Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Every Monday, it’s time to tend the roses in Palouse.
Beginning in May, a group of volunteers have met Monday mornings to take care of the memorial rose gardens which began in Palouse five years ago.
“I had a wonderful dream to have roses in downtown Palouse,” said Mary Estes, a longtime resident and certified master gardener, who started the project.
Beginning with the rose bed at Heritage Park, the effort grew with burgeoning interest. With each planting, volunteers came out to help tend the roses through the growing season.
This year, Estes decided to put it all into Monday mornings.
With an 8 a.m. start, the group pulls weeds, trims off spent roses, checks for bugs and waters. They apply fertilizer every six weeks.
This Monday, July 9, a group of volunteers took to the Whitman Street rose garden to plant eight rose bushes at the Eco-Block retaining wall. They replaced flowers damaged in a vehicle wreck.
Deadheading is one of the main activities each week. On the rootstock roses, volunteers clip the heads down to the next set of leaves on the cane, while grafted roses are handled differently.
“From the new growth comes the new rose,” said Estes.
A total of four different types of roses grow in the downtown gardens, including Floribunda, Hybrid-T, miniature and the large, unusual Grandiflora roses.
Some bloom all season long while others bloom in flushes of two to three weeks and yet others just once per year.
In late fall, the Monday morning sessions wind down with pruning done toward the end of the season. Tenders instead will brush the petals off to leave the rose hip, which will encourage the roses to go into dormancy.
“That will tell it not to grow anymore,” said Estes. “It won’t try to throw up new growth.”
Estes became a certified master gardener through Latah County seven years ago. The process included a series of classes under the auspices of the University of Idaho, followed by volunteering, diagnostic clinics and annual re-certifications.
She began right after retiring from her job as a patient services manager at the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Estes grew up in Tacoma and moved to Palouse 34 years ago after marrying husband Loren, a Palouse resident since he was two years old.
“I’m the flower gardener, he’s the grass person,” said Mary.
The Estes’ house was an unauthorized stop on this year’s Palouse Home and Garden Tour. It was not on the itinerary but was last year, so people came anyway to see how the Estes’ garden has progressed.
Her experience with her roses at home led to the city project.
“I just wanted something special downtown,” she said.
The original planting at Heritage Park, along with the subsequent later spots, includes red dedication plaques. Those interested can buy a memorial rose. The cost includes the plaque and expenses.
Estes gets the majority of the roses from Northland Rosarium outside Spokane, along with some from Fiddler’s Ridge in Potlatch.
They are now planted in four different spots downtown; Heritage Park, Whitman Street and two sections at the Post Office.
The two gardens there formerly featured Juniper bushes which the volunteers took out in 2009-10. They amended the soil before planting roses.
“It made a huge improvement at the Post Office,” said Mitch Greene, who retired as Palouse Postmaster in 2010. “They’re gorgeous. The customers sure commented on them and the other thing was as the Postal Service is in a financial crunch, it’s hard to get funding for the little things. So my gratitude to the all of the volunteer work that went into it. It was all done at no cost to the Postal Service.”
Now in its sixth year, the Palouse downtown rose garden project began after Estes got initial approval from the city council and later Postmaster Greene.
“I just kept having people ask, are you gonna do another rose garden?” said Estes.
She said she is not sure what may come next, but has been hoping to interest a high school student in a senior project to plant roses on the hillside next to the police station.
For now, Estes and her group of five regular Monday volunteers keep up with the downtown gardens they have.
“Many, many more people have helped over the last five years,” Estes pointed out.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)