Do You Love the Woodlake Rose Garden?
Kiwanis Seeks Partner Organizations
People come from all over the world to enjoy the National Park. Right on the way is one of the largest rose gardens in the state of California. Formerly part of the Woodlake Botanical Gardens, the Rose Gardens have fallen on hard times.
The City is not able to care for the 2,000 + plants in this part of the Botanical Garden with the personnel and time they have to spend on the gardens. Rather than giving up on this California Treasure, Kiwanian and rose expert, Chuck House, makes plans to put his knowledge of and love for roses to great use in the Woodlake Rose Garden.
On October 27, twenty-seven Kiwanians and youth from Builders and Key Clubs cleared weeds and trimmed most of the roses bordering the parking lot. What Chuck hopes is that, like Kiwanis, other organizations and their student and neighboring club volunteers will choose an area in the garden to work in about one day per month.
Woodlake and Tulare County can buff this garden back to perfection. In only three hours a month using 10-50 adult and teen workers, interested groups can make a measurable difference in our City and County’s Treasure started by Woodlake Pride and Manuel and Olga Jimenez.
Chuck House Has Subdivided the Garden to Manage Its Care
Chuck’s plan is to subdivide the garden into workable sections and ask organizations or individuals to take one small section and maintain it. He has made a detailed chart of the sections and counted the plants, both dead and alive. Organizations, businesses, or individuals can schedule Chuck to come and explain the plan to their group. Kiwanians have chosen to care for Section A, the area around the parking lot. (above)
In the section above, Chuck started pruning the rose bushes. Cutting back the wild growth, stimulates the plant to produce more flowers.
The City gardeners, one or two people, usually only get about one day per month to work in the garden. It took twenty-seven Kiwanians and friends aged middle school to 77, three hours to weed half the parking lot area on October 27. The new plan for community service encourages each group to bring in volunteers at least one day per month.
Kiwanis has scheduled a workday on Saturday, November 17 from 8:00 – 11:00 am to finish weeding from the east end of the parking lot to the gate. This will be our regularly maintained area. We welcome your help with this. For those who like to bring your own equipment, you might want gloves, arm protectors, and your choice of loppers, clippers, shovels, rakes, and hoes. The City will provide a few shovels, rakes, and hoes if you forget.
To Sign Up to Help
Please call me, Marsha Ingrao, if you can help us on Saturday. 559-303-9241. Or sign up on our Facebook Page @WoodlakeKiwanis1. We will have snacks and water available.
Rose Societies in California
According to the Northern California/Nevada/Hawaii District, “There are twenty-five rose societies make up the Northern California-Nevada-Hawaii District of the American Rose Society.” They have over 2100 members, almost 200 Consulting Rosarians, 11 Rose Arrangement Judges and 64 Horticulture Judges. The Northern California-Nevada-Hawaii District is a Benefactor Patron of the American Rose Society.
Here are a few rose society websites in CA. Does Woodlake need a Rose Society?
- http://www.ncnhdistrict.org /http://www.californiacoastalrose.com/CCRS_Home.html
- http://www.pacificrosesociety.org/
- http://www.orangecountyrs.org/titlepage.html
- https://scvrs.homestead.com/
- http://www.montereybayrosesociety.org/contact.html
- https://peninsularosesociety.org/
- https://www.rose.org/
- http://www.sactorose.org/sacramentorosesociety/
- http://www.temeculavalleyrosesociety.org/index.shtml
- http://www.eastbayroses.org/
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
3 responses to “Woodlake Kiwanis and Partners to Assist in the Woodlake Rose Garden”
[…] and is responsible for Garden maintenance, it’s much too much work for their small staff. Each area of the garden is maintained by different non-profit groups. Weeds grow faster than all of the groups can get rid […]
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Roses are such a joy, I hope people will help care for them. They are certainly worth it!
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Thank you. They are a joy when they are doing well. We had five wonderful volunteers working on Saturday. Two of them were teens that worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known in the garden. The person in charge said we got more done with five of us than we did last month with seventeen! I enjoy the pleasure of making something look better than it did when I got there. Thanks for your taking the time to comment. 🙂
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