Rose Story Farm

Beautiful experience. The roses were still in bloom and the sights and smell is indescribable. Our guide Sarah was very knowledgeable and answered all our questions. The picnic lunch was romantic and relaxing. No rush, very laid back.
The small store was cute and very country. Just wish they sold bouquets to the visitors.
We learn so much about roses. Please stop in just to smell the roses.

A beautiful walk learning about roses. Delicious lunch as well. Thank you. It was a nice way to spend two hours. Thanks.

The good parts: It is beautiful to see 10,000 roses blooming. They were all gorgeous. Some had fragrance (even though we were told that 90%of them did). Our noses are all different. There was a super friendly cat that let me carry her for like 20 minutes! Roses. Roses. Roses. Lunch was nice. Seeing so many roses in their cooler room was glorious!
But $ 48 per person for the tour and lunch is excessive IMHO. And there were so many RULES! You can’t walk in the rose fields. STAY ON THE ROAD because you could bring weeds! You can’t walk up the steps to the top of the hill to get a fab view because of insurance purposes. My friends got scolded for sitting at a table & chairs near the bathroom. Our tour was so slow that the other tour lapped us. Walking for me is good. But standing too long hurts my back. Maybe this would be good for a casual rose grower. But we were a group of the Los Angeles Rose Society and I am a professional rose gardener. I’m not saying that we know more. But the tour was kinda dumbed down. Of course they don’t know they levels of the attendees. Except that you pay in advance and they knew our group was coming.
Go see their roses if you have the money and are in the area. If you are nearer to LA, go to The Huntington Library’s rose garden for less than ½ the $$$ and enjoy !

To tell you the truth, I just wanted to get away.
Drive up the coast and leave the drama, the smog, and the two raccoons (who keep breaking into the trashcan and ripping shit apart. damn fools) behind.
Bye bye, LA.
But I ain’t from this place, so I can’t just freestyle these trips. Takes a bit of planning before I kick rocks up the coast. I heard about a rose farm up in Carpinteria. Went on Unilocal and saw my friend gave it 3 stars. Good enough. If I keep my expectations low, then I won’t be disappointed.
(Message. ^^^)
Once in Carpinteria, my GPS led me to some back road behind the farm. A word to the wise is don’t trust the GPS. It’s Judas. Or better yet… et tu, Brute? Pay attention to the numbers in the address.
A right here,
and a left there,
then VOILA!!! Rose Story Farm.
Let me repeat: My expectations were pretty LOW for this tour through the rose garden. So, to say that this place FAR EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS is an understatement. I was stunned. Dumbfounded. Shocked. At a loss for words. Let’s see… Speechless? Yep. That was me. Most of all, I was humbled.
Kind people led the tour, giving us a brief background of the farm, the types of roses grown, and the success of their flower business, etc. As we walked through the fields, the docent (tour guide) leading the group would snip a rose here, snip a rose there, letting us smell the flowers while giving us the history. We even saw where Julia Child sat. (Side note: Apparently both she and Oprah Winfrey wanted the same yellow rose as a namesake, but Julia Child finally received it two years after her passing.)
Then behold, I came upon one rose that will forever change my life. It taught me the greatest lesson. Here we go:
The docent snipped a regular old pink delicate rose that I thought nothing of. I mean, there were so many blood red roses, vibrant orange roses, tropical pink roses and much more visually appealing roses that I wanted to see, until I barely paid this one any mind.
The name: Frederic Mistral
As the group passed it around to smell the scent, I didn’t want to be rude as it made its way over to me, so I took it. Smelled it.
Oh. My. God
Let me explain Frederic Mistral’s scent the best way that I can: it smelled like rose scented cotton candy with hints of ruby red grapefruit and lemons. Rosy with some sugary and citrus-​y elements. Like a candy-​sweet rose lemonade. Pshhhh… I quickly snatched the rose from the group and walked away to see if my nose was deceiving me. Clearly this plain looking pink rose couldn’t upstage the rest of the FAR more visually appealing roses at Rose Story Farm, BUT IT DID.
That rose taught me a little something about life: you may not be better looking, or taller, or smarter than the next person, but damnit, there is something about you that only you have, no one else!!!, that makes you unique. Use that gift and stand out from the rest. If a rose can do it, so can we.
Thanks for being so kind to us. Thank you for the beautiful tour. Thank you for the lovely food at the end.
Thank you for Frederic Mistral.

