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Makeover planned for Fellows’ rose garden
YOUNGSTOWN
This time next year, visitors to one of Fellows Riverside Gardens’ most iconic features – the Modern Rose Garden – will step into a much more colorful scene.
Gardens staff members are starting work on a long-term project that is one of the most-comprehensive makeovers of the rose garden to date. Over the next several months, they will plant some 400 roses, replacing damaged flowers and filling in areas that have been bare for years.
The goal is to restore the rose garden, which was planted as Fellows’ first garden in 1963, to its original luster.
“It will go back to the way the garden was originally installed – with all the voids filled,” said Andrew Pratt, Mill Creek MetroParks gardens director. He hopes the makeover will provide visitors with “a fuller, richer experience.”
Overseeing the project is Dennis Penner, gardens supervisor at Fellows. In his 10 seasons working there, this is the biggest project undertaken at the rose garden.
“We’ve had a few beds that we’ve replaced, but it’s usually one or two, or a couple roses here and there,” he said. “If we do 40 or 50 [roses] a year, that’s a lot.”
The need for a makeover stems partly from the fact that the least several winters have wrought havoc on the roses, Pratt said.
“Two of the past three winters were extremely cold which can cause cells in rose canes to burst and die, essentially causing all above-ground growth to die. Extreme temperatures can also cause death of root systems, therefore death of the entire plant,” he said.
Another complication arose last winter, when cold temperatures were paired with relatively little snowfall. Snow cover helps protect rose plants from the conditions that can kill them.
It’s with those conditions in mind that Penner has gone about ordering the new flowers, 160 of which are expected to arrive next week. The No. 1 factor Penner considers is the durability of the rose, then its rating according to the American Rose Society.
The first round of planting is slated to take place this fall; then, depending on the availability of the flowers to be ordered, the planting will wrap up sometime next summer. In all, seven beds will be replaced and 20 more will be filled in with additional roses.
The bulk of the project’s estimated $8,000-10,000 cost will be funded by Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens, the non-profit foundation that supports the Gardens.
Additionally, the Gardens staff plans to update an irrigation system for the roses that has long been out of service.
“This reinvestment by the MetroParks into one of our most visited locations will ensure the continued status of Fellows Riverside Gardens as the premier display garden in the region,” said Aaron Young, MetroParks executive director, in a statement.