ROSEGASMS

Spring is in the air in Tampa

2012-01-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

What a delight to see and smell blooms on 'Mme. Antoine Marie', "Pink Cracker Rose", 'Marechal Neil', "Barfield White Climber", Rosa bracteata, "Fairmount Prosperpine', my own hybrids 'Gainesville Garnet', 'Sarasota Spice' and 'Gold Blush' plus 'Reve d'Or', "Maggie", 'Teasing Georgia', 'Archduke Charles' and 'Cramoisi Superieur'.

2012-01-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

I was blown away yesterday ...the mailman brought me a GIANT specimen of a mega-rare climbing rose I've wanted since 1994....'Easlea's Golden Rambler'. And it was FREE from Cliff Orent of Desert Roses! I was on the phone with a local friend as I opened the box and got teary eyed when I read the tag! Attached is a link to a site with data and photos, plus I will attach a pic posted here recently by a Canadian rosarian of a PORTION of his monster plant. I've only met it twice....once at Peter Beales' nursery in England, and in author Bill Grant in Aptos, California, a huge hulking plant the size of a large garden shed. Thanks Cliff!!!!!

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1698&tab=1

Woo Hoo!

2012-01-10T05:36:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I got my roses' sales royalty check for 2011 from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium.....$35! I better work harder promoting my rose breeding work!

So much to be thankful for.....

2012-01-01T11:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXDMoiEkyuQ&feature=youtu.be

'Duchesse de Brabant'

2011-12-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

This old Tea is easily in my Top Favorite Roses list. I love the very complex, dry mingling of Tea and hardwood smoke and citrus peel into the evocative fragrance. The transparent colors

remind me of the interior of a conch shell.

"York Street Yellow"

2011-12-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Years ago Denver rosarian Toni Tichy discovered this charming, vigorous and VERY cold hardy shrub rose in a yard on York Street some blocks south of Colfax Avenue, on the east side. Heavy hip setter of BIG hips; I got one so-so hybrid of it. I still suspect that it is a Brownell hybrid. It failed here in Tampa a few times but is now fairly happy in a Restricted Drainage tree pot, and once again it grows and buds and blooms best when cool. To my nose, the petals are Tea scented, but the stamens are fairly spicy, with a touch of the cinnamon-clove of Rosa moschata. I plan on crossing it with 'Duchesse de Brabant' just to see what results a few years down the road. Thank you Toni! In the late 1990s I mailed starter cuttings of it, and most of Toni's remarkable finds at Denver's Riverside Cemetery, to Heather Campbell at High Country Roses in Utah so her steadfast work can appear in many gardens....I think she still carries it plus some of the Mystery Roses I discovered in Denver's Fairmount Cemetery plus my own hybrid 'Four Inch Heels'. John

A Honeybee Enjoying 'Old Blush'

2011-12-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

"Barfield White Climber"

2011-12-17T15:20:00.000-08:00

I love this VERY healthy vigorous thorn-less climbing rose for central Florida, in particular the rich, anise-fennel perfume of NEWLY opened blooms. Special thanks to Patty Barfield of 'Special Touch Roses' for years ago selling me my original plants of this very enigmatic Mystery Rose.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40593

Roses in winter in Tampa.....

2011-12-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

One more reason I hated those LONG Denver winters....blooms of these and more grace my south Tampa yard today..."Barfield White Climber", 'Marechal Neil', 'Mme. Antoine Marie', 'Oklahoma', 'Louise Odier', "Pink Cracker Rose", 'Cramoisi Superieur', 'Teasing Georgia', 'Duchesse de Brabant', 'Rosa bracteata', two Mystery Red Chinas, a Mystery Polyantha from a local nursery, my own 'Sarasota Spice', "Maggie", 'Abraham Darby', "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" (from Denver's Fairmount Cemetery), 'Nastarana', 'Safrano', 'Reve d'Or', 'Graham Thomas'. Oh how I love Tampa!

