One of the things guests love about our inn near Assateague is the abundance of flowers in our English Garden. At this time of year especially, the hollyhocks are putting on a wonderful show of yellow, pink, purple and red. Trumpet vines are singing with flowers and the clematis are overflowing their trellises. Most showy of all are our roses. We have a tremendous variety of them including Floribunda, also known as “rambling roses,” which cluster and climb thickly in glorious shades of pink. We love our old fashioned roses such as Centifolia and Moss Roses in fuscias and reds. These types of heirloom roses are less hybridized than many of the newer varieties of roses. As a result, they tend to be more disease resistant and are generally less fussy to maintain. It makes it that much easier to create a lush garden bursting with flowers!

Not only are they lovely to look at, but these heirlooms are also treasured for their wonderful scent. When our guests walk along our garden paths, both the smells and sights are truly a delight. Most of our varieties do have thorns, but they’re not at all like the aggressively thorny Rugosas. Our heirloom roses are much more friendly than that! If you carefully put your face close to the flowers, you can inhale deeply and enjoy our roses’ aromatic charms. The best time of day is late afternoon or early evening on a warm day (plenty of those lately!) By then, the scent will be intoxicating. If you’re curious about these sorts of things, try getting up early, have a whiff of the roses (and then indulge in your delicious two-course Miss Molly’s inn breakfast.) Later, after you’ve had your true Engligh tea of home-baked goods, fresh strawberries & cream and other refreshments, go back out to the garden again. If you smell the roses, you’ll notice that the later afternoon/early evening scent is much stronger! But don’t wait too long…cool temperatures inhibit the smell.

Whether you’re staying at our Chincoteague B&B or you’re going about your daily business, we hope you take some time to go out and smell the roses.