Yards Apart

Six Portland households find renewed purpose for that familiar American space between sidewalk and front door.

By Camela Raymond

6 To Sustain Tradition

Photo: Susan Seubert

Sherrol Butler is an active member of the 122-year-old Portland Rose Society.

What: A blaze of redolent roses
Where: Washington Park (Southwest Portland)
Who: Sherrol and Robert Butler

IT TOOK 20 YEARS OF PRODDING from her mother-in-law before Sherrol took up the rarified hobby of growing prize roses, but today the active member of the 122-year-old Portland Rose Society wins awards for favored grandifloras and floribundas like ‘Candelabra’ and ‘Marmalade Skies’ (both pictured flanking the front walk).

Floral Philosophy: “Use ’em or lose ’em.” Sherrol’s favorite thing to do with blooms from her 200 or so bushes is “cutting them and giving them away”—and since she and her husband are both real estate agents, they put cut arrangements in clients’ homes, too.

Secret Weapon: Every morning Sherrol walks three blocks to the International Rose Test Garden, where she finds the park’s chief horticulturalist, Harry Landers, making his rounds. “I chat with him almost every day,” Sherrol says, “and what he does, I go home and do.”

Photo: Susan Seubert

Sherrol Butler wins awards for favored grandifloras and floribundas like “Candelabra” and Marmalade Skies."

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Get the Look

1. Shop for hardy, disease-resistant rose varieties—look for the All-America Rose Selections (AARS) label—at these local nurseries: Cornell Farm (8212 SW Barnes Rd, 503-292-9895), The Gardener’s Choice (14240 SW Pacific Hwy, Tigard, 503-684-2727), and Heirloom Roses (24062 NE Riverside Dr, St. Paul, 503-538-1576).

2. For showstopping results, expect to put in some work. In addition to fall and winter pruning, Sherrol feeds her plants with fertilizer and sprays them with Ortho RosePride, a potent pesticide, every two to three weeks in the summer. (Organic products aren’t as effective as this chemical cocktail, she says, but they are available.)

3. Learn more about thousands of different kinds of roses and how to care for them.

-Visit the International Rose Test Garden with a camera and a notebook in tow. Record your favorites out of hundreds of comprehensively labeled varieties.

-Tour June’s Annual Spring Rose Show, the region’s biggest, at Lloyd Center’s ice rink.

-Attend a meeting at the Portland Rose Society, where novices are eagerly welcomed.

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Published: April 2010

Comments

By Lorraine Duca on Mar 30, 2010 at 10:08PM: This is great news. I am buying a beautiful century home near Multnomah Village with an unusually large extra lot that is perfect for a vegetable garden. But instead of bringing me joy, it is actually bringing me fear! I don’t really know how to begin to garden, let alone keep it up! This might just be my salvation! Sign me up!!
By LeslieAnn Butler on Mar 31, 2010 at 2:46PM: I have called both Seven Dees and Portland Nursery and neither one of them have the “Lomatia myricoides” in the picture of Ketzel Levine’s house. Can someone please email me with the information on where I can purchase this plant?
Thank you
By LeslieAnn Butler on Mar 31, 2010 at 5:42PM: If anyone can give me a place to purchase the Lomatia myricoides pictured above, my email is Labartist@aol.com.
Thanks
By Dorothy Smith on Feb 02, 2012 at 11:01PM: Thank you for your article. I bought a home in New Orleans in 2004 and want to plant a front garden that will enhance the 1926 bungalow architecture. Having moved from the west coast you’ve inspired me to restore the gardens that were once here. Thank you!