'Louise Odier'

2011-11-30T01:18:00.000-08:00

As I prepared to leave my Denver home for good, for one last LONG road trip to Tampa in late November 2002, I verbally said goodbye to 1684 Willow Street and said goodbye, literally, to a few beloved roses in my front yard. One farewell went to this sensuously fragrant gem (see link below) that in my Denver yard was a very tall, winter hardy, pillar rose that needed to be lashed to two tall heavy pipes pounded deep into that clay soil.....here, in a restricted drainage 15 gallon tree pot, it is a mannerly shrub rose. Visitors lucky enough to be here when new or nearly-new blooms are open seem astonished at the depth and sweetness and pungency of that classic Damask Rose perfume, though my picky nose picks up hints of Tea rose along the lines of 'Mrs. B. R. Cant'.

Mike Shoup gave me this plant four years ago I believe when I gave a talk on 'Probiotic Rose Growing' at his Fall Roses Festival in Brenham, Texas. (see my article on this topic in the groundbreaking book 'The Sustainable Rose Garden' by Newbury Books). As I chose it from his growing field I felt it to be a VERY long shot since it was almost unmanageably vigorous in my Denver yard but the gamble has paid off indeed. What a joy to see (and smell ) it blooming over and over all year long in my "Old Man" yard in Tampa.

In Denver, roses, especially Old Roses, with soul-stirring perfumes, are common.....here in Florida, roses PERIOD are very uncommon, and most encountered have little scent...so fragrance is perhaps THE top consideration of mine when trialing roses in my low water use, all organic gardens. 'Louise Odier' is stellar in that regard.

My treasured 'Louise Odier' grows in home made compost with no sprays ( a given for me since 1976) and is fed kitchen graywater, and, when I think of it, poop from the chickens and ducks, home made fish emulsion.....sometimes I pee on it when drinking beer and enjoying 420. It is much less leafy and bushy than my Denver specimen so I will try a hard pruning and a handful of Epsom salts in several weeks.

In Denver it was a very heavy hip setter...here very few set. I must make a point to boink it with 'Duchesse de Brabant' for fun.....just imagine the seedlings that could arise from such a cross!

Here are two pics from yesterday morning.

If you want to try it in your garden call The Antique Rose Emporium at 1-800-441-0002 as their plants are own root, not grafted.

Growing roses is humbling because they so often defy what we "know" about them by blessing us with heady blooms in spite of us!.

John

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.2052&tab=1

An article from my weekly column years ago in the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News

2011-11-29T03:33:00.000-08:00

ROSES ARE A PAIN TO GROW!

by John Starnes

Roses are a real pain to grow.everybody knows THAT! Be they purchased as cheap bare-root roses, or as expensive gorgeous potted specimens in full bloom, they promise colorful fragrance but usually deliver disappointment and guilt. We’re told they demand systemic insecticides and fungal sprays and powders (more guilt as we poison the environment) so we comply only to once again end up with sickly twigs whose only color is the perky plastic label hanging on long after all the leaves fall off. Each and every summer roses prove you are a plant murderer with a “brown thumb”. Roses are “expensive annuals”....everybody knows THAT!

And I agree with all this about GRAFTED roses, which until recently was all the public could buy. For the ease and profit margin of big growers in frost free regions of southern Texas and southern California, “grafted roses” are mass-produced by surgically attaching (grafting) pieces of a desirable rose variety ( say ‘Peace’ or ‘Baronne Prevost’ or ‘Graham Thomas’) onto the root system of an easily grown primitive rose, usually ‘Dr. Huey’, which is the lanky red rose that comes up where you KNOW you planted a rose of a different color! Shipped as dormant bare root plants to Colorado in early spring then quickly grown to enticing perfection in cozy greenhouses in time for the “Spring Fever Shopping Frenzy” we all plunge into like salmon in a stream, grafted roses are like all those shiny new 1972 Vegas that broke down a few miles from the dealership.....pretty enough to buy but hardly designed to be a lasting value.

