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Sister
Cities Friendship Garden
The
Sister Cities Friendship Garden was established in 1994 by Roseburg
Sister Cities, Inc., to recognize the relationship between
Roseburg and Shobu, Japan. The garden features plants native to Oregon and Japan, as well as stones selected from various locations around Douglas County. The garden is designed to achieve an effect of fullness and texture in foliage. The Garden is located adjacent to the South side of the Douglas County Library System's headquarters, in downtown Roseburg next to Deer Creek. The garden project was originally funded jointly by Douglas County and local community businesses. Plants for the Garden were provided by Shobu and Roseburg citizens.  History
of Sister Cities Garden
In Nov. 1994, Phil Gale, a past president of Sister Cities and subsequent city councilman, approached David Parker, a landscape contractor, Ken Carloni, a botanist, and Leanne Adalia, a plant designer, about creating the garden. As the library construction proceeded, plans were discussed with the county and others about working together to complete a garden behind the building which would recognize the relationship between Roseburg and Shobu, Japan. The project was originally funded jointly by the county and local businesses. In particular, Gil Agee of Agee Construction Co. contributed immensely to founding the garden. The selection, collection, and placement of nearly 100 rocks located around the county formed the physical foundation and main focus. Some of the rocks weigh as much as 6000-7000 lbs. You can imagine the financial and physical effort it took to put them in place! The insignia rock, proclaims the goal of the Sister City relationship, “friendship and understanding,” and it bears the signature of the mayor of Shobu. (Put on paper, transferred/carved into the stone.) The rock placement was designed to mimic the columnar basalt rock formations along the north Umpqua River. Other stones are meant to invite people into the garden, for sunning or seating. This is not a traditional Japanese garden. The pines aren’t pruned into shapes as they are in Japan. Oregon & Japanese native plants, provided by Shobu & Roseburg citizens, intermingle in the hybrid garden to achieve an effect of fullness of texture with foliage. This is meant to reflect the relationship of the two cultures. The Garden grows very well in the 60 yards of compost which were put in the beds prior to planting. Though some trees in the Garden have been victims of beavers from Deer Creek and some plants were lost to severe winter rains in 1996, an Applegate rose survived. Iris are highlights at this time of year. This not by chance, as the word shobu, the name of our sister city, means iris in Japanese. Three plants were placed in the Garden by representatives of the people of Shoub in memory of Mr. Winfield, who died in Dec. 2000. Metal plaques made in Shobu also have been placed on stones at the entrances to the Garden in his memory. The Garden is maintained by volunteer members of Sister Cities, often with help from the Job Corps, and the middle school student exchange group. |
| In March of 2009 Master Arbortist and Shobu resident Chiaki Koyama-San and his wife Yasuko Koyama-San visited Roseburg. They both taught as part of the DC Master Gardeners "Spring into Gardening Classes" The DC Master Garderner is a part of the OSU Extension Service Mr. Koyama also advised us and help prune some of the trees in our Shobu - Japanese Friendship Garden behind the library Here are a few pictures of the event (Thank you Nancy Pittman) |
| Nineteen
Middle and High School students joined Marliene Winfield Swanson and
Rolf Bloomquist at the Roseburg Sister Cities Gardens Wednesday, April
28th for several hours of weeding and cleaning. Rain showers did
not dampen their enthusiasm or energy as they removed king sized weeds,
over grown bamboo, slugs and even a garter snake. The appearance
of our Gardens was greatly improved due to their work. The students are eagerly looking forward to their journey to Shobu in mid July of this year where they will enjoy several days of home stays and tours in Japan. Marliene furnished apples and a bag of candy to keep the energy level up and later the students went to the Dairy Queen for ice cream, furnished by the Student program. Rolf will be leading this years delegation of 20 students and teachers. For further information about the Student program you may contact Rolf at Rbloomquist@roseburgk12.or.us |
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| Roseburg -
Shobu Commemorative
Stone |
Jon Burpee doing Fall Cleaning |
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Art Swanson and Marliene Winfield are helping out |
(from right) Mayor
Toshio
Nakayama-San of Shobu, Toshiko Sato-San, Jean Burpee of
Roseburg,
Tsutomu Sato-San of Shobu During their Visit with the Japanese Delegation in June of 2004 |
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Una Honscheid is doing a bit of clean-up |
Marliene Winfield is working very hard |
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| from left: Akiyo Riggs, Biggs the dog gardener, and Art Swanson |
Survey of what needs to be done this morning |
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Akiyo's Son A.J. is doing a wonderful job |
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Jean and Jon Burpee in front ... ...Art and Una in the background |
Marliene and Jon in the Bamboo Jungle |
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One of the last Iris for this year |