Awesome Saturday tour and lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed the day, enjoyed the conversations with both Bill the owner/​guide and with other guests, enjoyed smelling the many roses, and enjoyed the delicious lunch. It was a peaceful and beautiful setting, and a wonderful special out-​of-​the-​ordinary adventure. Being among the roses felt like we were in a mini vacation and it was an oasis.
Even though it is a little pricey, it is worth every cent and is something we will do again with out-​of-​town guests next time. We bought some Mother’s Day gifts for family in the gift shop too, and our family loved them.
Just for the record, we are not rose connoisseurs but do appreciate roses and love the fragrance. We learned some new things, definitely identified some favorite roses, and left inspired to grow our own rises one day. My husband loved this tour as much as I did, so I would say any man who enjoys nature and doing something a little different for a couple hours would also enjoy this. There was one other man on the tour and he thoroughly seemed to enjoy it too.
The lunch was sooooo nice. So many sandwich choices and fresh fruits.
Thank you for a wonderful time!

This is a gem! Tour and lunch were fantastic. Definitely worth the trip especially if you love roses.

I am a big fan of Rose Story Farm. Last month I made my third visit. I had taken the tour and lunch twice before but this time planned a special birthday lunch for eight friends who had never been.
Our tour was similar to the ones I had in the past but I asked for a special celebration lunch and they exceeded my expectations. Following the excellent one hour tour with our very knowledgeable guide, we sat down to a special table in the gardens, set with antique rose patterned china and glass wear, antique tea pots filled with rosses and a very chic arrangement of vintage mismatched linens and chairs. It looked like a picture right out of a magazine. My guests took tons pictures and were so impressed. Lunch was a delicious salmon salad and a happy birthday chocolate rose shaped cake.
The staff is delightful, their planning and organization of my event was impeccable, and I am very fussy. They saw to every detail. They were delightfully pleasant and made us all feel we were in a magical garden, which we were. All though the price was higher than the normal tour and sandwich lunch; I found it quite reasonable and good value for the money. If you are planning a special event or just want the standard tour and lunch you will not be disappointed with this lovely secret garden.

I’m really surprised that more people haven’t heard about this place. If you love roses you are in for a treat.
We took the in-​laws here for Mother’s Day and had a delightful time walking, sniffing & many ooh & aahs on the tour. The roses are lovely and unique. The luncheon was yummy. The gift shop super cute. The weather perfect and everyone at the farm was super nice and accommodating.
I can’t wait to go back. It was a very lovely day out at the farm.

Great place to take your Mom for a tour and picnic lunch. Nice flat walk on the tour that lasts about an hour and afterward they have a catered lunch in the garden. Lots and lots of roses, the docent gives interesting stories and history. A nice experience.

I spent a few days in this glorious rose garden early this year. The cottage felt like home, the grounds were wonderful, and the family story is remarkable but I must say the view from the top of the rose hill at sunrise, watching the the sun’s first rays hit the Pacific Ocean, was soul satisfying. This is a very special place.

Nestled on 20-​some acres, a weekend getaway there totally surpassed any expectations I might have had. My wife and I spent the weekend with another couple at one of the cottages on the property that is a specialty rose farm but also has four quaint, well appointed cottages scattered about where the setting makes you feel you have been wrapped in a warm hug of tranquility.
You might never stay at a place where you wake up to so many roses, literally tens of thousands of individual plants.
The place is a riot of color, set off in orderly rows or in groups of color, like the butter yellow Julia Child roses that surround a bench that sat in her garden.
The tour lasts an hour, a bit less, but you get some sense of what the owners are trying to do with an organic approach to growing specialty roses. They grow and provide roses for weddings, funerals, special events and to individuals. The small crew of workers arrive early to cut each day’s order. And they have lovely cottages to rent
Our cottage was fully appointed, with a kitchen, diswasher, stove/​oven and bbq grill on the front porch. Flat screen TV and plenty of furniture made it comfortable.
There are plenty of great things to do and see in the area (Santa Barbara, Ventura) and excellent restaurants are not far away. Being surrounded by tens of thousands of rose bushes while you sit on the front porch with a glass of wine is guaranteed to make you smile.

