Harrowsmith Fall 2019 | 67to Perennial Ridge, and I was
struck with the similarities of
the stor y.)
“Rose Rogan found this old
Christmas tree farm outside the
village of Duncan in the spring of
1997, when she was looking for a
home for her young family. At the
age of 38, she was already an
experienced gardener/farmer and
was to spend the rest of her life
obsessed by this garden.”
On a beautiful Vancouver
Island midsummer morning, it’s
the annual sale at Rose Rogan’s
Perennial Ridge Farms. The
cheerfully painted gates are
propped open and folks are
wheeling out barrows spilling
over with perennials of all
descriptions. We’re in search of
succulents today; as we wander
up the drive, I am astonished by
how the place has matured since
I was last here, maybe 16 years
earlier. In a word, it’s absolutely
beautiful. On one side of the
drive, the multi-storied canopy is
a mix of mature mother trees,casting dappled light (and
breaking our at-times-heavy
winter rains) for the younger trees
below; conifers and deciduous
beech, katsura, ginko and maples
add variety in shape and shade,
while the rhododendrons, one of
Rose’s serious obsessions, are in
full flower, some 300 of them
planted throughout the property
and splashing colour whether
they’re tucked under the canopy
or glowing in a pool of sunshine.
The overall effect is fantastic and
made even more charming by the
deeply mulched paths that
meander through this forest of
plants and light, the whimsical
buildings housing goats and
heritage birds, and the sculptures
galore, from old rusting tractors
to park benches carved from the
trees that once stood here.
To our left is a long row of
greenhouses, full to bursting with
potted perennials of all imaginable
varieties—succulents, rare exotics,
and fruit and nut bushes and
ROSE ROGAN trees—you name it, it’s more than