Last fall, I was asked by the management of Hollywood Cemetery, in Richmond, Virginia, to coordinate the rehabilitation and care of their collection of historic roses. I am thrilled at the opportunity to help in an official (though volunteer) capacity. The first part of the project was to create an inventory and a map of the existing roses ... this was finished in mid-January.

Now I am working with the Donald, the grounds supervisor, to assess the condition of each rose in the cemetery, assign it an identity (if I know it), and make notes on what the rose needs in the way of spring pruning or other maintenance. I was at Hollywood by myself on Tuesday, and I visited 28 of the 120+ existing roses ... I say 120+ because I found a couple of roses that day that were missed and weren't on the list. I will be back down there next week, with Donald helping this time, to look at as many roses as we can. I hope we can finish this evaluation process in one or two more trips after that.

With the map and rose assessments finished, I can then put together a plan of attack for our work day ... and I can use as many rose-savvy volunteers as I can get. My first official volunteer to sign on was Stephen Scanniello ... it's really cool that he is so excited to be a part of this. I have asked him to do a demonstration, then I will put him to work.

I will figure out more work day details in the next couple of weeks. I wanted to put out this information as soon as we confirmed the date, to start to sign folks up to work.

If you are interested in volunteering to help us in March, send me an email with your name and contact information. My email address is: connie@hartwoodroses.com.

I'm so excited!!!

-Connie

P.S. If you read my blog, you already know about this. I did a post about it yesterday, which included some photos of one of my favorite unknown roses at Hollywood ... post linked below.

Tammy

Jeri

(If you follow Hartwood Roses on FB, you've already seen this.)

Working with the roses at Hollywood Cemetery will have its challenges. Unlike the Sacramento City Cemetery, or Lynchburg's Old City Cemetery, Hollywood is a private cemetery, with each lot owner having control over the appearance and plantings in their space. Many lots have no family members left to care for them, or existing family members choose not to. The Hollywood grounds staff has accepted responsibility for all landscaping decisions in the cemetery, but must go along with decisions made by lot owners and their family.

I received a call last week from Donald, Hollywood's grounds supervisor. A family member was concerned that a rose was growing between the post and the curbing on their lot, and Donald was asked to remove it. Knowing that the rose had been growing on that lot for a long time (since at least the 1940s, he was told) Donald asked if he could move it to another spot ... remember, this rose belongs to the family, not the cemetery, and they can do as they wish with it. Fortunately, he was given permission to move it.

This will be a good thing for the rose. Now that it won't have to struggle to survive in the crack between the lot's post and the curb, it should do a lot better in its new spot ... about 10' away from its old spot, according to Donald.

I call the rose in this story the "Hazen Plot" rose, for name of the family in the plot where it grows. Don't have an ID for it, but that doesn't matter ... because it is a beautiful thing!

Anne