On a cloudless Sunday morning in Oakland, people converged at the Morcom Rose Garden the same way they always had: leisurely pushing strollers along the winding pavement and stopping to park their bikes and take in the sunshine. But the scenery around them was quite different.
On Oct. 16, a “major” theft took place at the idyllic site when “fifty-one rose bushes were stolen or uprooted and left to die,” according to a sign posted to a bulletin board in front of the garden’s blue reflecting pool. Close to a month later, the plots near the entrance still appear barren and desolate, with once-fluorishing beds of pink and red flowers turned to gnarled stumps of twigs and thorns.
According to the Friends of the Oakland Rose Garden, the volunteer organization that posted the note, rose bushes have been stolen in the past, but never quite to this extent. The bushes were ripped out without digging the roots to preserve them. The thief or thieves reportedly also attempted to tear out one bush entirely but were unsuccessful.
“Few, if any, will survive, given the breakage,” the note read. “Volunteers and city staff are quite discouraged, given that many years and hours of work collecting, grafting, establishing the plants and labeling were destroyed that night, leaving empty holes in the ground.”…