I went to Rose Story Farm for the tour this weekend and loved the experience! With thousands of rose bushes in bloom, it is a charming farm experience to see and learn about all the different kinds of roses.
The lunch was sandwiches, rose ice tea, salad and lemon cake. It was all plentiful and tasty. There is a gift shop there with an amazing array of rose items to select from.
This is a nice experience, I went with friends and also saw small groups and families. They gave us all some freshly picked roses to take home too!

It’s a beautiful place to visit. Obviously, it’s a farm of roses… so you see rows and rows of rose flowers. My parents owned a flower farm for years… so this is probably much more impressive for someone who hasn’t grown up with things like this…
I went on a «tour» of the rose farm and it was lovely. The tour guide was very nice… but I felt as though, not very knowledgeable. I don’t know… I wasn’t that impressed.
Other than that, they give you a little brunch/​lunch deal. We were with all much older people (well, everything I like to do typically works out that way…) but it was lovely. Rose tea… definitely the best! Rose lemonade I believe too… :) Some finger sandwiches… they were okay… but I don’t eat mayonnaise so I ate half the sandwich (minus the other half with the «bad stuff». hahaha!)
It was lovely… but not something that I feel the need to do again…

Pretty much the same experience. I LOVE their roses and send them often as gifts. The farm itself is beautiful but when I ordered several bunches for a party and went to pick them up, it took almost an hour for them to ‘find’ them. When they finally gave them to me and as I was loading my car (no help from anyone) an angry woman flew toward me and began yanking them from my hands saying I took the wrong ones. She and another woman proceeded to get into a loud argument about whether they were the right ones or not, for several minutes while I waited, once again, to get my roses and get the heck out of there!
I also called re: having an event there. Before I gave ANY details about my party or the number of guests, I was quoted the price of $ 17,000 not including food or drinks. Wow. I called many hotels, winery’s & restaurants after that and no one even came close to that price for the facility alone.

The rose story farm is undeniably beautiful. But its owner, Danielle, is ridiculously difficult to work with. I second Michelle’s review, that any place looking to make money off a bride should be willing to answer basic questions and provide simple information. But Rose Story apparently thinks it doesn’t need to do this, since we were unable to get any sort of help from them. They initially wouldn’t return phone calls or emails, and when they finally did, made it seem like we were lucky they did so because they get thousands of requests. When we asked what their site rental fee was, she responded «what’s your budget?» Hmm. Doesn’t seem like the start of a good wedding planning experience when the farm’s owner is dodgy. She continued to be unhelpful and then, after we told her we weren’t going to hold a wedding there, got unpleasant, emailing me out of the blue to say that she didn’t care and she had found plenty of great brides to work with instead. Seemed like an immature response from someone trying to run a business…

I just got back from the Rose Story Farm in Carpinteria. This is an absolutely incredible place — it’s twice been featured in Martha Stewart Living, plus in Oprah, Victoria and just this summer a write up in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a unique business — a commercial farm that grows the most spectacular old-​fashioned, heirloom roses that look and smell divine. I wanted to stay forever.

I called a couple months ago to ask about a possible wedding location at this rose garden. Apparently, I must’ve been an idiot because the Kiki (I believe that was her name) treated me like I was the only person who hasn’t heard of the farm. Had no idea this is a by appointment only place, I asked several questions that any place who might be looking to make a few thousand dollars off an eager bride might answer. She gave me a rate, it wasn’t unreasonable, but it was just out of my range. I said so, politely, but before I finished my sentence, click. She hung up on me. The end.