Mission Street Parks Conservancy has issued a Request-for-Proposal to restore the brickwork that serves as the focal point for the Mae Tarter Old Rose Collection, one of three collections in the City’s municipal Rose Garden. The other two collections are the Sally Bush Rose Collection and the Hybrid Tea and Floribunda Collection. The brickwork restoration is the next step in a multi-year project to improve the overall Rose Garden. Previous work included improving the soil for the Hybrid Tea and Floribunda rose beds and ordering new roses and labels for that collection.
The City’s Old Rose collection, which has over 100 distinct species or cultivars in 17 beds, resulted from a donation by Mae Tarter in 1960. Mrs. Tarter and her husband A.R. Tartar had spent years taking rose cuttings from cemeteries and old farmsteads associated with the migration of European pioneers to Oregon, many of whom brought their favorite roses with them. The roses often bore peculiar names, such as “Uncle Joe’s Rose.” In 2006, the Conservancy, then Friends of Bush Gardens, hired a rosarian to further help identify the roses’ specific names. Once the City accepted Mrs. Tarter’s gift, the landscape architecture firm of Lord & Schryver designed a garden to house them. The focal point of the resulting garden was a circular brick pad that supported a sundial. Today, 58 years later, the brickwork has badly deteriorated and needs restoring.
Please email us if you would like a copy of the RFP.