But “Own Root Roses”, like our grandmothers grew from cuttings they rooted under jars, while small and unimpressive initially, are the Toyotas of the rose world. We’ve all seen them thriving every summer in quaint neighborhoods, old cemeteries and private gardens. Due to their reliability and longevity, “Own Root Roses” are being planted in great numbers at the Denver Zoo by Director of Horticulture Merle Moore, who also has been director of the Denver Botanic Gardens. He knows his stuff! Choose a full sun location, and plant your own root rose deeply in a big hole improved with a lot of compost and a couple handfuls of superphosphate or bone meal. Cover it all with a couple inches of the heavy clay soil you removed when digging the hole, apply a few inches of mulch, water deeply, then get on with your busy life. So planted, an own-root rose will barely protrude above the soil line and hence look a little silly, but it will spend that first season developing an admirable root system. Like all woody perennials, own root roses are slow at first but mature in their third year in the garden, hence the charming turn-of-the-century truism about them....”First year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap!”

All they need is a lot of sunshine, a pruning late each April to remove winter damage, a late April feeding of organics (I like 1 cup each of kelp meal, Ringer Lawn Restore, epsom salts, alfalfa pellets, fresh horse poop plus one cup of ‘Calf Manna’ from a feedstore) and 3-4 deep waterings per month. My favorite mulch for them is the chipped branches from a tree trimming service A simple soap spray made from a bar of ‘Kirk’s Castile’ or “Octagon Soap’ is the only pesticide I use to control aphids and blackspot and mildew in my clients’ rose gardens, or my own collection of approximately 130 varieties of own root roses, so the petals and hips are safe to use in the kitchen. Not weakened by being grafted onto a foreign root system, they will settle in for decades of life in your landscape, blessing you with the fragrant charm and grace only roses can offer the eye, nose and heart.

Until recently, “own root roses” were very hard to acquire unless one, like me, was an obsessed rosarian who’d scoured the U.S. for obscure little catalogs. But widespread disdain for grafted roses, and the growing, glowing reputation of easy-to-grow “Own Root Roses”, has happily resulted in several Colorado nurseries offering over 200 varieties of Old-Fashioned and Modern Roses on their own roots this spring! So ignore the big flashy “Elvis” roses grafted onto their platform shoes for extra height, and treat yourself to the reliable, smaller-at-first “Own Root Roses” that will be a joy to grow, organically, year after year. As you improve with age, so will they!

So what do I find on my front porch today once home from errands?

2011-11-23T16:55:00.000-08:00

A plant of the lovely Climbing Tea 'E. Veyrat Hermanos' that Pam Greenewald of Angel Gardens sent me! I loved mine for years as it thrived on rebar by my front door, but it finally succumbed to drought and being CONSUMED first by 'Francois Juranville' then 'Mermaid'. Here are some pics from her heyday here. Thanks Pam!! John

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.1692&tab=1

Giving My Hybrids This Holiday Season

2011-11-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

I've been breeding roses since the early 1990s and a few of the fragrant tough roses I've bred for Florida are available own root and organically grown from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium in Texas. They pay me a $1 royalty per rose sold. I've bought many roses from them since 1989 for my two landscape businesses and pleasure and as breeders, and many thousands of the readers in my newspaper columns in The Rocky Mountain News and The St. Pete Times are happy customers of theirs. If you order a rose as a holiday gift they mail the lucky recipient first a nice greeting card letting them know of your purchase. They currently offer my hybrids 'Sarasota Spice', a SUPER fragrant white climber, 'Gold Blush', an apricot, cinnamon-clove scented bushy climber, and 'Gainesville Garnet', a tall flexible caned red climber with a light tea rose and apple perfume. Their number is: 1 800 441 0002

Update On The Revamping Of My Front Yard and Roses

2011-11-21T11:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFCQFmns4vo

'Conrad Ferdinand Meyer'

2011-11-18T05:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPhmrrz-sHc

Roses in buried 5-7 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens

2011-11-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I nearly completed the revamp of a bed out front swallowed long ago first by the giant rose 'Mermaid' then perennial morning glory and bidens Spanish Needle. Now it contains the roses "Maggie", Rosa moschata, 'Abraham Darby', 'Cloth of Gold' and a Mystery White Climber rooted by my friend Mary Jo ( each in a buried Water Wise Container Garden to DRASTICALLY cut my water use), plus several perennials. Fresh mulch, a sowing along the border of Dwarf Jewel Mix nasturtiums, a... sprinking of a few hundred seeds of Sweet Alyssum Carpet of Snow, then a deep watering. I may next tuck in a few tomatoes, then in about a week some flower seedlings now in starter trays including Purple Lemon Mint, Malva sylvestris, snapdragons, Dame's Rocket plus some perennial onions. Those folks who've seen my front yard at its jungly worst already would not recognize it...and I'm only about 40% done! woo hoo! Today I finish repainting the tops of the concrete edgings with bright white latex paint that Mary Jo scavenged for me. Pics, maybe a video, in a few weeks.

