Both of San Jose's rose gardens should be in bloom.
San Jose Heritage rose garden
San Jose Municipal rose garden

SJ Heritage is larger and has many many OGR. Municipal garden is mostly modern roses.

I don't know where exactly in East Bay you are staying, but San Jose, South Bay, is about 1 to 1 and half hour away at the most.

Regan Nursery is in East Bay, border of Fremont and Union City, but I think they get rid of their roses by end of Sept. You can check with them though.

Enjoy your trip,
FJ

Most all kinds of roses bloom around here in late Oct, except the "once blooming" ones, and this year some of THOSE are blooming now, so who knows? We had a really cool summer for us - the roses love it. Most of my roses put out some bloom in Oct, Nov, and Dec - we really have a 12 month season. My old tea roses, in particular, love October, but so do many of the HTs.

So, I would check out the gardens noted above. Also, if you can get up to Sacramento (depending on where you are in the East Bay, it might be even closer than San Jose), be sure to go to the Sacramento Historic Cemetery Old Rose Garden - it is amazing. They have planted old roses rescued from all over No Cal there, among the historic grave stones. By October Sacramento will have cooled down to livable temperatures for humans.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

Jackie

I imagine there'll be alot blooming. In the Eastbay there's the Berkely Rose Garden, the Morecome Ampitheatre, Heather Farm in Walnut Creek, the Berkely Botanical Garden. There are other interesting places that aren't rose gardens. It's a wonderful time of year in Northern California.

Oh I can't stand it! Roses still going strong out there. Here in coastal New England, the repeat roses are throwing out a few blooms, but it's cooling off fast. It was time today to bury my baby potted climbers in the garden ground, and in a few weeks, deeply mulch them with manure (12") for the winter.

Thanks for the suggestions. As some OGR webbers may know, I took a long rose-sniffing trip to northern CA in April and got to see the big rose gardens. It's good to know that on this quick trip I can slip away from the family to stroll the Berkeley Rose Garden which I had to miss in April.

Seems to me that it's ALWAYS a wonderful time of year in Northern California.

Carol

Carol:

Although we have a very long growing season, we don't have blooms all time. In my yard, my roses go dormant in July and Aug. and start sign of growth in September. Some of my roses are in full flush, but the heat wave burnt most of those long anticipated blooms.

Another negative is the water bill!

Enjoy your trip,
FJ

Carol, I was so sorry that we didn't get a chance to talk when you came to Sacramento this spring. I still have Morcom in Oakland on my list to visit. You should have plenty of bloom to see. Our recent heat wave took a bit of a toll, but roses are resilient. I hope so, because I'm leading a garden tour on the 23rd. Have a wonderful visit!
Anita

Anita, I took my d-i-l to the Cemetery so although I saw you (and hung around at the back of your lecture for a while) I felt obliged to escort her that day. I did get to meet jerijen and mendocinorose, though. This time it's a short family visit. Maybe next time I can go to Sacramento again, and get to talk with you.

BTW the small town where my rose garden is starting is also the town where the Brownell roses originated, and are still being propagated by Dr. Brownell's granddaughter. Not officially an Old Garden Rose, I know; but they are good for colder zones.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Brownell rose article