Roses in Portland, Oregon

The city of Portland, Oregon is ideal for growing roses outdoors due to its location within the marine west coast climate region, its warm, dry summers and rainy but mild winters, and its heavy clay soils. Portland has been known as the City of Roses, or Rose City, since 1888, after Madame Caroline Testout, a large pink variety of hybrid tea rose bred in France, was introduced to the city. Thousands of rose bushes were planted, eventually lining 20 miles (32 km) of Portland's streets in preparation for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in 1905.

The Rose City Park neighborhood in northeast Portland was formed in 1907, the same year of the first annual Portland Rose Festival. During World War I, nursery owners in Portland began planning a large rose garden to protect European rose species from the war. The garden was established in Washington Park as the International Rose Test Garden in 1917. Today, the Portland Rose Festival takes place each June with a carnival, parades, and navy ships docked along the Tom McCall Waterfront Park to promote the city. The International Rose Test Garden is currently one of the oldest public rose test gardens in the United States, covering 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) with over 8,000 rose plants, and more than 550 different species. In 2003, Portland adopted the "City of Roses" as its official nickname.

In 1888, Georgiana Burton Pittock, the wife of Oregon newspaper publisher and business tycoon , invited friends and neighbors to display their roses in a tent set up in her garden in the area now known as . In 1889, lawyer and civic leader Frederick Van Voorhies Holman helped found the Portland Rose Society. The rose cultivar Mme. Caroline Testout, a hybrid tea rose variety named after a French dressmaker, was introduced by French rosarian Joseph Pernet-Ducher in 1890. The cultivar gained popularity, and by 1905 Portland had 20 miles (32 km) of rose-bordered streets, with about half-a-million rose bushes planted, attracting visitors to the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition.

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