Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial Rose Garden and San Diego World Rose Symposium
Our June meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. with refreshments in room 101 at the Casa del Prado. There will be a Little Rose Show, so bring your best roses to exhibit in this fun show. There will also be a Consulting Rosarian’s Corner, plus a Silent Rose Auction and a Raffle. Our speakers will begin their presentations at 7:00 p.m.
We are happy to welcome Susan Vandendriesse who will present her program entitled “Red, White and Bloom!” honoring our country’s 250th anniversary, patriotic roses, and a discussion of the Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial in La Jolla. Attendees at this meeting are welcome to wear something patriotic! Every January, the Village Garden Club of La Jolla brings their expertise and heart to the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial rose beds. Led by Susan, who envisioned this beautiful mission of care—club members prune, feed, and mulch these roses with additional guidance from the San Diego Rose Society’s Christine Allan. In 2023, Christine was invited by Susan Vandendriese to work together on a project of selecting and planting patriotic roses to enhance the Mt. Soledad National Veterans Memorial and to maintain that garden along with other volunteers.
Susan is also a member of the San Diego Rose Society. It's a labor of love that honors our veterans through blooms. Susan is one of the cofounders of the La Jolla Historical Society Secret Garden Tour, which has been going strong for 27 years. She recently retired from healthcare administration with Scripps Health. She is an active member of the Village Garden Club of La Jolla schoolyard gardening grants committee for over 15 years now.
Christine Allan will contribute her perspective on the installation of the roses in the Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial garden. Christine, and her husband Rand, have had rose gardens at their homes for over 40 years. They have also been members of the San Diego Rose Society for 20 years, and have served on the board of directors in various capacities. Christine is a Consulting Rosarian. They have been rose show judges at the San Diego County Fair. Christine also served as a volunteer in the Rose Garden Corps at the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden in Balboa Park.
Dawn Isbell will then give us a short presentation on this year’s Balboa Park Rose Garden tours and the status of the reconstruction of the Rose Garden Pergola. Also, SDRS member Eddie Lane will share the video that he created for the upcoming 2027 San Diego World Rose Symposium. Natalie Stout and Ruth Tiffany will then end the evening with further discussion about the symposium and there will be a question and answer period after their presentation.
This program should prove to be very informative about several different topics and activities that our society is involved in. Hope all of you can attend!
Directions to Casa del Prado, Room 101: The Casa del Prado building is immediately west of the Natural History Museum. Entrances to the Casa del Prado lead to an inner court. The rooms are accessible from the court. Room 101 is downstairs on the east end of the court.
(NOTE: This will be the last SDRS monthly meeting until we resume after summer with a September meeting. No meeting in July or August.)