If you're looking for beautiful looking and wonderful smelling roses and happen to be in the bay area of California, the Municipal Rose Garden is where it's at. During our last trip to Monterey we had a few hours to kill on the way back to SFO and thought to spend some time in San Jose. The Municipal Rose Garden is the top attraction on Trip Advisor that is free in San Jose and I can't remember the last time we've been to a such a place.
The Rose Garden exceeded our expectations. There are plenty of great spots to take a photo and there are hundreds of types of roses, all labelled and well kept. Some smelt really nice, others we're at the peak of their blooming cycle. Dropping by in mid May was a good idea.
We know nothing about roses except that they have thorns and are not the easiest flower to grow. They make lovely gifts but they also attract cats! But that's no excuse on birthdays, international women's day, valentines day, mothers day, etc.
The fountain in the middle of the park was lovely. It was the middle of the afternoon and quite hot. San Jose is in the Santa Clara Valley and is far hotter than the California Coastline so bring some water.
They fence off the fountain so there is absolutely no swimming. The Garden has a lot of rules, you can't pick the flowers, no drinking, no smoking, no motor vehicles, no jumping, no sports, no dogs, but they don't say anything about cats 😻 If you don't believe me, here's the Municipal Rose Gardens Website.
The area of San Jose seems posh. This is probably the most expensive city in North America, with only Los Angeles or Toronto having more unaffordable houses. But if you're the CEO of a Silicon Valley tech company, might as well buy a casa with a garden view.
People pay extra for photoshoots and weddings here. Flowers are included in the price but absolutely no souvenirs!
You won't be disappointed visiting the municipal rose garden if you like roses. I'm not the biggest fan of flowers and it was worth every minute of our time. We would even go back.
These lavender roses looked the nicest. Which ones do you prefer?
Thank you for reading. All photos taken with an S22 or iPhone 15 pro and are unfiltered
