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🌹 Stop and smell the roses, Boston

The Kelleher Rose Garden, located on Park Drive in the Back Bay Fens, is home to ~1,500 roses. Here’s what to know about the hidden oasis and English-style garden.

Entryway to rose garden

Roses are red, violets are blue, we love this rose garden, and you should too.

Photo provided by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy

Boston has no shortage of beautiful green spaces to visit — and we’ve got one for the top of your bucket list. The James P. Kelleher Rose Garden in the Back Bay Fens (73 Park Dr.) has just started to bloom, and its peak season will last for about three weeks.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy garden, which is home to ~1,500 roses, first opened in 1931. It was designed by Arthur Shurcliff, the landscape architect who later worked with Frederick Law Olmsted.

Stroll through Boston’s (not so) secret garden Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. + Saturday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each year from May through October.

Bonus: Want to lend a helping hand? Register for “Tuesday with Roses” to assist with deadheading and pruning roses + weeding the rose beds. The events take place every Tuesday through September from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

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