by Dan Harrell
A recent survey found that 43 percent of surveyed Nashville tourists were influenced to visit the city after watching the television show “Nashville”. While I’m happy that Juliette and Deacon, Scarlett and Avery are attracting the crowds, those of us who live here know that Nashville is full of beauty and history not highlighted on the hit TV series. One such treasure, located on the campus of Belmont University and tucked away behind Massey Hall, is the Belmont Rose Garden.
Adelicia Acklen, “the mistress of Belmont” is a story in and of herself and someone to be admired. Although she lived an affluent life, she also endured her share of suffering, burying two husbands and six infant children. She was a woman with good looks and an iron will who navigated her way through a man’s world and the Civil War to save and to expand her family fortune. In 1853, she and her second husband, Joseph Acklen, completed Belmont, a twenty-thousand-square-foot, 36 room summer home. It is said that Adelicia wrote in her diary about looking out her bedroom window and admiring the rose garden. Through the years, the property evolved through a series of educational institutions and the original Belmont Rose Garden went the way of history. The restored garden is the result of a major undertaking in 2005. The existing soil was literally excavated, the bottom of the bed layered with sand, and a soil mix combined with peat and perlite put in.
On a smaller scale, some of these practices can be helpful in any homeowner’s garden. Whether you plan to grow red roses or green beans, take a soil sample. You can get a kit to do this from the UT Extension office in your county. Roses do best in soil that is well drained with a pH of around 6.5. The easiest way to achieve this is to buy bags of good grade potting soil. This may be a little more expensive but well worth it. You may not have 200 plants like they do at Belmont, but like that garden, your roses can be a treasure of colorful beauty right in your own back yard.