SARATOGA SPRINGS — A rose garden honoring Marylou Whitney will be created in Congress Park near the entrance where the local philanthropist and horse owner traditionally enters the Canfield Casino for her annual black-tie gala celebrating the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course.
The garden will feature a new specially bred, long-stem pink tea rose named in her honor, an 85th birthday gift from her husband, John Hendrickson, who commissioned it as "an endearing legacy."
The new garden — including the rose bushes, the planting and nurturing process, and an identifying brass plaque — are being donated to the city by Whitney’s friends, in her honor, on the occasion of her Christmas Eve birthday. The gift was announced Thursday at a birthday party with friends and family in Saratoga Springs.
The first crop of the Marylou Whitney rose is being grown now, and will produce yearling bushes this season. More will be rooted from the mother bushes, so that the Marylou Whitney rose bushes can be marketed world wide by online rose companies. Locally, Dehn’s Flowers will retail them.
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