Perfect Rose, Washington Park International Test Garden, Portland OR.
There were literally thousands of blooming roses under the bright summer sky. We went to see them today at the Washington Park International Test garden. This garden helped preserve many European roses that were in danger of distruction during WWI. Here’s an excerpt from the website:
Historical InformationPortland has long had a love affair with
roses. In 1888, Georgiana Burton Pittock, wife of publisher Henry
Pittock, invited her friends and neighbors to exhibit their roses in a
tent set up in her garden; thus the Portland Rose Society was
established.
In 1915 Jesse A. Currey, rose hobbyist and Sunday editor of the Oregon Journal,
convinced city officials to institute a rose test garden to serve as a
safe haven during World War I for hybrid roses grown in Europe. Rose
lovers feared that these unique plants would be destroyed in the
bombings. The Park Bureau approved the idea in 1917 and by early 1918,
hybridists from England began to send roses. In 1921 Florence Holmes
Gerke, the landscape architect for the city of Portland, was charged
with designing the International Rose Test Garden and the amphitheatre.
The garden was dedicated in June 1924. Currey was appointed as the
garden’s first rose curator and served in that capacity until his death
in 1927.