We Beautify Tacoma’s Future

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Since 1911, we have been building the community

Roses in Point Defiance Park date back to the very founding of the 700 acre park in 1895 and have always been a central feature of it. The first superintendent of the park, E. R. Roberts, once put out an appeal to Tacoma students to bring rose cuttings from their homes to be rooted and planted in the new park.

The Tacoma Rose Society, founded in 1911, and the Pt. Defiance Rose Garden, planted in 1912, have grown up together. Leaders of the Rose Society even served as elected members of the Metropolitan Park Board during these early years. The planting of the garden was among our first community service projects. Renovating the garden, yearly spring pruning bushes, and summer deadheading the blooms are our mission.

The Point Defiance Park Rose Garden remains as part of the centerpiece of one of the great urban parks in America that overlooks Puget Sound, Vashon Island, and the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  Our volunteers continue to help maintain the health & selection of the 2200 bushes that thousands of visitors are drawn to each year, so we are looking for gardeners of all skill levels.