When Adelicia Acklen and her husband Joseph built Belmont Mansion, the thirty-six room,
nineteen-thousand square-foot house was one of the most elaborate antebellum homes in the
South. Adelicia was one of the wealthiest women in America and anything she undertook was
done on a grand scale. Six years in construction and completed in 1859 the entrance to the
mansion included a magnificent rose garden designed in the form of concentric circles.
The property evolved through a series educational institutions into what is
now Belmont University, and the original Belmont Rose Garden went the way of history. Rose
lovers at Belmont University re-created the garden about 1980 at a new location on the central
lawn area behind Massey Hall downsizing to about one-fourth the size of the original garden.
Time and lack of attention also took their toll on the re-created rose garden.
Fast forward to 2005 and enter Belmont President Dr. Robert Fisher and his wife Judy. Like
the original owner, Adelicia Acklen before them, the Fishers are rose lovers. Recognizing the
garden was in dire need of help they wanted to see it become a place of pride for the Belmont
community. When Belmont Horticulture Manager Mary Weber made the rose garden a priority
things began to happen. Mary began looking for help, and the search led her to contact Dr. Louis
Mishu, local businessman, dedicated rosarian, and Nashville Rose Society member..
Dr. Mishu visited the Belmont rose garden and immediately recognized that this was not a mild
disorder, rather one that required radical surgery. He informed Mary Weber that the existing
roses should be removed and destroyed. Louis invited Mary and Judy to visit his home in nearby
Brentwood where he and his wife Mona care for more than eighteen hundred roses. After a twohour
meeting at the Mishu garden on Bridlewood Lane, Judy and Mary asked Louis to provide a
proposal.With surveying instruments in hand Dr. Mishu returned to the campus. While preserving the
shape of the original Belmont Mansion garden, he developed a design containing more than 200
plants. The design was accepted without revisions and work on the new garden was begun in the
fall of 2005.Supervising dirt removal from the old garden site using a backhoe, Louis soon discovered that
the existing soil was worse than expected. Beneath the twelve inch layer of topsoil he found a
six inch layer of rock that also had to be moved. So with eighteen inches of dirt and rock
removed to provide a concentric circle pattern (duplicating the format of the original Belmont
Mansion Rose Garden) preparation was begun. Before filling with soil mix the bottom of the bed
was layered with sand. The soil mixture consisted of “Raised-Bed Mix” from Soil Products of
Hermitage, Tennessee, combined with peat, and perlite. A plant food mix of Fertilome, bone
meal and Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) was added to the top four inches of the bed. Bed
preparation was finalized in January 2006, and Louis informed Mary that the bed should be
allowed to “condition” for about ten weeks.
Dr. Mishu ordered two hundred and ten potted roses that included three each of seventy
varieties. The first potted roses arrived on March 29, and Louis was at the garden site in his
work clothes to instruct members of the Landscape Team in how to plantroses. Following Louis’
demonstrated procedure, team members took over. Three weeks later
the remaining roses were delivered and the Landscape Team completed their task. Now that all
of the new rose plants were in the ground, a bi-weekly spray program was implemented to keep
the garden healthy and free of disease.
Belmont University staff, members of the Belmont Landscape Team, Louis and Mona Mishu
and other members of Nashville Rose Society along with friends of the university, came to the
campus on Tuesday, June 27, 2006, for a formal dedication of the beautiful new rose garden .
Mary Weber and Judy Fisher were lavish in their praise of Louis Mishu who volunteered time
and rose expertise unselfishly in developing the design and overseeing implementation of the
new Belmont Rose Garden. In like manner Louis complimented Mary Weber and the Belmont
Landscape Team for their diligence and hard work in building the new garden. Belmont
University Provost Dan McAlexander, whose office in Massey Hall overlooks the garden said,
“the garden is a beautiful sight to see when I look out my office window.”
If you only visit Belmont University to see the Belmont Rose Garden in bloom, it is worth the
trip to the campus near downtown Nashville. While you are there you should take time to tour
historic Belmont Mansion. Contact Mark Brown, Belmont Mansion Executive Director for tour
information (615) 460-5459. I promise you will be glad you went!

Editor’s Note: Dr. Louis Mishu is an ARS Consulting Rosarian and past president of
the Nashville Rose Society. After graduation from Purdue University with a PhD in
Geotechnical Engineering, Louis moved to Nashville as an engineering professor.
Later he began his own business and now operates Geotek Engineering with two of his
sons. Louis and Mona care for their 1800 roses and many other plants at their home
in Brentwood, Tennessee. They have five grown children and fourteen grandchildren.
During the Belmont garden dedication Louis said, “my business is engineering, but my
passion is roses.” Louis and fellow NRS member Charles Griggs were the principle
persons involved in the 2005 installation of a new rose garden at the Knowles Senior
Citizens Center in Nashville (see article in May 2005 Rose Leaf).