Jun 5, 2023 - Things to Do

3 native Portland roses you won't see in the Rose Festival

Emily Harris

Two small pink wild roses, with yellow centers, bloom on a green bush. — Baldhip roses blooming in a Portland yard. Photo: Emily Harris/Axios

The fêted flower of the Rose Festival is, of course, the rose. But the celebrated blooms are imports — or "exotics" in plant lingo — with roots in a pioneer wedding.

What they're saying: "We use a lot of roses, flowers and organic material in our float decorating," Rose Festival spokesperson Rich Jarvis told Axios, with some flowers coming from as far away as South America. But the three native Portland roses are almost certainly not among them.

Details: Just three roses are considered native to Portland specifically: the baldhip (Rosa gymnocarpa), the swamp or cluster (Rosa pisocarpa) and the Nootka (Rosa nutkana), which is a variant on the name of the Nuu-chah-nulth people, indigenous to the Northwest.

The three flowers look similar — five pink petals opening around a delicate yellow stamen — and grow wild, preferring moist spots in the sun.
"If you went on any hike probably around now, you'd see those roses, especially the Nootka rose, in full flower," Patrick Breen, Oregon State University professor emeritus of horticulture, self-certified "plant nerd" and author of OSU's extension pages on roses, told Axios.

But, there are still no native roses in Portland's two major rose gardens: Peninsula Park, home to Oregon's oldest rose garden, and the International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park, according to Rachel Burlington, curator of the latter.

They are in Portland backyards, especially those certified as native habitat.

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3 native Portland roses you won't see in the Rose Festival

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