Sacramento Historic Rose Garden - Old City Cemetery - Sacramento, CA
N 38° 33.822 W 121° 30.041
10S E 630625 N 4269427
This historic rose garden is located within Old City Cemetery.
Waymark Code: WMNDBA
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 02/19/2015
Views: 3
The following verbiage is taken from the Old City Cemetery's
website to describe this historic rose garden:
Sacramento Historic Rose Garden is a composed mostly of old or antique roses collected from cemeteries, old home sites and along roadsides in northern California. It was conceived and established by Fred Boutin, an internationally recognized rosarian and authority on "found roses," and Jean Travis, a member of the Heritage Rose Group. Members are working to collect, plant, and maintain those roses which were popular from the Gold Rush era through the Victorian/Edwardian era (roughly 1850-1915).
Many of these antique roses were brought across to California in the holds of ships or carried in wagon trains by early pioneers to the new homes of the pioneers and, finally, placed at their gravesite. Because roses are propagated by taking a slip or piece of the original to start a new plant, they are, in essence, the same plant. Therefore, roses in a Mandarin's garden in old China or Empress Josephine's famous 18th Century French Garden are now planted in Sacramento’s Historic Rose Garden.
Old roses come in many shapes and colors. Unlike modern roses, with rigid stems and tight, high centered blossoms; the old roses may be flattened like architectural rosettes, open with a large boss of yellow stamens, cupped, with the petals wrapped tightly around the center, or even huge, fluffy and overblown. They are highly fragrant and have been used for medicines and perfumes.
The collection at present numbers more than four hundred plants—over two hundred varieties. The city of Sacramento Department of Community and Visitor Services and Rose Garden Volunteers cooperate to maintain the garden.
The rose garden is located in the NW portion of the cemetery just a short distance SW from the northern cemetery entrance. Most of the rose bushes and plantings within the garden are part of family plots so you'll want to watch your step when traveling through the garden so you don't upset older graves.