I use a 3/4 inch paddle bit to make the drainage holes on the SIDES, three inches from the bottom of each bucket, giving each rose that damp soil zone in each Water Wise Container Garden below the holes as over the years, drought, the absence of hurricanes and draconian watering restrictions, plus my commitment to low water use, has decimated what by 2004 was a stunning collection of 170 roses out front. When the rose gets rootbound the roots can exit those holes down deep where the mulched sandy soil will be much damper. I plan on doing this with about 100 roses over the next six months or so. A LOT of digging and a LOT of hauling away to the back yard of the soil I excavate but I want my roses back BUT this time with a far greater degree of water sensibility.

An article from my weekly column years ago in the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News

2011-10-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

DREAMING OF ENGLISH ROSES?

David Austin’s ‘English Roses’ are a stroke of creative and botanical genius, combining the petal-packed form and soul-penetrating fragrances of once-blooming Old Roses, with the rich colors of repeat-blooming Modern Roses. One could easily dive headfirst into the sweet sumptuous blossom of the apricot-toned ‘Abraham Darby’, or linger nosefirst over the soft yellow, honey-scented ‘Mary Webb’. The deep garnet red and magenta blooms of ‘Othello’ are like porcelain bowls filled with a decadent Old Rose potpourri, while the snowy blossoms of ‘Fair Bianca’ mimic all summer long the classic white Damask rose ‘Mme. Hardy’ but offer a startling perfume of anise and gardenia! And the rich yellow ‘Graham Thomas’ draws us near with great golden clusters of tea-scented blooms atop tall sturdy canes. The English Roses offer a tempting and sensuous feast for the eye, nose and heart of gardeners who often think of roses as fussy, frail and short-lived.

And with good reason! Who among us has not purchased a rose that looked so stunning in its pot that its beauty made us grab our wallet or purse, almost against our will? And how many of us then watched it sadly decline, once out of a greenhouse and in our “real world” garden? Hey, we watched the perky gardening dude on PBS and tried his almost edible sounding elixirs, or donned a gas mask and radiation suit and (after shooing the kids out of the yard) sprayed every toxic pesticide the experts told us we HAD to use to grow roses in Colorado. Riddled with gardener’s guilt we avoided top watering, applied expensive systemic fertilizers, begged Rocky Flats for nuclear waste to control bugs and fungi with, and we STILL ended up with a funky looking bundle of twigs gracing a garden now toxic enough to be an EPA Superfund site! What gives?

Once again, “grafted” roses are to blame. As with most of the roses we’ve all struggled and failed with, the vast majority of David Austin’s ‘English Roses’ are sold to the public as grafted plants, that is, the pretty part bedecked with blooms sits atop a foreign rootstock, usually “Dr. Huey’ or sometimes ‘Manetti’, both grown in MILD climates in south Texas or southern California then shipped dormant in February to greenhouses with ideal conditions, in which they are grown to enticing perfection JUST in time to hook us gardeners salivating with spring fever. Once in the garden this surgically united chimera is expected to then thrive, which is pretty much like transplanting (grafting) a gorilla’s arm into John Elway’s shoulder socket in hopes he’ll throw better! For the last 50 years or so the public has had little choice but to buy grafted roses, their short lives compelling people to buy them over and over before at last giving up because “roses are hard to grow”. And many a Colorado gardener has been similarly burned by grafted ‘English Roses’, dreaming of beautiful blooms but seeing canes too thin to hold them up, the bush dying after a winter or two. Sadly, David Austin’s gorgeous creations soon had a nightmare reputation for being a new race of wimpy roses.

