Oakland’s Morcom Rose Garden, a collection of thousands of showy shrubs and vines tucked away in a amphitheater setting in the Grand Lake neighborhood, was recently vandalized by thieves who stole 51 rose bushes.
The Oct. 16 theft wasn’t the first time plants at the city park have been damaged or stolen. However, according to Nancy Friedman, a volunteer gardener who helps tend and prune the collection, this most recent incident was especially upsetting.
“Volunteers and city staff are very discouraged because of the many years of hard work put into collecting, grafting, establishing, and labeling the plants that were destroyed that night, leaving empty holes in the ground,” Friedman wrote in the Splashpad News, where the theft was first reported…