PORTLAND, Ore. — On a warm, sunny day atop a hill overlooking downtown Portland, the smell of roses and the “oohs” and “ahhs” of garden visitors buffer the noise of the city.

From the side of a hobbit-like hut emerges Rachel Burlington, the curator for the city’s International Rose Test Gardens, looking every bit a nursery grower in her muddy boots.

Although she calls herself a curator, Burlington’s work at one of Portland’s oldest and most popular attractions is to grow roses, promote new varieties and encourage and educate commercial and amateur rose growers.

Like any other farmer, her concerns are with the health of the crop — irrigation, weeds, pests, fungal treatments, fertilizers and inventory are on her daily checklist.

Unlike other farmers, Burlington works around 700,000 visitors per year, and doesn’t sell her crop.

“We’re here for inspiration, to inspire people to grow roses,” she said. “We don’t sell roses.”

A Pennsylvania native, Burlington in 2011 earned her bachelor of science degree in floriculture and nursery crop production at Delaware Valley University before taking a job at the Botanical Gardens in her home state.

In 2017, a friend sent her the position description listed by the City of Portland’s Parks Department, which owns the gardens.

It was a scary move across country, she said. “But it is the perfect way to get to know the community.”

Her work at Portland’s gardens is divided into growing and maintenance seasons. During each she schedules and manages parks and volunteer crews to replant beds, repair irrigation equipment and tools, test soil, conduct irrigation audits, prune, spray and create strategies to conserve resources while improving plant health.

Although the garden is maintained to test and display roses, recent innovations make it easier for visitors to purchase their favorite varieties. Many of the identifying tags in the flower beds include QR computer codes that can be scanned, taking visitors directly to the grower’s or nursery’s website for more information.

Burlington replaces 10 beds or more per year with new varieties, removing the roses that are less commercially available or that have not survived well, while maintaining some that are historically significant.

All of the roses are donated to the gardens by growers who want to showcase their newly released rose cultivars.

“Here, you get to see them in their prime,” she said of the main beds. Many nursery owners come to the gardens to photograph their roses in bloom, to use for tags on their bare-root stock.

Throughout the test gardens, visitors can see independent and American Garden Rose Selections trials underway. Portland is one of 11 AGRS sites in U.S. where roses already available to the public are evaluated. In a portion of the garden, Burlington and other garden staff evaluate new breeds and crosses before they are released to the public.

Each test rose is scored based on the grower’s needs — color, sustainability, or disease resistance, for example. The roses are watched but not treated, and during the two-year evaluation, the grower gets a report.

“But really, the whole garden is an informal trial,” Burlington said. How the roses in the main gardens fare on the hillsides of Portland says a lot about how they may eventually appeal to the public.

“This is a great place to shop. Come as you are. Bring your camera. There’s no wrong way to enjoy them.”

The International Rose Test Gardens include nearly 5 acres of roses with 10,000 plants and 625 varieties.

These public gardens are part of the 450-acre Washington Park that includes the Oregon Zoo, Hoyt Arboretum, Portland Japanese Garden, World Forestry Center, and several memorials, playgrounds and trails.

The gardens were established in 1917, after English hybridists began sending their roses to Portland for safe haven from the ravages of World War I. The garden was dedicated in 1924.

In addition to the test gardens, the Royal Rosarian Garden, the Shakespeare Garden and the Miniature Garden all feature arches, fountains, benches and sculptures among the beds of roses.

Roses are typically in bloom May through October. Free guided tours are available at 1 p.m. daily Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. Admission is free.

At Portland test garden, everything is coming up roses

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