municipality of Induno Olona (owner of the nursing home for elderly people) and the Pro Loco were enthusiastic about the idea: within a few months work began and in May 2013, 100 years after the first ever Rose Festival, the garden was officially opened.
Today, the rose garden is made up of almost 6,500 plants, and a total of 612 different rose varieties. Antique roses, English roses, climbing plants, but the largest group is Tea hybrids, because they are re-flowering, explains Bigi, “and also because we wanted to create large flower beds divided according to the different shades of the main colours. Tea hybrids from this point of view offer an infinite range...”. A similar concentration of roses, covering an area of 2,300 square metres, gives the impression of being in front of a living catalogue. And the collection is enriched every year with new varieties. In recent years the rose garden has also become the ''home'' of the Little Prince, who has always cared for his wonderful ''Red Rose'', now set in a glass case protected by the rock wall that supports the artist's square, where a ''multi-flower'' palette of roses accompanies the works of ''artist/painters'' who stop to paint the rose garden and its colours as they see it every season.
“The Rose Garden of Peace” is also the place where you can admire the entire collection of statues from the 2015 Milan Expo, the so-called “Food Carriers of the Master” by the Italian scenographer and Oscar award winner Mo. Dante Ferretti.
The garden is called ''The Rose Garden of Peace'' in honour of the famous “Peace” rose variety created by Meilland and known in Italy as “Joy”. The rose garden was received with great enthusiasm by the citizens, not only for its intrinsic beauty, but also because it allows the elderly guests of the nursing home to encounter the “external world'': children who go there to play, schools on guided tours, young people who are jogging, adults looking for relaxation, other elderly people who come to relax on the island's stopover of a rose garden, where it is also possible to listen to classical music through a special sound system. This is the true added value of this special public rose garden. And, thanks to this, outdoor walks for the nursing home guests have become much more enjoyable than they used to be.
In November 2018 the rose garden was awarded the ''Best Unconventional Therapy'' award by Onda, the National Observatory on Women's and Gender Health, because thanks to its multi-sensory qualities, the nursing home operators use the garden to treat the behavioural disturbances of the guests, such as agitation, aggression and apathy and they do so with impressive efficacy. They use sense-perceptive stimulation with the different colours of the rose garden, olfactory stimulation based on the scent of the flowers, and music via the audio system that accompanies a visit to the park.
The garden is also a highly popular photo setting, as well as an ''outdoor gym'' for visitors who need rehabilitation: the path that crosses the park, which is 250 metres long, has a type of paving and a slope designed specifically for this purpose.
For the care and maintenance of the rose garden only organic and natural products are used; every year about 1,000 ladybirds are released into the rose garden, at the beginning of the season, which ''takes care'' of controlling the ''population'' of aphids that are usually found on the rose plants.
On Saturday mornings the rose garden hosts free courses on the reproduction of roses through cutting, while the last weekend of May provides the setting for the traditional “Festival of Rosa Recisa”, in which anyone can participate by presenting their flower to be judged on type, bud, shape, stem, leaves and perfume by the leading national experts on the subject. The first festival of the ''Rosa Recisa'' in Italy was held by the Pro Monarco, the current Pro Loco Comune of Induno Olona, back in 1913, with over 30,000 examples of severed roses presented on the occasion.
The ‘Roseto' was born in an area where there was a dense conifer forest, destroyed by a violent storm in the summer of 2011.
The first to have the idea of replacing the trees with roses was Elio Bigi, gardener and historic florist of Induno Olona: ''Since 1913 here in the village every year in May a festival of cut roses is organised'', he says, ''therefore proposing a rose garden seemed to us the best way to honour this tradition''. The Municipality of Induno Olona (owner of the nursing home for elderly people) and the Pro Loco were enthusiastic about the idea: within a few months work began and in May 2013, 100 years after the first ever Rose Festival, the garden was officially opened.
Today, the rose garden is made up of almost 6,500 plants, and a total of 612 different rose varieties. Antique roses, English roses, climbing plants, but the largest group is Tea hybrids, because they are re-flowering, explains Bigi, “and also because we wanted to create large flower beds divided according to the different shades of the main colours. Tea hybrids from this point of view offer an infinite range...”. A similar concentration of roses, covering an area of 2,300 square metres, gives the impression of being in front of a living catalogue. And the collection is enriched every year with new varieties. In recent years the rose garden has also become the ''home'' of the Little Prince, who has always cared for his wonderful ''Red Rose'', now set in a glass case protected by the rock wall that supports the artist's square, where a ''multi-flower'' palette of roses accompanies the works of ''artist/painters'' who stop to paint the rose garden and its colours as they see it every season.
“The Rose Garden of Peace” is also the place where you can admire the entire collection of statues from the 2015 Milan Expo, the so-called “Food Carriers of the Master” by the Italian scenographer and Oscar award winner Mo. Dante Ferretti.
The garden is called ''The Rose Garden of Peace'' in honour of the famous “Peace” rose variety created by Meilland and known in Italy as “Joy”. The rose garden was received with great enthusiasm by the citizens, not only for its intrinsic beauty, but also because it allows the elderly guests of the nursing home to encounter the “external world'': children who go there to play, schools on guided tours, young people who are jogging, adults looking for relaxation, other elderly people who come to relax on the island's stopover of a rose garden, where it is also possible to listen to classical music through a special sound system. This is the true added value of this special public rose garden. And, thanks to this, outdoor walks for the nursing home guests have become much more enjoyable than they used to be.
In November 2018 the rose garden was awarded the ''Best Unconventional Therapy'' award by Onda, the National Observatory on Women's and Gender Health, because thanks to its multi-sensory qualities, the nursing home operators use the garden to treat the behavioural disturbances of the guests, such as agitation, aggression and apathy and they do so with impressive efficacy. They use sense-perceptive stimulation with the different colours of the rose garden, olfactory stimulation based on the scent of the flowers, and music via the audio system that accompanies a visit to the park.
The garden is also a highly popular photo setting, as well as an ''outdoor gym'' for visitors who need rehabilitation: the path that crosses the park, which is 250 metres long, has a type of paving and a slope designed specifically for this purpose.
For the care and maintenance of the rose garden only organic and natural products are used; every year about 1,000 ladybirds are released into the rose garden, at the beginning of the season, which ''takes care'' of controlling the ''population'' of aphids that are usually found on the rose plants.
On Saturday mornings the rose garden hosts free courses on the reproduction of roses through cutting, while the last weekend of May provides the setting for the traditional “Festival of Rosa Recisa”, in which anyone can participate by presenting their flower to be judged on type, bud, shape, stem, leaves and perfume by the leading national experts on the subject. The first festival of the ''Rosa Recisa'' in Italy was held by the Pro Monarco, the current Pro Loco Comune of Induno Olona, back in 1913, with over 30,000 examples of severed roses presented on the occasion.
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Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.- Luther Burbank - |
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