Grounds and Gardens

The beauty of the Ringling Museum is not confined to the galleries.  The grounds and gardens are also treated and cherished as works of art and they have never looked better. Stroll the grounds and enjoy the Rose Garden, Mable’s Secret Garden, the Dwarf Garden, Millennium Tree Trail and other delights of our estate by the bay. 

The estate grounds look better than ever.  Over the last few months, more than 200 new trees and more than 40,000 new plantings have been added to our landscape.

The grounds are open 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A Rose is a Rose 

Mable Ringling’s Rose Garden is one of the loveliest spots on the Ringling estate and, when in bloom, the most fragrant.  The 27,225 sq. ft. garden was completed in 1913 and is patterned after a traditional Italian circular garden design.  While none of the original rose bushes planted by Mable survived many of today’s 1,200 rose plants are of the same types planted by Mrs. Ringling.  Today the garden consists of roses introduced between 1867 and 2002.  There are Tree Roses, Hybrid Teas, Floribundas, Grandifloras, miniature roses, shrubs, and Old Garden Roses.  A rose dedicated to Mable Ringling is also featured in the garden.  The garden is accredited by All-American Rose Selections and was named the 2006 most outstanding All-American Rose Selections Public Rose Garden in the nation.

Just beyond Mable’s Rose Garden are two test rose gardens.  The gardens serve as demonstration test gardens for the All American Rose Selections (AARS).  The nation’s top growers send rose hybrids to be planted among Mable Ringling’s roses and professionally evaluated for two years before being officially patented as a rose variety.  The Ringling Test Rose Garden is one of only 20 designated test gardens in the country and it flourishes with over 100 varieties of hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda, shrub, landscape and climber roses.

Just north of the Cà d’Zan Mansion is Mable Ringling’s Secret Garden.  Mable Ringling created this garden with plants that were given to her during her winters at Cà d’Zan.  Here she would entertain guests with tours.  Today, varieties of Bromeliads, Philliline Violets and Variegated Bougainvilleas thrive.