Friends of Morcom Rose Garden

The Piedmont Walking Club visited our garden today. The group meets every Wednesday for walks around the neighborhood. Too bad it's during our Wednesday volunteer gardening time!

Toni and Maggie from SF enjoyed our gardens today with our volunteer Sue! We also had volunteers from Piedmont Garden Club today!

Bloom is starting! In a few weeks hillsides will be quite colorful.

Saturday, April 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Dedicated Deadheaders will be weeding in the garden in honor of Earth Day. Roses are starting to bloom. Even if you only have an hour to help, please come by. Wear long sleeve shirt and jeans, sunhat, gardening gloves, bring water bottle and digging tools if you have them. Masks and social distancing required. We provide kneepads. Hope to see you there!

Planting new roses! Thank you volunteers!!

Weeding on MLK Day

Oakland, CA April 26, 1936 - The third annual Rose Sunday was observed by 20,000 people at the Morcom Rose Garden to view the blooms and hear a concert.

Today a few visitors learned about pruning from our consulting rosarian. Regular volunteers finished pruning along cascade. Looking forward to new bloom in a few months.

Slightly dramatic article of our experience with the aggressive tom turkey that closed off our garden for more than 4 months! https://www.theguardian.com//oakland-turkey-gerald-attack-

The other article about our infamous tom turkey! We are happy he is gone and that the garden is open for your enjoyment! https://oaklandside.org//11/20/we-need-to-talk-about-ger/

Wonderful opera in the garden today, courtesy of Angelique Alexander! We thank her for her generosity in sharing her musical gifts!

Wonderful opera in the garden today, courtesy of Angelique Alexander! We thank her for her generosity in sharing her musical gifts!

The turkey who has been attacking rose garden visitors has been captured and relocated on Thursday, October 22. Please return to the rose garden to enjoy remaining bloom of the season. Happy Autumn!

Thanks for sharing your wonderful images of the garden!

Weeding along the wedding cascade!

Wednesday weeding!

Check out this event!

Air was clear enough for volunteers to come work in the garden!

Please Help Stop the Morcom Rose Garden from Becoming a Homeless Encampment The problem: As has been posted on ND with some inaccuracies, there are currently 3 homeless men and one dog living at the Rose Garden, despite numerous police visits getting them to leave for brief periods (hours, not days). One has been there for over a year, the other two less than a year. They do not appear to be mentally ill, just inconsiderate and entitled. They have recently been visited by ...Continue reading

An article updating the status of our Morcom Rose Garden and the tom turkey https://www.mercurynews.com//lets-talk-turkey-wild-bird-t/

This message was received from Oakland Animal Services today: Fourth Update to Temporary Closure of Morcom Rose Garden On June 18, 2020, consistent with the Oakland Animal Service’s original request and community-led outreach, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the agency charged with regulating wildlife in the state, approved the relocation of the male turkey from the Morcom Rose Garden. ... In July 2020, CDFW staff made several attempts to capture the turkey, relying primarily on trapping using food attractive to turkeys. The park is full of accessible food, including evidence of human feeding, so this effort has been ended. CDFW has now authorized staff from Oakland Animal Services to continue the effort, with a plan for CDFW to transport the turkey to a local wild area that has minimal human access and no access to hunters. This effort is ongoing. As soon as the turkey is safely removed, the park will reopen immediately. In the hopes of preventing another such situation, we will continue to work with our park volunteers, neighbors and visitors to educate everyone on the dangers of feeding wildlife. See more

I am posting the following update from Ann Dunn of Oakland Animal Services. Please see official notice above.

Update on the male turkey at Rose Garden from Rosarian This morning Ann Dunn, Animal Control Services, emailed the Morcom Rose Garden's Rosarian that no decision has yet been make regarding the tom turkey. "There is currently a community-led effort to ask California Department of Fish and Wildlife to allow relocation. I am hoping that will be the resolution to this situation."... From Nancy: Many people have been contacting Animal Control wanting the turkey's life to be saved but also requesting that the CA Fish and Wildlife allow the rule of "no relocation of wildlife" to be ignored in this case, so that the turkey can be caught (not an easy job) and released elsewhere. We do not know whether, at the same time, attempts will be made to capture the hens and poults to relocate those as well. Volunteers are hopeful this will be the case, because the turkey population is not only destructive to the rose plants, their excrement is problematic both for visitors to avoid and volunteers to work near, given the strong odor. In addition, it is not easily removed from pavement, so that hoses and precious water are the only way to get it off. Taking time to clean turkey poop instead of weeding and pruning is not in our "job description," but our ultimate goal is to make the garden as pleasant to visit as possible, and the many complaints from visitors about the poop problem makes this task more compelling. We continue to request that all but recently active volunteers (known as Deadheaders) stay out of the garden until the situation is resolved. In the past two days, the turkey ran after and attempted to peck five more people, none of whom were directly approaching it, some of whom were quite distant at the time of attack. In other words, despite the feeding having stopped at least two weeks ago, and very few people in the garden, the male turkey is still randomly agitated and aggressive. Animal Control has been told of the precise circumstances of each of these instances.

New Update from OAS Garden to remain closed for approximately 2 more weeks