Manito Park's rose garden, Rose Hill, is home to over 150 varieties of hybrid tea roses, grandiflora, floribunda and miniature roses along with a collection of old-fashioned roses.
Manito Park's Rose Hill is located just west of the Joel E. Ferris Perennial Garden and continues to be one of Spokane's favorite locations for weddings, picnics and photography.
Each year All-American Rose Selections chooses one of its 125 gardens as the Outstanding Display Garden, and in 2007 Manito Park's own Rose Hill was named number one in the nation. In addition, Rose Hill has received an Outstanding Maintenance Award for the past 20 years from AARS, a non-profit association of rose growers and introducers dedicated to the introduction and promotion of exceptional roses.
Since 1938 the AARS seal of approval has continued to grace outstanding new rose varieties that have withstood the test of time—and Mother Nature. Rose Hill now is home to over 150 varieties of hybrid tea, frandiflora, floribunda, and miniature roses, along with a collection of old-fashioned roses.
When Manito Park had a zoo, the present Rose Hill area west of the Japanese Garden was home to the elk and deer enclosure. Parts of the rock wall enclosure remain in the natural area to the northwest of Rose Hill. The enclosure extended north to the point Loop Drive skirts the crest of the hill, encompassing another small pond. Cages for the skunks, coyotes, bobcats, and other small animals lined the area of the present rock garden, bordering the rose garden.
In 1940, Park Superintendent John Duncan introduced his concept for a formal rose garden, with preliminary sketches completed by Harold T. Abbott in 1941.5 The garden was officially established and planted as a joint venture between the Spokane Rose Society and the City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department in 1948, and served as both a test garden and a memorial rose garden. Planting began in 1949 with as many as 250 of the first rose bushes donated by nationally recognized plant suppliers Jackson & Perkins, who continued to support the garden through the 1960s. The garden was officially completed in June 1953.
Rose Hill features two distinct areas: the affectionately named Old-Fashioned Rose Garden, located on the west side of the hill, and the Formal Rose Garden, situated on the east side. At the north end of the Formal Rose Garden, two sets of columned pergolas create an arched boundary between the rose garden and a grove of Colorado blue spruce that obscure the view to the bridge and Loop Drive down a gently sloping hill. The pergolas, designed by architect Jerry Shogan and erected in 1996, were donated to honor professional photographer Erna Bert Nelson, who left a generous bequest to the City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department following her death.6 South of, but centered on, the pergolas is the sundial, a memorial to the two sons of Mr. and Mrs. R. Jackson Wortman, Jacob and Ward. Designed by Whitehouse & Price, the Wortman Sundial Memorial was installed in the spring of 1950. In 2004, the Friends of Manito donated a third pergola on the south side of the garden that mirrors the two on the north.
A tall row of concolor firs (Abies concolor) screen the Dahlia Society trial garden, located north of the old-fashioned rose garden from the formal rose garden. Maintained by the Inland Empire Dahlia Society, the garden is one of eight official trial gardens in the U.S. and Canada and features flowers grown from tubers sent by growers from around the world. The Dahlia Society plants the garden in late May or early June, and the plants begin blooming in July, with August and September being especially magnificent times to view the flowers.
Please refrain from cutting or damaging flowers in the Garden.
Weddings and wedding photography in the gardens is by reservation only. Please call 509.363.5455 or email us at parkopsreservations@spokanecity.org, if you have any questions.
Information from pg 10, 11 & 25 of the National Register of Historic Places Application for the National Parks Service (reformatted for clarity) AND pg 99 of Bamonte, Tony, and Suzanne Bamonte. Manito Park: A Reflection of Spokane’s Past. Tornado Creek Publications, 1998.
5 H.T.A. [Harold T. Abbot], Preliminary Plan for Duncan Rose Garden Manito Park, October 1941. On file with City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, Spokane, Washington.
6 Janice Podsada, “Manito Park arbor will give roses a place to climb,” The Spokesman-Review, October 17, 1996.
The City of Choice
509.625.6200
parks@spokanecity.org
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd, Spokane, WA 99201
