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At the edge of the rock garden is a medium-sized chittamwood tree. Lately the best of the gardens have been there. There is rock garden on the northeast corner. Lately, other park users have been calling the police about unruly romping dogs, and the dog owners may eventually find that it is a better idea to take their dogs to one of the two City 'bark parks' (at Joe Station or Hunter Park) instead. The only drawback is the dog owners who treat it as an off-leash dog park, in spite of posted rules throughout Woodward Park, about keeping pets on leash or under control.

There is an arboretum on the southeast side, with curving sidewalks and interesting mature specimen trees. The hillside has been bare for some time.

The once-spectacular mature naturalistic plantings were replaced by tight little military rows of shrubs trimmed into squat buttons. So the stunning Exbury hybrid azaleas eventually failed and had to be replaced with the nice but ordinary oakleaf hydrangeas being put in all over the parks wherever there was a gap in the plantings that year.

When the City of Tulsa decided not to hire anyone to replace retiring staff, the tasks of the chief horticulturist were added to the duties of someone who already had a full-time job supervising park maintenance staff. The gentle rocky bluffs on the northwest side once held a variety of azaleas that were one of the most glorious spring displays in the state. The production greenhouses are gone, but a lovely old glass house still shelters a superb collection of plants. The plantings around the Tulsa Garden Center can be non-existent, or a splash of color and vibrant with butterflies. The sunken garden can be spectacular, or empty. Woodward Park has many other horticultural features. The All-American Rose Test Garden to the east is completely gone. Today, most of the Rose Garden has been dug up and seeded with grass, a victim of a rose fungus and too many budget cuts. The heart of the park was once the Rose Garden, a formal garden on several descending terraces with world-class rose plantings.

Thirty years ago, I would have rated it 5 stars. The rock work and the 'bones' of the park have held up well. The park is an art deco classic, created during the 1930s by the WPA. I live walking distance from Woodward Park.

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