In mid-September, the volunteers who maintain the plants in the Rockfield Manor Gazebo Garden wrapped up their primary season of keeping the flowers, shrubs and other plants healthy and looking well.

Each year between February and September the volunteers, who call themselves “Rockers” in honor of the Rockfield property, come out on a monthly basis to care for the plants that grow up and around four white gazebos. They also come out in December for winter maintenance.

The garden is a short distance from the historic Rockfield Manor and adjacent to the Rockfield Park nine-hole disc golf course. It is popular spot for wedding parties to take photographs when the Manor hosts wedding ceremonies and receptions. 

It also is popular among people who attend the annual Harford County Wine Festival on the Rockfield grounds. The 2025 wine festival, which is sold out, is scheduled for Saturday, September 27.

Kellee Kalthof, executive director of the Rockfield Foundation, which is responsible for maintaining and operating the manor house and grounds, expressed her gratitude for the volunteers who keep the Gazebo Garden in shape.

“Their efforts keep the grounds beautiful while enhancing the charm and welcoming atmosphere for all who visit — whether enjoying the park, attending a wedding or special event at the manor,” she stated in an email.

All of the volunteers are Master Gardeners, a program of the University of Maryland Extension to train people who are passionate about gardening to be “horticultural educators,” according to the Extension’s Master Gardener web page.

Members of Harford County Master Gardeners have been maintaining the Rockfield garden since 2012. They do so with support from the Town of Bel Air Department of Public Works, according to Steve O’Brien, chair of the Rockfield Manor Gazebo Garden Committee.

The services provided by the DPW include funds to pay for supplies such as fertilizer, applying mulch in the garden, cleaning the arched gazebo structures, disposing of plant waste and other services as needed – O’Brien recalled one instance in which Public Works staff dug out a diseased rosebush, roots and all, and then destroyed it to prevent the disease from spreading.

“It’s been a very successful year,” O’Brien said of the 2025 season while at the garden earlier in September.

“We’re really pleased with how the plants have behaved this year, and we’re also very appreciative of the support from Public Works,” he added.

About 10 Rockers volunteer to maintain the garden on a regular basis. Others are welcome to volunteer, but they must be Master Gardeners. O’Brien and other Rockers described the Gazebo Garden as a way to educate the public about plants.

“Master Gardeners are all about educating the public,” volunteer Barbara Johnston of the Fountain Green area said as she was working in the garden in mid-August.

Johnston was pruning knockout rose bushes, which have light pink blossoms. She cut dead blossoms and trimmed the stems to their next-lowest node below the dead blossom to encourage growth of new blooms, a process known as “dead-heading.”

“It’s just fun – when you love plants, it’s fun,” Johnston said.

Volunteer Greg Ledoux, a resident of Fallston, worked nearby, using a tool to pull up weeds around the rose bushes. He noted that “when the weeds take over,” they use up a plant’s nutrients and water.

“There’s a certain satisfaction when you’re done, and it looks good,” Ledoux said of volunteering in the garden. “It looks much better than when you started.”

The garden has a circular design, with the knockout rose bushes inside the gazebos and a Japanese maple in the very center.

Outside the gazebos, one finds Japanese holly hedges and a number of other plants such as Caryopteris x clandonensis, a shrub that sports purple blossoms in the fall and is commonly known as “Dark Knight” or “Bluebeard.”

Bright yellow Graham Thomas roses, or English climbing roses, grow through and above the gazebos. In August, several volunteers worked to tie one Graham Thomas rose to the curved top of a gazebo to properly shape its growth.

Through regular maintenance, the Rockers keep up the garden’s appearance as well as catch early signs of plant disease before it spreads to the rest of the garden, according to O’Brien.

“We just take pride in trying to make the garden as attractive as possible,” he said, noting the group has received “nice, appreciative comments” from park visitors.

O’Brien said the Rockers bring different skill sets and learn from each other as they work and socialize.

“The Master Gardeners are blessed with willing volunteers,” he said. “Whether they know how to prune a rose or not, they are willing to come out and to learn, and we share our general knowledge with each other as well.”

Anyone interested in becoming a Master Gardener can contact the Harford County office of the University of Maryland Extension at 410-638-3255.

Contact Media and Public Relations Specialist David Anderson at 410-838-7181 or danderson@belairmd.org.