A newspaper article in the 1890s detailed the planting of over one hundred rose bushes at Greenwood Cemetery. Today, only about half a dozen survive, white blossoms tinged with pale pink displayed in a late-spring once-and-done blush of beauty. The roses are climbers that wander as much as forty feet up in an alder tree just off the entry road, or wander among the blackberry and ivy vines on the bank above Highway 202. Other survivors may be what the cemetery maintenance workers term ground roses that open white blooms just below the reach of the mower blades each spring.
In late 2023, we got a message from a couple who had just purchased spaces at Greenwood. The lady was a fan of tree peonies, and had propagated them. Her collection had been planted at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, in an area designated as the Master Gardeners’ Flower Garden. Under new management, the peonies were evicted.
The couple had dug the plants and potted them, and taken them home. They were selling their house and moving to an apartment. Would Greenwood Cemetery like to plant them to beautify the grounds? Of course.
The donation included a dozen and a half pots of peony, a Japanese maple tree, a miniature rhododendron and an offer to help plant the collection.
Some of the tree peonies will reach a height of five feet with an equal spread. They are deer proof, and may ornament the cemetery with their four to five inch blossoms for the next century with bouquets of red, pink, white and yellow.
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