The Equinox and the Rose Garden

As the social summer season neared in May, I took pictures of the rose
garden in Greenwood Park for this web site. I also reported on how the
plants were doing around the Fourth of July. Now that the celestial summer
season has ended, I visited the park again. As I write this, I realize that
I forgot to check the level of Walnut Creek along the Bill Riley bicycle
trail. Upstream from the trail head, pebbles in the creek bed were visible
from Grand Avenue a week ago. The creek’s waters had risen past flood stage
in May, covering the trail.

A tree stump that had been in the sidewalk leading from the parking area to
the garden has been removed and the pathway patched. The flowers were past
their prime, at least in quantity. There were a few prime specimen still to
be appreciated. A map to the garden’s layout and a guide to its history was
available from a mailbox-style dispenser near the northern part of the
garden.

According to the pamphlet from the Park and Recreation Department, the
garden was dedicated in May 1933. Amos Emery of Des Moines designed the
pillars, benches, and flagstone walks. General plans for the garden were
prepared by landscape architect Harlan Bartholomew and completed by Harold
Parnham. The passing decades took their toll but the Greenwood Park Rose
Garden Advisory Committee has been working to reinvigorate the garden for
about the past 25 years.

 

On the first day of autumn, the middle third of the garden was the most
colorful. It was here that the Brass Bands were among the first roses to
bloom in May and are among the last to be blooming in September. Most of the
plants in the southern third were close to exhausting their production of
flowers for the year. In the northern part of the garden, Bride’s Delight
roses had grown large and were showing their ages along the edges but they
still carried a blush of delicate pink beauty in their hearts.

The Earth Songs were probably my favorite, or near favorite, flower of the
day. It seems appropriate to honor them on the day of an equinox. They are a
hybrid tea developed in 1973 from the cross of Music Maker and Prairie Star.
They were produced by Griffith Buck at Iowa State University, have a
rose-pink double flower, and are resistance to cold and to disease.

If you wish to help support the rose garden financially, you may make a tax
deductible contribution to the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation at
1915 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50309. Be sure to specify that your
support is for the Clare and Miles Mills Rose Garden at Greenwood Park Fund.
The garden was named after the Mills in 2002. If you would like to offer
assistance of another type, call the Park and Recreation Department at (515)
237-1386.

Related posts: Deer, Floods, and Roses and A PSA and Roses

Guest Writer: M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.