Roses Serve As Sept. 11 Memorial
Washington Post 8/19/09
On Aug. 1, I attended the groundbreaking of a
15-acre rose garden in Shanksville, Pa. It was an emotional event, officiated by
Sue Casey, president and founder of the organization Remember Me Rose Gardens,
which is creating rose gardens at the site of each of the terrorist-attack plane
crashes on Sept. 11, 2001.
When completed, there will be more than 10,000 roses planted in gardens at the
three crash sites, with at least one rose — or, in the case of Shanksville, a
bed of roses — for each victim of the attacks.
Shanksville, a community of about 200 residents, was catapulted to national
prominence on Sept. 11, 2001, when it became the crash site of United Flight 93.
More than 5,000 people visit this site each week. The community, along with
Remember Me, intends to give living memorials to the 40 heroes on board the
plane.
Following are roses that have been hybridized for Remember Me. They have been
named to honor those who perished and will be planted in all of the rose
gardens:
"Firefighter," a red hybrid tea rose, was announced in September 2003 to honor
the 343 firefighters who lost their lives on Sept. 11. It received the City of
Portland (Ore.) Gold Medal Award for 2007. New York City firefighter Lt. Bob
Jackson, an avid rose grower, named the rose. The lieutenant's Battalion 9
firehouse lost more than a dozen members on Sept. 11.
"Soaring Spirits," a cream, pink and yellow striped climbing rose,
was announced in September 2004 to honor the more than 2,500 people who lost their lives while working in the World Trade Center.
"We Salute You," an orange-pink hybrid tea rose, is named to honor 125 service members, employees and contract workers who died at the Pentagon.
"Forty Heroes," a golden yellow floribunda, honors the crew and passengers of United Flight 93. It was released in April 2006 at a ceremony held in the Kensington Volunteer Fire Department's memorial garden and test plot in Maryland.
"The Finest," a white hybrid tea rose, was named in April 2007 for the 23 New York Police Department officers lost in the line of duty.
"Patriot Dream," a salmon-colored shrub rose, was introduced in June during the Rose Festival in Portland, Ore., to honor the crew and passengers lost on American Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon.
"The Survivors Rose" will be introduced next year. In addition, four more roses will be hybridized and named for American Flight 11 and United Flight 175, Port Authority police and responders to the horrific events.
The groundbreaking was a fitting memorial ceremony for the site, in a meadow. Monarch butterflies that were released quickly made themselves at home on roses and milkweed.
Using roses as the theme for the memorial gardens is quite appropriate because the rose is our national flower. In fact, when Casey felt she had to do something to ease her sadness and that of people who lost loved ones, she came upon a yellow rose growing along the curb and discovered her answer: "We'll give them a rose garden."
And so the Remember Me Rose Gardens were born. There would be three gardens, one for each crash site. Each garden would have a least one rose for every victim.
How do you plant roses? Dig deep and wide. Rose expert Michael Mitchell, who was at the Shanksville ceremony, installs roses in holes that are two to three feet wide and two to three feet deep. Then he throws in a mix of two-thirds soil and one-third compost.
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