Blossoming knowledge
Brennan, master rosarian, shares rose/flower garden
Master rosarian Kathy Brennan also grows other flowers, including these vibrant Asian lilies.
“I am happy to share. That is what it is all about. It’s God’s world,” she said. “We give it a little food, then Mother Nature takes over.”
Brennan frequently hosts area garden clubs, as well as individuals, who come to see more than 50 different species of roses in her Farragut garden, Brenrose, off Red Mill Lane, including Cinco de Mayo, Mrs. John Lang, Sexy Rexy (after the mid 20th century actor Rex Harrison), Joy, Brenda Lee (after the 1950s and ‘60s singer) and Sheila’s Perfume, just to name a few.
The roses, which she said are in season and will bloom through October, surround her home, beginning at the front porch of her duplex, then winding down the east side of the house. Two rose bushes and two Clematis vines intermingle on an overreaching gateway as a stone path leads visitors to the luxuriously terraced backyard, where roses of all colors and fragrances dot the landscape.
“Roses are my thing,” Brennan said, although she also keeps an array of complimentary flowering bushes, plants and shrubs in her garden, including Asian lilies, Meadow Rue and Baptisa.
The plants fill the yard to bursting, although she said she always is looking to place new acquisitions. Brennan pointed to several new potted rosebushes she is working on that will eventually find spaces in her yard.
Brenrose’s current garden incarnation is culled down considerably from more than 300 roses Brennan tended at her former home on Altamira Drive, which she shared with her late husband, Jim. His passing nine years ago led her to downsize, although after many years in those lush flower beds, she said she “was ready.”
Brennan came to the field relatively later in life, even though the seeds had been planted — figuratively and literally — during her childhood.
“My mother had a few roses when we were growing up,” she recalled. “Every Mother’s Day, she would make us a little corsage to wear to church. I did it for my kids too, although (at that time), I bought the roses.
“If your mother is alive, you wear a red rose. If she has died, you wear a white one. It is an old tradition, and has been going on for a long time,” Brennan added.
“Whenever I smell that smell, it reminds me of the month of May.”
Brennan welcomes others interested in her passion pursuit to contact her for private showings via e-mail at brenrose@tds.net
She said she “always had a garden of perennials and annuals, then around 1992 or ’93, I visited a lady’s garden with my garden club, and she had the most beautiful rose bushes all around her yard.
“I decided then and there that I was going to grow roses.”
Brennan said she bought a book, she believes it was from Better Homes and Gardens, and initially purchased 10-12 rosebushes. She said she also joined the Tennessee Rose Society around 1996, an organization which also helped hone her skills, and taught her about fertilizing, pollinators, pruning, shaping and herbicides, for exampleNow, Brennan teaches others how to grow the flowers she so loves.
“The Rose Society is where you learn and share your expertise,” she said. “I am willing to help, and am working with a young protégé in Atlanta [among others] who is coming along.”
