By Amy Wolf, Sunset travel editor

I recently (once again) proved my ignorance on all things garden related, during a meeting with the Sunset garden editor and a few others, “Do people still like roses, anyway? I thought they were sort of passé.” My question was met with incredulous looks. Then laughter. I didn’t open my mouth again during that meeting.

Just back from a visit to Valley Garden Ranch, a 10-acre rose garden outside Petaluma, I’m here to say that I take it back. Roses will never be passé. Just look at this place.

Picture 7,000 roses, none of them sprayed with any pesticides. Then picture them smack in the middle of a scene out of The Secret Garden, and you’ll start to get what I’m talking about. A 75-foot pond stocked with something called shubunkin goldfish (worth seeing just you can bandy around the word “shubunkin”) and freshwater smelt. Wild strawberries for the picking. Apple trees everywhere. Baby chicks trailing their mother hen.

My 4-year-old daughter and her 4-year-old friend Connor announced that they were going to get married at the ranch. (Good news: the ranch does weddings, and we figure booking a wedding 24 or so years out will give us good odds of getting the weekend of our choice.)

In the meantime I’m going to come back to this place, maybe even spend a night in the charming little guest cottage, bring my husband and a bottle of rosé, and indulge my new love affair with roses.