As new hybrids became available, they would replace old ones that didn’t fare so well. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, the Exposition Park Rose Garden became an important player in rose breeding. The garden was completed in April of 1928, and held its position as the largest public rose garden in the country for 24 years. They built the four gazebos, added lights to the fountain, and planted over 15,000 rose bushes, mostly donated by local nurseries. Nutrient-rich soil and leaf mold were taken from the canyons of Griffith Park to fill in the beds. The city removed eight inches of topsoil and added the 166 concrete-lined flower beds. Howard to work with city landscape architects on a magnificent rose garden. In 1926, LA’s Parks Department brought onboard “rosarians” George C. But it would be another five years until the garden as we know it today took shape. Many of the plantings from the 1921 show stayed in place afterwards. In the leadup to the event, the Association planted thousands of flowers and trees, and built a circular fountain and lily pond in the middle of the garden. In October of 1921 the California Association of Nurserymen held a big horticultural exposition at the sunken garden. A plan to build an impressive memorial fountain was scuttled as WWI broke out. Roses didn’t figure into it at this point – from 1913 through 1920, the garden was basically a big field of Bermuda grass, with some trees and walkways meeting at a circle in the middle. The original plans for Exposition Park included a sunken garden at the north end of the property. Rechristened “Exposition Park,” the complex would include an armory, an exposition building and a museum of history, science and art (the Natural History Museum), all of which were opened between 19. Bowen led an effort to rehab Agricultural Park’s reputation and turn it into a public cultural center. Attendees at their annual festivals could drink, gamble, hire a lady friend, and watch greyhound races – the rose garden is built on the land that used to be the racetrack, in fact.Īround the turn of the century, a local attorney and Sunday school teacher named William M. It’s a bastion of nature in an otherwise very urban part of the city.ģ0 years before the first rosebush was planted, the land that became the Exposition Park Rose Garden was part of a fairground called Agricultural Park, operated by the Sixth Agricultural District Association of California. The even rows of rose beds, separated by parallel grassy walkways, give the impression of both beauty and order. The Rose Garden is almost military in how regimented it is, especially if you see it from above. A large fountain sits at the center, and a short brick wall surrounds the entire thing. The roses are arrayed in 166 beds, organized into four quadrants, each with a gazebo. The sheer quantity of roses at the Exposition Park Rose Garden is impressive, but the enormity of the place is tempered by its grid-like layout. Nowadays it is surpassed only by the Tyler Municipal Garden in Tyler, Texas and the Park of Roses in Columbus, Ohio. At its completion in 1928, this was the largest public rose garden in the US. That’s a staggering amount of flowers, and an unthinkable number of ways to prick your fingers. There are 19,000 rose bushes at the Exposition Park Rose Garden, in 200+ varieties. Added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 28, 1991
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