Rose Gardens –
Fort Vancouver Rose Society

By Lou Little
'Marijke Koopman’ in Esther Short Park, the Farmers’ Market in the background,
September 21, 2002

Esther Short Park Rose Garden

Since the early 1980s, the Fort Vancouver Rose Society has taken care of the Esther Short Park rose garden in downtown Vancouver.  At first, the garden consisted mainly of a large semi-circular bed of hybrid teas at the left front of the Slocum House and a smaller rectangular block of floribundas near the park restrooms, across from the old Lucky Lager building.  Gradually, under the guidance of Don Thorp and Vic Snitzler, we added more roses – climbers at the side of the porch; Austin roses around the house; a mini bed along the east side of the house; more miniatures near the old train engine, and a row of hybrid teas and floribundas along the east-west crosswalk.

Some of the roses thrived in their park locations; others had too much shade or too many tree roots to contend with and didn’t do well at all.  We held annual work parties – in the spring and fall – to prune, plant, and feed the roses.  City employees tended them the rest of the year, and, to tell the truth, we were happy to let them do it!

Esther Short Park wasn’t a nice place to visit, even on a Saturday morning.  The city had gradually given the park over to the transients who frequented it – drunks and druggies were the norm, not the unusual.  When we held our work parties, if a woman needed to use the restroom (it would be a case of desperation), she wouldn’t hesitate to ask for company – and a male escort.

This all came to a halt when Vancouver’s mayor started a “take back the park” campaign.  A series of weekday luncheons in the park and early evening concerts through the summer proved popular, and soon the city started a redevelopment project which, although it has accomplished wonders with the park itself, continues to affect the surrounding area.  With new buildings going up to the west and the south, the park is still in a construction zone.

We were asked to dig our roses and select those we wanted the city to store.  The city took them to the Mabry correctional center, where they were carefully tended while the park was essentially destroyed and rebuilt.  The Lucky Lager building came down, the train engine went to Battle Ground for restoration, the undergrowth was torn out, the Pioneer Mother statue was moved – only the Slocum House and the shrubs and climbers around it stayed put.

The city prepared the new garden to our specifications, including a watering system.  Edmunds and J&P both donated new roses, and we purchased others we especially wanted to include.  Now, the rose garden is all in one bed along Esther Street between the Slocum House and the new restrooms.  It gets morning sun and late afternoon shade – and it is gorgeous!  FVRS members now do almost all of the care of the garden.  We still have work parties in the spring and fall, but Doug Lauder and a crew of workers meet weekly to deadhead, spray, and feed as needed.

With the Vancouver Farmers’ Market moving to Esther Street, we realized we needed to have a people-friendly environment – thousands of people wander by each Saturday morning, and many sit at tables in and around the garden to eat their lunch.

So, we changed our care tactics, and the regime is now almost totally organic – an occasional over-abundance of aphids has caused Doug to draw on more drastic methods, but Neem oil and other natural products serve us well the rest of the time.

O.O. Howard House
Old Rose Garden

In the mid-1990s, the City of Vancouver undertook the care and renovation of Officers Row on Ever-green Boulevard at the Vancouver Barracks.  Once that phase of the project was complete, they approached FVRS with the idea of creating a garden of roses such as might have existed in 1910 at the O.O. Howard House.  Since the area selected for the garden had originally been a carriage-way, we weren’t being asked to re-create an actual garden – just an impression of what might have been.

So we began researching roses, with the goal of providing as much continuous bloom as possible when many of our selections would inevitably be once-blooming roses.  The roses had to be reasonably disease free, easy to care for, and easy to maintain so that they wouldn’t outgrow their location.

The city installed sidewalks in a wide H-shape between Howard House and Evergreen Boulevard.  They placed 4 massive benches along the crossbar of the H.  The roses fill the areas behind the benches.

We purchased most of the roses now in the garden, but a few were donated by local rose growers.  With a couple of exceptions, we have stayed true to the ‘pre-1910’ concept (‘Rose de Rescht’ for example, wasn’t available at that time, but it is an old rose and definitely fits into the garden.)

Once the city had installed the side-walks and the watering system, we began to plant the roses.  A couple of years later, we had an arbor made in the blacksmith shop at Fort Vancouver and placed it over the sidewalk going directly to the Howard House.  We planted ‘Sombreuil’, ‘Dr. W. Van Fleet’, and ‘Félicité Perpétue’ on this arbor.  This summer, Don Deane made a second arbor and we planted it in the lawn at the west end of the crosswalk.  In the spring, we’ll plant some more ‘Sombreuil’.  We expect this new arbor to be the site of many weddings.

Elden Mohr has had help in planning and planting the garden, but he receives most of the credit for its success.  Be-ginning in late May and continuing through June, the garden is a riot of bloom and fragrance, and then it main-tains a steady bloom throughout the summer and fall.  Visitors constantly, wander through, taking a sniff here and a sniff there.  Vancouver hosts a major Volkswalk each spring and many international visitors stop to smell the roses.

Orchards Park Rose Garden

Rotarian and FVRS member Bill Click was the driving force behind the creation of the Orchards Park Rose Garden in the late-1980s.  Each year, the Rotary names several members of the community to a Court of Honor and plant 6 roses of one variety to salute each person.  The beds are around both sides of a U-shaped walkway.

From the outset, they planned to honor Helene Schoen, but they wanted to use her namesake rose, which was no longer in commerce and difficult to find.  Reuben Newcomb located a plant, made a number of cuttings, and they had enough roses to honor Helene in April 1992.

After Bill’s death, the Orchards Park garden began a gradual decline.  The Rotarians tried, but the garden developed a major disease problem.  Vandalism took a toll as well.

Finally, the Rotary contacted FVRS and asked if we would provide some “expert” advice.  They also contacted a local correction center and arranged for work release crews to provide labor.  Now, twice yearly, several FVRS members spend a few hours directing the planting, pruning, and spraying at Orchards Park.  The Rotarians and the work release crews provide the roses, other materials, and the muscles.  (Elden Mohr reports that it’s wonderful to say, “Dig here,” and have someone else do the work.)  Throughout the year, FVRS members occasionally lend a hand at the park.  It’s in much better condition now, and has grown to a garden of hundreds of roses.

Covington House Rose Garden

One of the oldest buildings in Southwest Washington, Covington House is a log cabin built by early settlers in Clark County.  Although it has been located on North Main Street near I-5 for many years, it was moved there to preserve and protect it.

I first visited Covington House in the early 1980s.  The house sat back from the street, with a broad semicircular drive at the front.  The roses were attractive, bordering the inside curve of the drive.  Twenty-some years later, when the City of Vancouver Parks Department asked FVRS to take over the care of this garden, these same roses were tired and worn out!

Carl Finch and Gary Steigleman replaced the poorest specimens with discards from their own gardens.  This year, however, Carl decided that hybrid teas just don’t create the right “look” for a 175-year old log cabin.  The plan is to gradually remove the hybrid teas and replace them with floribundas and English-style shrubs.  In this garden, we’re not concerned about historical accuracy.  We’re after a mass of blooms.  Weeks Roses has agreed to donate about 40 floribundas and shrubs for planting this spring.

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Updated July 02, 2004
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