My family recently took a trip to Spokane, Washington, for a training that my wife had for work. While she was in her training, I decided to revisit Rose Hill. This garden was established and maintained by the Spokane Rose Society. What I saw when I got there was out of a rose horror film. Roughly 1,500 roses had experienced severe die-back from what I presume was the hard frost that all of Washington experienced earlier this year. It was a sea of black canes. While some roses were experiencing some form of recovery, many looked to be truly dead. I can’t imagine the immense expense it will take to bring Rose Hill back to the beauty that we saw last year.
One of the things I noticed while walking through Rose Hill was that none of the roses were protected from the frost. That is, there was no mulch laid down to protect the roses from frost. For those not in the know, the Spokane Rose Society is no longer in existence because they died out from having too few members. It is such a shame because the garden they brought into existence seems to have gone the same way as their Rose Society. Whoever was in charge of maintaining those roses seem to have missed the mark this past year. I truly hope that we can see the garden restored to its former glory because it is truly a sight to behold. The Rose Society I am a part established and maintains two gardens in our local area and I cannot imagine those gardens going the way of Rose Hill. That said, this is why I wanted to take a moment to highlight the importance of our local garden clubs. Many do much more than we think and we truly don’t think about the value they provide until it is far too late.