Stop and smell the roses! The Old City Cemetery Museums & Arboretum’s famous Annual Antique Rose Festival displays rare varieties of roses dating back to the late 1500’s and you can purchase clippings for yourself to take home and enjoy! 

Old City Cemetery is now home to the largest public collection of heirloom roses in the state of Virginia. Over 350 old garden roses, representing the ancestors of modern roses, are planted along both sides of the Cemetery’s historic “old brick wall,” as well as scattered throughout the 27 acre site. A special rose garden near the Pest House Medical Museum honors heritage rose pioneer Carl Cato.

The festival itself celebrates the love of roses through guided tours, Rose Illustrating workshops, Antique Rose Sale, music, and more, all on the grounds of the oldest municipal cemetery in Virginia still in use today.