Meet the volunteers who keep Peninsula Park pristine
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Peninsula Park is Portland's oldest rose garden, and volunteers help care for the blooms year-round. Photo: Meira Gebel/Axios
Three days a week, year-round, dozens of volunteers fan out across Peninsula Park's 32 rose beds with shears and a bucket to get to work on pruning plants and deadheading dried-up blooms.
- For some, it's a solitary activity — headphones in, head down. For others, it's social — they bring a friend, chat and share baked goods. Either way, everyone tends to walk away feeling full.
The big picture: Friends of Peninsula Park Rose Garden has partnered with Portland Parks & Recreation since 2012, and its roughly 60 active volunteers help care for the city's oldest rose garden.
- Their work is repetitive and often invisible, but it allows the 113-year-old park to keep renewing itself — and gives the people tending it a chance to do the same.
On a recent Friday morning, we spoke with some of the volunteers behind the blooms.
- Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Reagan Bauman
Neighborhood: St. Johns
Volunteering: Five years
Are there any tricks to taking care of roses?
"When deadheading, always go down to the five leaf. If you've got a crown, don't cut too close to it because that won't let any growth happen. There's some people who just daintily do trims. No, just go for it. Commit."
Lori Callister
Neighborhood: Grant Park
Volunteering: Three years, one year as a board member
Is there a lesson from roses that applies outside the garden?
"They're remarkably resilient. They don't mind the heat so much, they survive our cold winters, and we rarely lose them in icy storms. I guess it's adaptability: Just roll with what you get and bloom anyway."
Kaoru Uchiyama
Neighborhood: Slabtown
Volunteering: Four years
What drew you to the garden?
"I was looking for a volunteer opportunity after my English learning class so I could connect with the community and practice. If I didn't do anything, I would be alone because I don't have friends here. I also love flowers — I worked in a flower shop in Japan — so this was a way to do something and meet people."
Robert Greene
Neighborhood: Arbor Lodge
Volunteering: 10 years
What can an old garden teach a changing city?
"Change isn't necessarily meant to happen everywhere. You don't need to level everything. This has always been a place where you can relax and get a grip on yourself. It's an anchor — not only for the environment, but for clearing people's minds."
Linda Hernandez
Neighborhood: Montavilla
Volunteering: Just over a year
What gardening wisdom do you live by?
"Finish what you started, have patience and give it a chance."