Our Story
In 2011, three Master Gardeners (Ann Gardner, Pat Frobes and Yvonne Boisvert) decided the Peninsula Park Rose Garden needed some friends. In 2012, they formed the Friends of Peninsula Park Rose Garden and began a partnership with Portland Parks and Recreation (PPR) to protect, preserve and enhance Portland’s first public rose garden.
“Friends of Peninsula Park Rose Garden...to protect, preserve and enhance Portland’s first public rose garden.”
When the three women first stepped into the Garden, the weeds were knee high in many of the beds and the 25-year old rose bushes were showing their age. In anticipation of the Garden’s 100th anniversary in 2013, the Friends and PPR decided the garden floor should be replanted with more than 3,000 new disease-resistant roses. At the request of Harry Landers (then curator of the International Rose Test Garden) Bailey’s Nurseries and Weeks Roses donated the rose bushes,. Mike Grosso (North/Northeast Zone Supervisor), Hillary Maurer (Garden Horticulturist) and many other PPR staffers removed the old roses, designed the garden layout and dug planting holes. The Friends recruited more than 200 community volunteers to prepare and plant the roses – and the Garden was transformed.
The three Master Gardeners then expanded the Friends’ Board of Directors which began the work of creating a self-sustaining volunteer program. By 2016, the volunteer base has increased to 60 people volunteering on a regular basis and another 20 coming to the garden occasionally. In January of 2016, the Friends and PPR published the Peninsula Park Rose Garden Preservation Strategy which details the plans for maintaining the Garden’s ‘green assets’ and structural elements, increasing community involvement, lifting the Garden’s profile in the Portland community and raising the funds necessary to carry out the Friends vision.
Starting with the all-day celebration of the Garden’s 100th anniversary in 2013, we’ve hosted or co-hosted events in the Garden that have attracted thousands of visitors, including Art in the Rose Garden, ice cream socials, birthday parties for the Garden, free rose care classes, a winter speakers series and even a Silent Disco party. Many event attendees are coming to the Garden for the first time and express surprise and delight when they discover what for them is a hidden gem – and many come back either as a visitor or volunteer or both.
Since 2020, in partnership with the Public History Department at Portland State and numerous neighbors and community groups, we’ve been researching the rich and diverse history of the Garden and park, capturing visitor’s park experiences and developing creative ways to share the rich history and experience with the community.
Year in and year out we look for ways to celebrate and preserve the Garden as a place of great beauty, quiet refuge, and community. We’d love to have you join us!
