City of Santa Barbara calling volunteers for annual Pruning Day at Mission Historical Park Saturday

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - If you enjoy being around roses, the City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department welcomes you to its annual rose pruning day on Saturday.

The city is calling all volunteers to help prune at the Mission Historical Park just across from the Old Mission in Santa Barbara.

A January tradition for decades, volunteers get to spend the morning at the A.C. Postel Memorial Rose Garden to prune the roughly 1-acre garden.

The purpose of pruning roses is in preparation for its spring growth.

In recent years, the event has drawn up to 100 people.

The city says volunteers play a vital role in caring for the more than 1,500 rose bushes in the park.

"We hope to have a lot of volunteers to finish pruning because without them we have a lot of work with Parks and Rec and we don't have as much staff as we would like to have so this is a great event that helps us a lot," said employee Simon Herrera of the City of Santa Barbara Parks and Rec Department.

The rose pruning event is happening on Saturday, Jan. 11 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Mission Historical Park.