What do Dick Clark, Coretta Scott King and Julia Child have in common?

They all have roses named after them.

Those colorful blooms and dozens more are on fragrant display at the Oahu Urban Garden Center’s new rose garden, which celebrated its grand opening April 12.

Sixty-three varieties are featured on more than an acre at the center in Pearl City. Their names are as flamboyant as the roses themselves: Sugar Moon, Hot Cocoa, Lava Flow, Tahitian Sunset, Yabba Dabba Doo, Twilight Zone and Livin’ Easy, to name just a few.

Honolulu Rose Society volunteer Ron Matsu­zaki said about 90 percent of the plants were donated by mainland companies Star Roses and Plants and Weeks Roses, which are looking for feedback on how the plants fare in a warm, tropical climate.

In fact, they grow very well, according to the society, which partnered with the University of Hawaii’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to develop the only public rose garden on Oahu.

The garden is the newest addition to the Urban Garden Center, a CTAHR outreach program. The facility also has a children’s garden, herb garden, hedge maze, forest ecosystem, fruit orchard and sections for turf, ground cover, plumeria, vines, bromeliads, gardenias, dry-land taro, lei plants and more.

Planning for the rose garden began in late 2009, and in early 2010 the project received 135 bare-root plants from Star Roses. The plants were placed in pots and stored at the Urban Garden Center for a year while the site was prepared and volunteers worked to attain a proper level of soil pH (a measure of acidity and alkalinity), a process that can take months, Matsu­zaki said.

Not everything came up roses during the time the garden was being built. Ten of the plants were stolen while in storage, and an additional 35 were uprooted and taken a month after planting in spring 2011, he recalled.

But since those early setbacks the site has come into full bloom, thanks largely to volunteers who have put in an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 hours creating and maintaining the garden. Financial support and in-kind contributions have come from UH, home improvement and gardening stores, and individuals.

THERE ARE seven flower beds in the main section, where a wide path leads to a large gazebo planted with a dozen climbing Don Juan roses. Two planters on the side of the pavilion showcase new rose varieties introduced during the year.

"In a couple years the climbers will grow, and it will be completely covered with the roses on top," said Navy retiree and rose garden proj­ect director Bob Speer of the Hono­lulu Rose Society. "We want it to be nice enough to host weddings and formal events here."

A section called the Peace Garden displays the Peace rose variety, and growing on a terrace behind that are Chicago Peace, Pink Peace, Glowing Peace and Love and Peace roses.

A Heroes Garden has varieties befitting the theme, such as Firefighter, Pope John Paul II, Veterans’ Honor and Nicole Carol Miller, honoring a flight attendant aboard United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.

Oahu elementary school children were asked to enter contests for "What Peace Means to Me" and "What a Hero Means to Me," and the winning entries appear on small plaques in each garden.

In all, there are 242 plants in the rose garden. QR codes that can be scanned using a mobile device provide visitors with information on each variety.

Matsuzaki, 59, works in the rose garden on a daily basis.

"Sometimes I spend an hour and a half watering the roses; sometimes I’m here all day," he said.

The retired plumber said he has been cultivating roses for 30 years and admires their beauty and sweet fragrance.

"I used to bring them into the office, and everybody would say how beautiful they were," he said. But he also enjoys the challenge of growing them.

"I used to buy roses every six or nine months, but they would die every year," Matsu­zaki said. "The biggest thing is to know how to take care of them."

He wants home gardeners to realize that growing roses doesn’t need to be difficult, although wetter areas such as Manoa, Wahiawa and the Windward side might not offer the best conditions.

"You want to water the ground, not the flowers and leaves," to avoid fungal growth, he explained.

The Honolulu Rose Society regularly offers classes, and members are available during the Urban Garden Center’s "Second Saturday in the Garden" event to answer questions from 9 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of each month.

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ON THE NET:
» Honolulu Rose Society: www.honolulurosesociety.org
» Oahu Urban Garden Center: www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/ougc

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