The once-beautiful Warner Park Rose Garden has been bulldozed and the site will become a stormwater retention pond.

Larry Zehnder, city parks and recreation director, said the city could no longer afford to keep up the rose garden and volunteers were not available.

He said when the site was cleared recently, there were only a few rose bushes left at the garden that once had 1,000 bushes of an endless variety.

Mr. Zehnder said the city would consider setting up another rose garden elsewhere if a group of gardening volunteers would pledge to keep it up. He said the Master Gardeners group has established a perennial garden on city property by the Tennessee Aquarium.

Mr. Zehnder said there is a significant flooding problem in the Warner Park area, and the retention pond will be part of the solution for that.

Chattanoogan Ted Mills, known nationwide as the "Rose Doc," said he is saddened by the loss of the Warner Park Rose Garden.

Mr. Mills said, "I drove by there and saw where they had bulldozed the garden and cut down the trees. I said, 'Oh, no, it's not going to come to that.' It makes me very sad."

He said the Warner Park Rose Garden was established in 1932 as the first public rose garden in the state through the authorization of the American Rose Society. He said the garden flourished for many years, and he inspected it each year to make sure it stayed accredited. After a time, he said, "It got kind of rundown."

Mr. Mills said when Gene Roberts was mayor, he visited the rose garden and saw "they had no irrigation, the beds were not raised, it was not the correct soil."

He said he went to Mayor Roberts and together they took a proposal to the City Commission about reviving the Warner Park Rose Garden. He asked the city to donate the employees and equipment to rebuild it under his supervision.

Mr. Mills, who invented his own successful rose food and still markets it, said, "I told them I would get 1,000 roses donated. That made their ears perk up."

He said the commissioners agreed to his proposal and the garden was revived. He said he got California rose grower friends to ship the thousand roses here at no cost.

He said, "It was beautiful. We had tree roses, hybrid tea, floribundas. People really enjoyed coming to see them."

But he said over the years, the rose garden again declined.

Mr. Mills said he has trouble understanding it since he is almost 85 and still tends to 200 rose bushes by himself at his home.