SO, ARE YOU A “SOPHISTICATED ROSE GROWER”?
By Baxter Williams Houston Rose Society
Many of us began growing roses years ago. I was so fascinated with their colors and fragrances, it was easy to fall in love with the “Queen of Flowers.” I have never regretted that choice, and look forward to each new opportunity to learn more about them.
The variety choices that were available when I first became enamored have mostly gone away in favor of newer ones, but their memories linger on. Who could forget the beauty of a “Peace” rose, or the overwhelming fragrance of a “Mister Lincoln”? And would you believe that those two are still available in your local nursery after 60+ years?
But what of the new ones? Are they fragrant? Colorful? Would I want one in a vase on the dining table at the evening meal?
Rose specialists are coming to Houston Oct 21-23 to share their experiences and advances in roses. What a perfect opportunity to find out the latest advances in rose horticulture!
Hybridizer Ping Lim will talk about exciting hybrids he has brought to market over the years and roses that soon to be in local nurseries. These varieties are mostly disease-free, easy-care and fragrant, roses a casual gardener can grow, but growers who “know” roses have much to say about their virtues.
His “arsenal” of roses include “Love and Peace” (AARS 2002); “DayDream” (AARS 2005); “Rainbow Sorbet” (AARS 2006); 25 own-root varieties of “Easy Elegance®” roses; and “FlyingKiss” (Best Climber in the Biltmore International Rose Trials). His pictures will really show you some of the future of good roses.
Every marriage partner likes beautiful blooms in a vase on Anniversary Day. Those blooms will be on long stems and, hopefully, have strong fragrance (and while I like to see a lot of color in the garden, roses for anniversaries are not likely to be “Knock Out.”)
What wife would not be happy with a rose variety named for her? “Dona Martin” (left above) is an absolutely gorgeous Hybrid Tea rose that has captured the minds of many serious rose growers. (The real Dona Martin is a charmer, too.) ARS Vice President Bob Martin has a number of hybridizations to his name, the kinds that do well in competition. “Butter Cream”, “Peter Cottontail”, and “Peachy Cheeks” are of the same quality as “Dona Martin”, and are well-known to rose enthusiasts. To visit Bob and Dona’s garden is to see great 400+ roses in a “happy” state. The Martin’s magnificent rose bushes are full of exhibition roses, the kinds that sophisticated rose growers enjoy. Also on the agenda:
– Dr. Larry Unruh, Technical Director of American Plant Food Corporation, who will recommends proper blends of fertilizers to adjust fertility for various food crops and will share soil tests of our own rose gardens. He is former director of the Soil, Water and Forage Laboratory at Texas A&M University.
– Dr. Alan Henn, specialist in diseases of fruit, home lawns, ornamentals and nematodes. We are all familiar with blackspot or mildew, but Alan has analyzed other serious maladies. He will share with us solutions to issues that commercial rose producers have faced, and that might also become problems for our own gardens
