Yvonne Tsikata couldn’t fathom leaving her roses behind. When she and her husband moved from McLean, Virginia, to nearby Great Falls in 2017, Tsikata dug up 10 rose plants and packed them right alongside everything else. Her new home offered more space to plot and play with her growing collection, but it was wildly overgrown with scrub, invasive grasses, and encroaching bamboo thickets—not exactly a blank canvas. She didn’t quite know where to start. “But I knew I had my roses,” Tsikata says.
Today she cares for more than 300 varieties of roses, which put on a spectacular show from around late April to early November. Forty-two are climbers, scrambling up obelisks, arbors, trees, a pergola, and even the house’s chimney. Shrubs, floribundas, and English roses erupt in pastel shades of blush, apricot, lavender, and cream, with hotter pops of crimson, coral, and magenta. In the parterre garden, an ombré parade of pink blooms encircles a limestone fountain, culminating in an arbor with cerise Zéphirine Drouhins on one side and old-fashioned Eden Climbers on the other.
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Tsikata stands beneath a romantic arbor abloom in fragrant Zéphirine Drouhin and Eden Climber roses.
And yet the rosy fanfare is part of a greater garden vision—one of the unique but interconnected “rooms” that unfold across the property, which is a little more than one and a half acres. Growing up in Ghana, Tsikata watched her mother tend to vivid tropicals like bougainvillea and hibiscus. Touring English gardens like Hidcote and Sissinghurst Castle Garden taught her the power of axes and sight lines. From the French, she learned how structure like boxwoods and topiaries maintains a landscape’s visual intrigue year-round. “These gardens gave me the bug,” Tsikata says. After retiring in 2020 from a 30-year career as an economist at the World Bank, she became a Master Gardener.
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“One of my pet peeves is not being able to walk through and experience a garden, so in mine, I played with paths to guide someone through it,” she says. An arbor blanketed in Lady Banks and American Pillar roses announces the garden’s entry. A Belgian fence espalier extends from either side, and through its diamond-shaped openings you can glimpse the grassy promenade beyond. Its central reflecting pool, where water lilies and lotuses float, is a nod to England’s Wollerton Old Hall Garden, while the purple and lime borders—Annabelle hydrangeas mingling with irises, alliums, and geraniums beneath lollipop-like pleached hornbeams—recall “the exuberance of plantings in private British gardens,” Tsikata says.
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A pea gravel pathway winds through beds showcasing apricot-hued roses.
Pillowy grass turns to crunchy pea gravel as the curve in the European hornbeam hedge ushers you into the keyhole garden; its all-white palette, with rounded dappled willows and Bolero roses, frames an armillary sphere. Past the rose parterre, through an allée abloom with roses including climbing Clair Matins and creeping, pollinator-loving catmint and salvia, the European-minded formality loosens. A flagstone path lures you through the shaded woodland walk and Japanese-inspired garden, both set to tranquil soundtracks of falling water.
To Tsikata’s surprise, the network of pathways appears to enthrall visitors as much as her roses. “The paths create a sense of discovery—you know there’s something else just across the hedge,” she says. “There’s a new experience waiting in each room.
Parterre Garden
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In the parterre garden, varieties like Boscobel, Geoff Hamilton, and Darcey Bussell circle a limestone fountain.
David Austin Roses
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Ngoc Minh Ngo
Left: Tsikata prunes chalice-shaped Lady of Shalotts scrambling up an obelisk.
Right: Princess Anne David Austin roses bloom in shades of deep to pale pink.
Reflecting Pool
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A teak bench (RH) nestled among boxwood hedges is an inviting perch for pausing beside a reflecting pool inspired by England’s 16th-century Wollerton Old Hall Garden.
Gazebo + Rose Allée
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Left: Fragrant Crown Princess Margareta climbs a gazebo.
Right: Catmint and salvia line the romantic rose allée, where Clair Matin and Lavender Lassie roses climb an arbor.
Apricot Rose Beds
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A pea gravel pathway winds through beds showcasing apricot-hued roses.
White Garden
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The white garden is aptly named, with Mount Everest alliums, Annabelle hydrangeas, dappled willow standards, and Bolero tree roses.
Pool Terrace
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A flagstone path leads from the pool terrace to the woodland garden. Behind the sculptural boxwood hedges, Sarah Bernhardt peonies, catmint, and irises bloom.
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This article was originally featured in our September/October 2025 issue. Garden Design by Yvonne Tsikata; Landscape Design by Sisson Landscapes; Photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo; Written by Grace Haynes Wall.
Grace Haynes Wall is the Senior Home & Garden Editor for VERANDA, where she manages the brand’s home and garden coverage. She also writes and edits stories across print and digital platforms, ranging in topics from design and decorative arts to flower arranging, entertaining, travel, and more. Additionally, she leads the World’s Most Beautiful Shops and World’s Most Beautiful Gardens franchises. Prior to joining VERANDA, Grace built her background in home and garden content as an editor at Southern Living. She most enjoys reading and sharing stories that bring interiors and landscapes to life.
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