The Grounds

Stroll the Rosemont grounds on a spring afternoon when the azaleas are in bloom

The park-like grounds make the setting of Rosemont one of the most beautiful in Virginia.

Local limestone fences and wrought iron gates surround the entrance. The drive leading to the manor rises gracefully through a grove of huge oaks and poplars landscaped with an abundance of azaleas, dogwoods, cherry trees and other ornamental plantings. Prized specimens of naturalized rare trees, planted by both the Tyson and the Byrd families, abound throughout the property, lining the driveway and dominating the landscape on the ridges and broad fields.

A tour of the grounds provides a vast array of colors and shapes from all over the world. Hinoki cypress, katsura, amur cork, sophora (also called the Scholar Tree), ailanthus (also called the Tree of Heaven), kwanzan cherry, and Lebanon cedar are just a few of the foreign species as well as prize-sized specimens of American hornbean (ironwood), blue atlas cedar, weeping cherry, black walnut, box elder, sweet gum, red elm, hackberry, hophornbean, copper beech, silver linden, locust, ginkgo, Kentucky coffee, and several varieties of maples, oaks and cherries, to just name a few!

Senator Byrd Sr. spent over $100,000 in the 1930s and 1940s to have many of these brought to Rosemont. The property is bordered by expansive apple orchards for which the area is well known, many of which are still owned by Byrd family.