Stopping to Prune the Roses

One of the jewels of the Emerald Necklace park system is the Kelleher Rose Garden. I found out about the Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s weekly Tuesday with Roses volunteer program through Boston Cares a couple of years ago. Every Tuesday night in the summer, volunteers are invited to prune the roses, weed, and help in any other way they can.

Neither of my thumbs are even the lightest shade of green, but I can manage to prune roses. There is something very satisfying (almost therapeutic) about cutting off the “dead heads” so new roses can grow. And it’s just plain lovely to be surrounded by more than 200 varieties of roses for a couple of hours.

There is only one staff person taking care of the garden, so the Tuesday volunteers definitely make a difference. Here are a few photos I took the other night.