Eye on the Triangle

Erie Mitchell 0:00
The views and opinions expressed during Eye on the Triangle do not represent WKNC or NC State Student Media.

Your dial is currently tuned Eye on the Triangle on WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1 Raleigh. Thanks for listening.

Ellie Feaga 0:36
Good morning Triangle area listeners and Happy Earth Day. Today we're focusing on the Raleigh rose garden and I have with me...

James Bullock 0:44
James Bullock, senior gardener Raleigh Rose Garden, Pullen Park, Dorthea Dix horticulture and Chavis Park.

Ellie Feaga 0:51
It's great to have you James, thanks so much for joining us.

James Bullock 0:54
Thank you very much. It's great to be here and glad to represent the city. As we

Ellie Feaga 0:58
get started, would it be okay if you could give me a little bit of information about the history of the Raleigh rose garden? Sure.

James Bullock 1:05
Rose Garden and Raleigh Little Theater heavy the property has a pretty varied and interesting past. It was originally State Fairgrounds in the late 1800s, early 1900s. And it was actually a horse track a horse racetrack around the loop there. It goes from Clark Street to Pogue Street and it's pretty cool. You can still see the horseshoe nature of the oval track around the outside the of the grounds. So I found that pretty fascinating. And at one time, they tried to do a double racetrack and according to a book I have about the oil tea history, apparently that was kind of a flop but it's pretty neat to still see the remnants of that today. And in the early 1900s. It was actually barracks for one Training Center. It was a National Guard Armory. See lots of tents spread out through over the over the whole grounds. And around that time, sometime in the 30s. I have a picture of a gigantic tank on the side of the hill of the Rose Garden, on a train and exercise. I think that's pretty cool when you look at it today to look back at what it's been in the past. So the City of Raleigh acquired a property and I think the late 20s, early 30s. And it sat vacant for a little while and a lady by the name of Canty Sutton was able to create a grassroots movement to get the get the city to turn it into a rose garden. And then World War Two came along. And so it was kind of slow for a while. And then she got the efforts wrapped back up again in the mid late 40s. And it came to be in 1949 that the grounds were officially dedicated at rally rose garden. Oh my God ever since

Ellie Feaga 2:59
I can't believe that since 1949. It's been it's been an annual thing ever since then.

James Bullock 3:04
So it's a it's a it's always a garden, but the roses blooming in spring through the summer. Very

Ellie Feaga 3:11
cool. So you work specifically with planting roses and growing? Is that right? I'm

James Bullock 3:17
a horticulturalist by trade, but we're in work on our grounds maintenance crew. So we take care of the properties that I mentioned earlier. And Raleigh Rose Garden is one of them. Being on the gardener side of the crew, I'm able to spend time taking care of the roses. And so we're that's one of our responsibilities. Yes.

Ellie Feaga 3:37
What part of the year have they planted already? When do you expect them to be bloomed and open to the public?

James Bullock 3:43
It's great that you had me on now because the roses are probably going to be blooming within the next two weeks, we expect probably about two weeks. On account, we usually say around Mother's Day, but lately they've been blooming a little earlier. So they really bloom about the last week in April. And the first flush of Blooms is the most beautiful set because they're all about the same time and stage. So they're all blooming at the same time. So you get to see all the different colors and varieties and types of roses. So that's pretty exciting. As we move forward through the summer. We have a dedicated group of volunteers we call our rally adult depart. We call them I affectionately call them our deadhead errs, they take off the old blooms, prune them, and they flush back out for a second, third and maybe even fourth bloom. So when that happens, people print at different times and the rose types are different. So they're a little more varied. But the first bloom was pretty much all at the same time. So it's very, everything's in sync so they're all blooming. So it's really pretty short color. Great town to visit.

Ellie Feaga 4:50
So this is the garden specifically roses or do you do a variety of plants?

James Bullock 4:54
There's a variety of plants there we have about I want to say about 2000 Roses, we have 60 beds, and a couple of other beds around the ancillary parts of the garden. But there are about 20 Roses per bed, there's 20. So there's 1200 plus all the others we have around. But there's also there was a project not too long ago where we added a retention area, so is a beautiful perennial garden there. We've got lots of different interest in trees and shrubs. And our crew just just this week actually put in a new planting there. So it's very active place. About two years ago, we did another drag. Sorry, it was about a year ago, we did a rose garden rally with data received a grant, accessibility grant for wheelchair ramp and along with that game, some improved drainage work and some some new plantings there. And about five years ago is when we put in the bio retention, pond area, so there's a lot of cool and interesting plants there. There's Dawn redwoods there that were planted, I believe, by the Raleigh garden club back in the 40s. Maybe about the time that the garden was conceived and it was planted, so that there's a few of them left and they are huge. They're massive. So there's also a really cool China fir tree there. It's kind of Dr. Seuss looking, it's got little spikes on it, but it's really big, and it's wrapped around the corner of the garden. And it's a little messy, but it's really fun when it to see it in action, there's that's probably the biggest one I've ever seen. There's not many around. So lots of big oaks around the perimeter of the garden. And we have a lot of regional infrastructure that was original to the garden, that's still there. an arbor in the back of the garden, that used to have roses on it. And shelter. We also have a couple of stone houses with the original architecture that kind of matched to about the same time period as the building of the right little theater, which is what we're attached to.

