Rose Garden

When Portland’s Parks Engineer William Dougherty designed the circular garden in Deering Oaks Park, he wanted a place for a floral display. That was back in the early 1930s and roses were not part of his plan. Karl Switzer, Parks Superintendent (1939-1972) on the other hand, loved roses. He transformed the original floral display area into the beloved Rose Circle.

The Rose Circle is one of 134 public rose gardens in the United States that the American Rose Society (ARS) allows to preview its “All American Rose Selections.” Each year three plants each of three different new varieties are released for Portland’s Rose Circle. Rose fanciers can monitor brand new, not-yet-on-the-market roses.

The nine new ARS “All-American Roses” are planted in the two special sections of the garden reserved for award winning roses. In all, the garden features approximately 38 different varieties and close to 600 rose plants. There are grandifloras, floribundas, multifloras and hybrid tea roses in the Rose Circle and 80% of them are American Rose Society varieties.

How do you maintain 600 roses? Park horticulturists follow a month-by-month written maintenance plan that produces excellent results. In fact, each year members of the Maine Rose Society inspect the rose beds and grade the quality of care. The Rose Circle horticulture staff has earned more than ten ARS certificates awarded for outstanding maintenance.

Farmers Market

One can purchase wonderful vegetables and fruits at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays in Deering Oaks. And oh, the flowers! That’s what makes the event so special in early spring. Way before there are crops for sale, the 20 or so farmers of the Market offer us the promise of lush and colorful gardens of our own. Mostly the booths bring color, texture and spring’s vigor straight from the farm to Deering Oaks.

Each booth at the Farmers’ Market represents one farm in southern Maine. Many of the farmers maintain retail operations at their farms and plant traditional vegetable crops in addition to the flowers. Come harvest time and we’ll be offered our choice of traditionally grown or organically grown vegetables and fruits of all sorts.

It costs the farmer $80 to buy a permit from the City of Portland that includes Wednesdays in Monument Square and the Deering Oaks event. The product must have been produced on a farm in the local vicinity. Up to 1/3 of the product can come from a different operation but must have been grown locally.

A chat with Jeff Tarling, City Arborist

“The native trees in Deering Oaks pre-date the park being a park. There is a
great cross-section of an old tree from the park in the Children’s museum on Congress Street that has a time line that counts the rings.  That particular tree is over 200 years
old and there are yet larger ones still alive and well in the park.” 

Jeff Tarling was a geography and earth science major while at USM in the early 1980’s.  During and since that time he has held a variety of natural science positions such as doing park ranger work and planning and laying out park designs.  It has evolved over the years into the City Arborist position for the Parks and Recreation Department in Portland.

“In May or June of every year we will replace any tree losses that may have occurred during winter and during the summer we maintain the existing trees - such as pruning the newly planted and removing deadwood from the older to keep it safe and looking good at the same time.”  Since there are over a thousand trees in the park it’s always a rotating cycle of keeping the park healthy and safe.  In the past decade the park has lost about a dozen of the really large 150 to 200 year old trees.  “We had a storm last April 16th on Patriots Day and we lost nearly twenty trees and we were able to replant all of them through fund raising - so there is a lot of advocacy behind Deering Oaks and a lot of care.”

Jeff explains that it has been a fine-tuning process over the years on how to properly care for the beautiful trees of Deering Oaks.  “We used to mow the entire lawns of the park every week but we realized over time that the machines would slowly damage the roots of the trees from the tremendous weight of the mower that would circle the tree.  We also used to clear all of the leaves away that normally would turn into dirt and feed the trees.  So we were basically interrupting that natural cycle and we found that over the years of doing this the soil quality was becoming very poor.  I think that for a while the mentality was to really sanitize the park as to show how well it was up-kept but it just turned out to be too unnatural and did more harm than good.  So it’s definitely evolved over the years and we’re very proud of what we do for the park today.”

“As stewards of the park, whether it be the public or the city, I think we need to ask ourselves - how do we take care of our park and what’s the best way to continue it so that future generations have this same resource.  It definitely shouldn't be taken for granted. It’s pretty amazing to look at a birds-eye photograph of Portland and see this huge green forest in the midst of the city.  It holds a lot of fascinating history.” 

A Castle in the Park

In 1894 Frederick Thompson, a prominent local architect, designed the Castle building as a cozy shelter complete with a large fireplace. Most all of the building supplies were donated and records indicate that the total cost of the building was only $900. The building has since seen a few different transformations and renovations over the years and currently exists as one of Portland’s four Visitor’s Centers that are maintained by the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB). Browsing through the guest book and glancing at the kind comments will give a sense of the kind of service that one can receive from the CVB volunteers who seem to want to give the best information and service to visitors and tourists.