Legacy Losing Its Bloom : Volunteers Needed to Care for Late Chancellor’s Roses
He promised them a rose garden. And delivered.
First with Voodoos, Bewitched and Olympiads. Then came Love, Honor and Paradise followed by Sheer Bliss, Shining Hour and Perfect Moment.
Before long, Thomas G. Lakin, the late chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District and a longtime connoisseur of roses, had transformed the weedy patches of dirt that once passed for flower beds at the district’s Ventura headquarters into one of the most visible rose gardens in the county.
But since his death a year ago, some sections of the rose garden have fallen into disarray and rose lovers fear more of the buds will fail without the needed pruning. So Trustee John Tallman--a fellow rosarian who helped mastermind the planting of the 215 rosebushes that now surround the district office--is appealing to the public for help in taking care of them.
“Maybe we planted too many,” Tallman jokes, standing before a row of 107 bushes lining the district office’s back parking lot. “Thomas used to be out here every day. He personally took care of the watering. The garden flourished.”
Almost as soon as Lakin took over the three-campus district in 1991, he voiced his plans to beautify the district headquarters.
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Lakin and Tallman persuaded the nationally known rose grower Jackson & Perkins and a Green Thumb nursery to donate the bushes and then cajoled district staff members, few of them green thumbs, into adopting a patch of the roses for their own.
To coach the uninitiated, Lakin sometimes gathered his staff on the front lawn for informal lessons in the art of proper pruning.
“I have a brown thumb and I am not a gardener,” said Jerry Pauley, associate vice chancellor of human resources and a member of the rose regiment. “But Thomas got us all interested, and we enjoyed ourselves.”
In those days, Lakin came to work dressed in a three-pice suit, only to emerge from his office at lunchtime clad in sweats and equipped with pruning shears.
In addition to personally watering the plants, Lakin--who worked the same magic at Southwest College in Los Angeles--paid out of his own pocket for pesticides and hired children to prune the plants on weekends.
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But today, due to reductions in staff and waning interest, the bloom is off about 24 rosebushes left untended. The victims: Touch of Class, American Spirit, Old Roses and Pleasure. Their shriveled, dead buds wither on the stem. Mildew, a common enemy of the rose, coats their leathery leaves.
As interest continues to wane, Tallman fears more roses will fall by the wayside.
“We don’t have as many people as we need now to keep it up,” Tallman says, shaking his head over a small, well-kept patch of blossoms that frequently draw compliments from passersby.
“There has to be somebody who lives around here and loves roses and wants to take care of some of them,” he said.
His plea to the public has not gone unnoticed among members of the so-called District Office Rose Society. This week, a memo circulated to the group urging all to remember the winter pruning.
“I don’t want the roses to go untended,” said Barbara Buttner, director of governing board relations. “To me that is sacrilege. I just personally feel that we owe it to Thomas’ memory and what he brought to the district to continue to care for them.”
At the time of his death from the so-called flesh-eating bacteria, rumors circulated that Lakin’s infection started with a cut he suffered while pruning roses. Though one medical consultant felt it could have been a possibility, the rumors were never substantiated, said Sandra Tyson, an attorney who represented the Lakin family in a civil suit. This year, 24 more of Lakin’s favorite roses--Olympiad, Honor, Voodoo and Love--were added to a small plot in honor of the former chancellor.
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Though some varieties of rose can thrive with little care, the delicate flowers need more attention than most, according to rosarians across the county.
“Roses are one of those plants that the better you take care of them, the better they look,” said Duane Koyano, the golf and grounds foreman of the Sherwood Country Club. The exclusive country club is home to about 3,000 rosebushes in more than 100 varieties. Even with a staff of eight gardeners, some of the bushes receive less care than Koyano would like.
“They must be pruned quite often, ideally almost on a day-to-day basis to retain the shape,” he said.
Beverly Brune of the Westlake Village Garden Club, whose members tend about 30 bushes planted in a local park, says they find it challenging to manage their own small bunch of roses.
“We are lucky we have one person that does it regularly,’ she said. “But a garden of 215 bushes might be a little difficult.”
“We need help,” agrees Tallman. “Anyone can have a plot. I’ll show them how to take care of them.”
Correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.
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FYI
Anyone interested in adopting a patch of rosebushes should call Trustee John Tallman at 642-5635 or Jerry Pauley of the District Office Rose Society at 654-6419.
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Public Rose Gardens
Constitution Park in Camarillo
Corner of Paseo Camarillo and North Carmen Drive. About 200 bushes cared for by the Ventura County Rose Society, 496-6026.
Stagecoach Inn Museum in Newbury Park
51 S. Ventu Park Road. About 50 antique roses cared for by the Ventura County Rose Society, 496-6026.
Olivas Adobe Museum in Ventura
4200 Olivas Park Drive. About 135 rosebushes cared for by the Garden Club of San Buenaventura, 648-7355.
Freedom Square in Westlake Village
Corner of Agoura Road and Lakeview Canyon Road. About 40 rosebushes cared for by the Westlake Village Garden Club, 495-4428.
