"Remember Me" Rose Garden, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating rose gardens as living tributes to the victims of September 11, 2001, announces "Forty Heroes", a golden yellow rose named in honor of the crew and passengers of United Flight 93. With undaunted courage, this group of people fought back and forced hijackers to crash the plane in rural Pennsylvania instead of the intended target in Washington, D.C.
"Forty Heroes" will be the first rose planted in the "Remember Me" Rose Garden rose test plot at Moore Playground in East Harlem (corner of East Madison Avenue and 130th and 131st Streets), a space provided by New York Parks & Recreation Department. The introduction and planting of "Forty Heroes" is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, April 27 as part of the NYC GROWS celebration of National Garden Month.
Those taking part in the planting include Flight 93 family members; Lt. Bob Jackson of FDNY; Sue Casey and Michael Mitchell of "Remember Me" Rose Garden; and Tony Vargo, vice president and CFO of the National Gardening Association.
"Forty Heroes" was hybridized by Ping Lim of Bailey Nurseries, Inc., and will be available at retail garden centers in 2008.
"Each person on Flight 93 was on their own journey in life, and for whatever reason they were brought together to change the course of our lives and history,” says Sue Casey, president of "Remember Me" Rose Garden. “It is with pride that we honor them today with 'Forty Heroes.'"
The rose test plot will be shared with the city of New York during NYC GROWS and with the whole country during National Garden Month, says NGA president Michael Metallo. “Gardens are places of healing for individuals, neighborhoods, and entire nations, and we need them in our lives.”
National Garden Month and NYC GROWS are programs of NGA. To learn more, visit www.garden.org.