Meetings & Events

Click for NRS Calendar

The 2023 meetings of the Nashville Rose Society will be held at the Cheekwood Estate and Gardens or at the Ellington Agricultural Center.

The Cheekwood Estate and Gardens is located at 1200 Forrest Park Dr, Nashville, Tennessee 37205. The meetings are free to guests, as is admission to Cheekwood for meetings. Simply tell the gate attendant that you are there for the Nashville Rose Society meeting.

The Ed Jones Auditorium at Ellington Agriculture Center is located at 416 Hogan Rd, Nashville, TN 37220.

Visit the post for the current monthly meeting for the location of the meeting that month.

For a list of past meetings and events, click here.


June 2-3 – 2023 Tenarky District Arrangements Workshop

The 2023 Tenarky District Arrangements Workshop will be held on June 2-3, 2023, at the Hampton Inn in Pleasant View, Tennessee.

We are excited to share that our guest instructor will be Gerry Mahoney, president of the Glendale (AZ) Rose Society and Arrangements Chair for the Pacific Northwest District of the American Rose Society.

Registration is $64 per person which includes workshop, supplies, and lunch. If you choose to do lunch on your own, workshop only registration is $50 per person.

We will supply roses, greenery, filler, and additional line and plant material. However, attendees are encouraged to bring things from their gardens as well, either for their own or others use. Attendees should also bring a traditional and modern type container if possible. If you cannot we will have extras. And if you have that gorgeous container that you just can’t figure out what to do with, bring that as well. We will focus on some of those!

Among the topics we will dive into are principals and elements of design, traditional and modern designs, including parallel and stretch modern designs, containers and mechanics. These will be hands on for attendees. We also plan to offer a container swap for those containers that you find you no longer use.

Below is the tentative schedule for the workshop:

Friday, June 2

6:00 (p.m.) Working with ‘challenging’ containers

Saturday, June 3

8:30-Welcome, announcements
9:00-Principals and elements of design
10:00-Containers (focus on traditional vs. modern containers)
10:45-Mechanics of design

12:00-Lunch (on site)

1:00-Traditional designs (hands on)
2:00-Modern designs (hands on)
3:30-Container swap
4:00-Ethics in judging

This event will be at the Hampton Inn, 2606 Highway 49 East, Pleasant View, TN 37146. Phone number 615-894-9910. Special Group Rate is $139 per night – ask for the Tenarky District ARS event (Group code is ARG). This special rate is only offered through May 18.

Click here to download the registration form.


June 11, 2:00 – 4:00pm – Jeff Garrett, “Rooting and Budding Roses”

Jeff Garrett, ARS Master Rosarian and National Trophy winner
The speaker for the June 11, 2023, meeting of the Nashville Rose Society will be Jeff Garrett, ARS Master Rosarian and National Trophy winner for rose exhibiting. Jeff will talk about “Rooting and Budding Roses”.

Have you ever tried rooting roses only to have them all die? Rooting roses is actually pretty easy and Jeff will be demonstrating how anyone can be successful at it. He will show how to select and prepare stem for rooting. His method does not require a greenhouse or any other special equipment. He will then show how he buds roses onto multiflora rootstock. His presentation will include the use of PowerPoint to show everything he does in close up detail.

In the early eighty’s, Jeff and and his wife Cindy bought a house in Hixson, Tennessee, and planted their first three roses. They were not performing well, so after reading an article in the local newspaper by Lester Smith talking about growing good roses, they decided to give him a call. Lester invited them over to his garden, which they found to be absolutely beautiful. He took them under his wing and began mentoring them on growing roses. He also invited them to a Tri-State Rose Society of Chattanooga meeting. They were hooked!

The Garretts moved to their current home on Lake Chickamauga in 1989. That spring they added two rose beds with about 96 plants. Over the years they have continued to develop their landscape to its current capacity of just under 350 roses.

Jeff and Cindy have both served their local society, the Tri-State Rose Society of Chattanooga, as President on numerous occasions. Currently they are editors of their local society newsletter, Basal Breaks and Jeff is the current president. The Garretts have been honored with the Bronze Medal from their local society. Both Jeff and Cindy are active in the American Rose Society and are Master Rosarians. They and have been honored with the Silver Medal from the Tenarky District of the American Rose Society. They have both also won the Outstanding Consulting Rosarian Award for the Tenarky District. For many years Jeff has been the Tenarky District Roses In Review Coordinator. They are also regional editor’s for the annual Horizon Roses publication.

After Jeff’s presentation, there will be a fun and informative video featuring Natalie Carmolli with Proven Winners® ColorChoice® – Roses and Companions. Natalie discusses the history of roses, how to grow them, what varieties of roses we offer and what plants make great companions for planting with them.

Our hostess this month is Cindy Worch. The meeting will be held in the Massey Auditorium of Botanic Hall / Visitor Services Building at Cheekwood Garden and Estate. The Cheekwood Campus Map shows the location of Botanic Hall.

Note: Admission to Cheekwood is not required – let the gate attendant know that you are attending the NRS Meeting in Botanic Hall.


NRS Monthly Meeting Calendar


The Nashville Rose Society Programming Committee, led by John Wendler, has been working hard to plan the 2023 monthly meeting calendar. The programs are subject to change, but save the dates. You do not want to miss one!


This year’s meetings will be organized somewhat differently from past years. Each meeting will be organized and led by a member of the NRS Executive Committee, one of our Consulting Rosarians, or a member of the Programming Committee. To date, we have volunteers for nine out of ten of the meetings. .

MonthGuest Speaker/TopicLocation
May 7NRS Spring Grand Prix Rose ShowEd Jones Auditorium, Ellington Ag Center
May 20Bowling Green Rose Show
June 11Jeff Garrett, “Rooting & Budding Roses”
July 9Peter Grimaldi, VP of Gardens at Cheekwood
August 6Austin Lohin, Bates Nursery landscaper, TBD
September 10Connie Baird, "Show Winning Rose Arrangement" and NRS Fall Grand Prix
October 1Louisville Rose Show
October 8Preparing for the Rose Show
October 14-15Music City Rose Show Massey Auditorium, Cheekwood
November 5Todd Breyer
December 3Christmas PartyEd Jones Auditorium, Ellington Ag Center

For a list of past meetings and events, click here.