Each rose bed is planted with a single variety, and no other flowers, trees, or shrubs. The garden covers 7 of the park's 13 acres, and has about 11,000 varieties: floribunda, grandiflora, hybrid tea, climber and shrub roses. The garden's eastern end features a decorative observation tower, added to the garden in the 1980s. Its center features a fountain, installed in 1957 and renovated in 2012. The garden's western stone and iron fence entrance was completed in 2017. The Heritage Rose Garden features roses cultivated before 1867, the date accepted for the beginning of modern roses. The garden was dedicated in 1986. Roses include centifolias, damasks, gallicas, and rugosas. Other plantings The Perennial Garden, south of the Formal Rose Garden, has eight large beds and about 100 varieties of perennial plants, bulbs, trees, and shrubs. Its plantings change throughout the year, given Ohio's long growing season from March to November. The garden was part of the park's original landscape plan, but was only completed in the early 1970s. The Northview Buckeye Garden Club has planned and maintained it since 1997. The Herb Garden, just east of the Perennial Garden, has about 100 herbs and functional plants. There are nine thematic beds - culinary, tea, medicinal, dye, edible flowers, fragrance, rose, pollinator, and Native American. The Herb Garden was created in 1976, after severe winters damaged many of the roses originally planted here. The Columbus Horticultural Society has planned and maintained the garden since its opening. The Backyard Garden, in the northwest corner of the park, has a wide variety of bulbs, perennials, shrubs, and ornamental trees, intended to give guests ideas for their own gardens. The garden was developed from 2007 to 2009, and is the first public Earth-Kind Garden outside the American South. It was originally planned to test commercially-available roses without the use of fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, or other special maintenance, though other plantings have been added, with conservation and ease of care in mind. The Arboretum is an extensive collection of trees, one of the park's year-round features. It has approximately 138 tree and shrub varieties. The Arboretum provides a natural habitat for native birds of Ohio, migratory birds, pollinators, and insects. History Columbus City Council approved the purchase of 106 acres of the E. A. Fuller Farm that was to become Whetstone Park in 1944. The land was used for victory gardens during World War II