Sheri Samson - 89-year old Ruby Hume takes a brief break while working on the Memorial Rose Garden in Hawthorne. Hume, along with others, have helped clear the area of weeds to make way for new plants in the restoration of the garden.

Sheri Samson –
89-year old Ruby Hume takes a brief break while working on the Memorial Rose Garden in Hawthorne. Hume, along with others, have helped clear the area of weeds to make way for new plants in the restoration of the garden.

As the summer heat is winding down, 89-year old Ruby Hume was found pulling weeds and deadheading the roses on display at the Memorial Rose Garden. With her preference of “no garden gloves” Hume slowly cleaned the soil around a few blooming rows within the hundreds of rose bushes. Each plant was preciously marked in a memorial to the many loved ones that have passed on. Beautiful varieties still provide a collective array of colorful shades, promoting a peaceful atmosphere for visitors to walk or take moments away while sitting on the benches provided.

Hume was quick to update the recent news on the Victory Garden Club and those that have brought it to its present condition, which is free of the heavy weeds and the disregard it experienced over a year ago. Each Friday morning, the mainstay of volunteers arrive. Tammy Bunch, Kendall Harris and Hume arrive with their bags and hand tools to continue the light cleanup required to maintain such a garden. The automatic water system has now been restored and with the help of the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office. Under the direction of Randy Adams, trustees from the jail have been instrumental in completing the heavy duty cleanups necessary for the Memorial Rose Garden to take its turn around.

“Now that it is all cleaned up, we can see the empty spots where plants have died, but the name placards remain.
We want to encourage our local families to check their loved ones placement to see if anything needs to be done.
We will be taking on a fall project of matching these archived names to family members, so they can purchase a replacement rose bush by next spring. We know there will be names we cannot match, so we will probably need help by publishing a list in the newspaper and hoping that out of area subscribers will help us. The records have not been updated with current contact information, so we realize it will be quite an undertaking,” Hume expressed.

Another important item discussed was the Independent-News media assistance which spurred the Memorial Rose Garden to take on a new life. Families from out of Hawthorne sent in much needed financial contributions, letters of encouragement and asked if new spots could be made to include other family members that have passed on.

A plan to remove many of the junipers and other invasive plants, which once outlined the garden as a decorative structure, may be pulled out to accommodate the request of an extension of space for more roses.

The Victory Garden Club will be meeting, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cooperative Extension for a small dinner meeting. Should you want to join or have further questions, please contact Kendall Harris at 775-316-0383 or Tammy Bunch at 775-945-2065. You do not have to be an expert gardener to be included in the upcoming plans.

Area leaders of community groups are also encouraged to attend, as one future goal will be having rows of the Memorial Rose Garden adopted out for continued maintenance. Each row would require maintaining an average of eight to ten plants, depending upon location within the garden. Any individual, community group, school classes or families can adopt a row and be included in this historic, Nevada legacy garden. Future instruction will also be scheduled to teach pruning techniques to novelist gardeners in the spring.