Ellie Feaga 7:02
Is there one particular aspect of the garden that you're most looking forward to blooming.

James Bullock 7:07
Definitely the roses, the roses are the main event, the big show there. There's lots of beautiful perennials and other things to look at while people are there. But I think the roses are probably why most people come. And then they can learn a little bit more about the other plants while they're there. But the first flush of Rose blooms is definitely the most exciting time of the year for me because you get to see a large variety of colors and types and

Ellie Feaga 7:36
styles. I'm sure it's pretty cool seeing your work come to fruition after working on it for a long time, too.

James Bullock 7:41
It is it's exciting to be a part of an industry where you get to see the fruits of your labor right away and get some immediate gratification but also know that the things that we've been working towards for years have are starting to that's the cool thing about plants is you can plant something and you might have to wait on a little while. And it also and it bloom in a couple of years. But also, we get to do volunteer events and mulch projects and things like that, that we get to see right away. So it's a little bit of a mix of, of the best of both worlds. But one of the things I enjoy the most is working with volunteer groups. And they we have a Raleigh Volunteer Services Group that puts together volunteer events for anybody that might be interested in doing a an event, they can contact them but they get to work with them a lot, particularly at the Raleigh Rose Garden and Pullen Park. And I think it's exciting for people to come back and see what they've done in a few months. Whether it be finding balls or roses or mulching or things like that it just really beautiful as a park. So that adult depart volunteer group that did hitters. They're one of my most favorite groups to work with, because we've established relationships with them throughout the years. They come back year after year, and they put in a lot of hours and hard work when really not many people are around to make sure that the public gets to see a beautiful display of roses. So that's very gratifying as well, not just the work that I put in personally or our crew who works very hard. But also those volunteers and volunteer services.

Ellie Feaga 9:20
Pullen Park has had some pretty incredible tulips. Is that something that you guys work with as well? Yes,

James Bullock 9:25
we're definitely we're our crew takes care of both of those parks. So we have done a lot of tulip planting events. Most of those are volunteer events as well at Pullen, and we have done some in the past at rally rose garden, not as many but we definitely look forward to doing more in the future. We've I remember my first year it's probably back in 2016. We did a daffodil planting along the edge of the Arbor and at that time a lot of folks were getting married there in front of the fountain and it was a beautiful backdrop. February March.

Ellie Feaga 9:57
Well it looks incredible. So I commend you and your team for that it really, it really is very impressive.

James Bullock 10:02
Well, we appreciate it. You know, I say many hands make light work, we've got a great team. And we enjoy working together. And we've got a great leader. And it's just a lot of fun to be a part of this group. And the city as well, you know, it's a great place to work.

Ellie Feaga 10:16
Now, I know this will be a little bit out of your position. But for listeners wanting to visit how can they get tickets? Is it online?

James Bullock 10:24
Yes, I believe you can buy them online. But there is a walk up. Ticket Office is open, I believe Monday through Thursday from 12 to 4pm. And yeah, you could go anytime to rather little theater.org. And to purchase tickets, they got a couple of shows coming up. And one of the things I neglected to mention earlier is one of the things I find most fascinating about this garden, this park is that there's an outdoor amphitheater there, which is really cool. You just don't see that much anymore. It dates back to the origin of the park. And a couple of shows are coming up that are going to be outdoors. And those are really fun. So I think they have Roberto Clemente coming up soon in the amphitheater. And that's in May, and then Kinky Boots in June. Oh, cool. Yeah, like that show. Yeah. So that's a really cool place to watch your show. And they have many indoor shows as well throughout the year.

Ellie Feaga 11:23
Well, James, thank you so much for being on the show. And Happy Earth Day everyone. I hope that you get out and take a tour of the Raleigh rose garden and pull in park and enjoy the rest of your Earth Day. Thank you for listening. This has been Ellie with Eye on the Triangle you're listening to 88.1 WKNC.

Erie Mitchell 11:54
This has been Eye on the Triangle. I'm Erie Mitchell, your guest host right now. Thank you so much for listening to this. You can listen to back episodes of Eye on the Triangle at wknc.org/podcasts under Eye on the Triangle or just any of the other podcasts we have on WKNC. Thank you so much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai