Madrid City Council conserves historical rose collection in Buen Retiro

The Madrid City Council is implementing a conservation project to preserve the historical botanical heritage of the Rosaleda in Buen Retiro Park. The initiative focuses on documenting, identifying, and maintaining the garden's century-old rose collection through technical and scientific methods.

A key component of the project involves manual grafting to rescue rare historical varieties that are no longer available in commercial nurseries. This process has already allowed for the incorporation of 645 new rosebushes representing 28 different varieties from the historical collection.

In addition to physical preservation, the council is conducting a comprehensive study to verify and update botanical records. This identification work, which began in the spring of 2025, aims to correct imprecise historical data and ensure an accurate registry of every specimen in the garden. The Rosaleda, which spans 0.8 hectares, was originally established in 1915 and serves as a monumental rose garden modeled after the Bagatelle Rose Garden in Paris.