SAN JOSE HERITAGE ROSE GARDEN

The Latest from the Heritage!

This page is updated from time to time to let you know what's up in the garden. 

Mel Hulse, Garden Maintenance Director

Garden Report, Spring 2002

Crazy weather this year fooled the roses into the best bloom ever! What happened was that most of the early blooming Teas and Chinas stuck around until the April 27th Spring in Guadalupe Gardens festival/American Rose Society Spring Convention Garden Tour Day. Added to that, many of the once blooming European Old Garden Roses started blooming early! April 27th was a dark day with a few morning sprinkles, but a nice, cool day for rosarians from across the USA and around the world to sample the glories of the Heritage. The result were comments that the Heritage was one of the top rose gardens in the world! (WE already knew that!) Rosarians from the conference were still around and photographing the roses four days later!

The next week, the San Jose Mercury News featured the garden and brought out many local visitors. I had the privilege of showing Pat Toolan from South Australia around the garden and to many Northern California sources of our found roses. Pat has a grant to study how different countries preserve old roses found in cemeteries.

In the following days of May, we were again surprised by more rain. Unusual this late, but we are still below normal for the year.

Pruning. We did finish pruning the whole garden by the mid-February deadline. This year, we are definitely going to prune the once bloomers as soon as they finish blooming.

Planting. We planted a number of roses, part purchased and part donated by both Ashdown Roses and by Sequoia Nursery.

Signage. Most roses in their proper places now have permanent plaques. Plaque emplacement continues in the reblooming old garden roses and older Hybrid Teas and Floribundas sections. Members of the Santa Clara County Rose Society with help from our volunteers completed the project to supplement the permanent signage with plastic labels so that every rose is labeled.

Heritage Photo. We finally have an air photo of the garden to replace the one taken shortly after the garden was planted. Click here to see it. 

Catalog. Our year 2002 catalog is available in the garden on workdays, at the garden center for a $10 donation and by mail for $15. E-mail MelHulse@PacBell.Net for details.

Peak Bloom. There is always bloom to see at The Heritage. The first big show of the year is at the end of March when the old China and Tea roses produce a glorious bloom. The peak Spring modern rose flush is the end of April. Old Garden Roses peak about two weeks later and Polyanthas and Miniatures, a week after that. The peak Fall flush is mid-October.

Garden Center Staffing. There is now someone at the Garden Center from 9am-5pm, Monday - Friday. You can call with questions about the Heritage and other elements of the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens. Phone: 408-298-7657. If you get the answering machine, staff is probably out in the garden. Leave a message including your interest and they will return your call ASAP.

Rose Sales. I continue to get requests to buy roses. We neither sell nor custom propagate our roses. Nurseries that do are found on the links page. 

Mel Hulse, May 24, 2002

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Links to past status pages:

Winter 2002

Early Fall 2001

Spring 2001

Winter 2001

Late Fall 2000

Fall 2000

Spring 2000

Late Winter 2000

Early Winter 2000

Fall 1999 Status

June 1999 Status:

October 1998 Status:

September 1998 Status:

June 1998 Status

May 1998 Status:

April 1998 Status:

March 1998 Status:

This page was last updated on 02/27/06.

Address comments to Mel Hulse