Saving Roses
If you like roses and you live in California or nearby, plan a trip on April 21st to Sacramento. The city's Historic Rose Garden, located in the Old City Cemetery, which was founded in 1850, is open for its annual tours, sale and fundraiser.
This garden is the story of dedicated rosarians coming together to save and preserve historic roses that could be lost forever without their efforts. The rose garden was established in 1999 by rosarian and botanist Fred Boutin, and Jean Travis, a member of the Heritage Roses Group. Cuttings were collected from sites all over California and the garden now contains more than 400 historic roses. Many of these roses came into California from overseas on ships, or were carried across the country in wagon trains by early pioneers. According to the rose garden, the California climate was particularly suited for china and tea roses that could survive without much water in the summer or special care during the winter season. This collection, therefore, contains many roses that would not survive in other parts of the United States.
The Open Garden Event includes tours at 10:15AM, 11:45AM, and 1:15PM. Rose-related items will be on sale, as well as rose plants propagated from those in the garden. Proceeds from a raffle at 2:30 PM will be donated to the rose garden.
The garden and cemetery are open 365 days a year, but this is the one day annually devoted to the historic roses.
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