Jasper Crane Rose Garden, Brandywine Park, Wilmington, Delaware

 

Jasper Crane was a VP at DuPont Chemicals in Wilmington, DE.  He lives a charmed life and developed a reputation as something of a rose enthusiast.  In 1933, he gave a newly formed group of civic minded gardeners 670 cuttings from his collection.  They used these to found a public rose garden along the Brandywine River.  At its height in the 1950's, the garden had grown to contain over 1,000 bushes representing over 100 cultivars.

Over time, the gardens went into something of a feral state as the interest in formal public gardens waned.  Today, thanks to a reinvigorated cadre of gardeners, this once lauded public rose garden is once again a delight--if reduced from its former glory days self.

I would estimate no more than 200 bushes, and guess that its previous maximum footprint was much larger.  The garden of today resides just off the massive 1-95 overpass, whose piles, foundations and piers must surely have displaced the lion's share of the original.  And still, what is there is such a joy!  All that is mentioned of Jasper Crane appears on the only marker associated with the garden.