By Gary Ritchie
It required a pickup truck and the back of a Dodge Caravan to transport the 34 5-gallon pots from Raft Island Nursery in Gig Harbor to the Centennial Rose Garden in Tumwater. Each pot contained a beautiful new rose bush to replace Centennial Garden roses that had died or had become infected with a nasty disease called crown gall over the past few years.
It was a lovely spring day in late February when the roses were planted by a team of dedicated volunteers—Master Gardeners and former members of the recently dissolved Olympia Rose Society. The team, which included Charley Barron, Paula Nelson, Doreen Milward, Barb and Rob Baker, Bill Hansen, Dorothy Taylor, and Marilyn and Gary Ritchie, gathered at noon armed with all the tools of the trade: long-handled spades, sturdy gloves, trowels, knee pads, tarps, rakes, pruning shears, weed buckets, and a wheelbarrow.
To plant each rose, volunteers dug a hole approximately the size of a five-gallon pot in the garden’s rich, moist soil. A prepared planting mix enriched with minerals was added to each hole, filling it about halfway. The rose bush was then gently placed so that the graft union rested just above ground level. Each hole was filled in, the soil firmly packed, and a layer of bark mulch added to finish.
Fifteen varieties of roses were planted, including “Gemini,” “Wild Blue Yonder,” “Iceberg,” “Gold Medal,” “Easy Spirit,” “South Africa,” and “Ring of Fire,” among others. Spring pruning, which continues through March, will prepare the bushes to bloom magnificently throughout the spring and summer. Volunteers will return weekly for weeding and deadheading (removing spent blossoms) through October, when the bushes will be trimmed back for winter.
The Centennial Rose Garden was established in 1987 as a Washington Centennial Project by the then 120-member-strong Olympia Rose Society on the grounds of the Schmidt House. Dedicated in 1989, it remains one of the few Centennial projects still in existence. Today, the garden contains approximately 245 roses, featuring both ancient varieties and modern ever-blooming types commonly found in home gardens.
After the Olympia Rose Society dissolved in 2023—largely a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic—several of its former members, along with local Master Gardeners, stepped up to maintain the garden and keep it open to the public. Once at risk of being abandoned, the garden has since found a new home under the stewardship of the Olympia Tumwater Foundation (OTF).
Founded in 1950 by the Schmidt family as a way to give back to the community, OTF’s first major project was the installation of the Tivoli Fountain on the Capitol Campus. Today, its flagship projects include the Schmidt House, Brewery Park at Tumwater Falls, and college scholarships for Thurston County high school seniors.
The volunteers—now known as the “Friends of the Centennial Garden”—generously donate their time and effort to keep the garden thriving. Additional Friends include Midge Price, Ron Backman, Pat and Patricia Ream, Lynette Anderson, Lucy Chafin, Angela French, Sharon Parsons, and Kassie Koledin.
If you’d like to join the Friends of the Centennial Garden and help keep this local treasure blooming, please contact Karen Johnson at 360-890-2299 or karen@olytumfoundation.org.
