Tulsa Rose Garden
Tulsa Rose Garden
Constructed by the WPA using hand labor and teams of horses and a part of Woodward Park and the Tulsa Garden Center, the Tulsa Municipal Rose Garden was inaugurated in 1934 and is a continuing project of Tulsa Parks and the Tulsa Garden Club. Initially designed to be a true botanical garden, the popularity of rose gardens at the time took over and the first roses were planted in 1935. Landscape architect Burton Fox designed the sloping 4.5 acre garden in Italian Renaissance style with a series of five terraces, rising up a gentle slope almost 900 feet. The Charles Faudree Memorial Pavilion, built in 2019, sits at the atop the slope, reflecting pools feature on all terraces, junipers dot the garden, and the area is flanked on the south and east by a wide variety of trees.
Due to Rose Rosette Disease, a virus spread by a tiny mite, the majority of the roses have been removed. Previously populated by a monoculture of approximately 3,000 rose plants of more than 200 varieties, the Rose Garden is being brought back to its original design by featuring a wide variety of perennials and annuals in addition to various trial roses that are resistent to Rose Rosette Disease.
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