But as with so many other kinds of roses, ‘English Roses’ become healthy vibrant SHRUBS in Colorado gardens if grown on their “own roots” in healthy soil. Our grandmothers and great grandmothers grew “own root” roses they rooted from cuttings, often under a jar in the garden. If you’ve ever rooted a cutting of a coleus, you made your own “own root” coleus, and chances are it grew just fine. Similarly, “own root” roses, no longer shackled by a foreign root system stuck beneath the main stem, are free to express their innate vigor and hence become low care bushes in the landscape that just HAPPEN to bear gorgeous, deeply fragrant roses. As it should be!

Luckily, several Colorado nurseries now offer ‘English Roses’ on their “own roots” as word of mouth creates more and more demand for them. Just choose a spot with full sun (though ‘Graham Thomas’ can take a bit more shade than many roses due to the ‘Iceberg’ in its parentage), dig a deep hole about 20” across and 20” deep, fill it halfway with compost, then toss in 1 cup each of Epsom salts, Ironite and superphosphate , plus 2 cups of dry dog food nuggets (rich in bone meal, their decay releases nitrogen and other nutrients while feeding the earthworms).

Stir this mixture well, then lower the root ball of your “own root” English Rose so that it will be planted 4” to 6” deeper than it was in the pot. Fill the space around the root ball about halfway with woody waste, like bush trimmings or chipped branches from a tree trimming service. Then just fill the hole back up with most of the soil you took out when digging the hole till you have a low dome of soil that has “buried alive” the lower half of the rose. Then mulch the mound of soil, with that poor little rose barely protruding, with 4” of either alfalfa hay or the chipped tree branches to help keep the soil moist and cool between waterings. Water the whole shebang a good long while to settle the ‘English Rose’ into its new home, where it will likely grow for many years. And be patientown root roses use their first year to make a fine root system, then burst into life the next two summers as they mature. Just remember that turn-of-the-century saying about own root roses”First year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap!”

Why plant so deeply? Hey, we all plant tomato seedlings extra deep to encourage extra roots to form.own root roses do the same thing. Plus planting a rose way down protects the original root system from winter’s cruel cold and summer’s dry heat. What’s also cool about deep planting is that the bush can send up vigorous new growth in spring if the canes (branches) are nuked by an especially bad winter or by a crazed teenager expressing his or her youthful angst with a lawn mower.

Late each April give your ‘English Roses’ a good organic feeding some folks swear by horse manure “tea” (steep 1 part FRESH horse manure in 5 parts water for 2 weeks ) , about 1 gallon per rose, or 6 tablespoons of fish emulsion per gallon of water. Or you can just lightly sprinkle some poultry manure or sheep dooky all around each rose as a potent source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, plus beneficial bacteria. An excellent but hard-to-find organic fertilizer teeming with disease-controlling beneficial bacteria is ‘Ringer Lawn Restore’one cup per small bush, or two cups per big established plants would be great. Give the entire garden a good long soak once a week, and keep it mulched with say 4” of those chipped tree branches. One cup of superphosphate sprinkled around each rose in July will help harden off the canes for the upcoming winter.

It’s easy to care for well-fed, own root ‘English Roses’, as their vigor will minimize bug and disease problems. A sharp blast of water from the garden hose nozzle will easily rid new growth of aphids each spring, and an old-fashioned, homemade lye soap spray will nuke powdery mildew and blackspot. Buy a bar of “Kirk’s Castile” soap, or better, (if you know someone in a southern state who will send you a few bars) is “Octagon” bar soap, that nasty brown soap grandma used on shirt collars or if she caught you cussing. For a small batch of soap spray, just rub the bar against a cheese grater, then dissolve 1 heaping tablespoon in 1 gallon of HOT tap water. Shake it a couple times per day, and in a day or two, pour it into a pump sprayer and just spray away till the rose plant is dripping. Repeat in 7-10 days. (Lye soap spray also works wonders for powdery mildew on monarda, phlox and lilacs.) Growing your roses organically like this lets you use the petals mixed with fresh or dried mint to brew some utterly delicious herb teas. (NEVER use rose petals or hips in the kitchen if you poison your roses with systemics or sprays! ).

Indulge yourself this spring with a few of the English Roses listed here known to grow well in metro Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs. And let’s give thanks to David Austin for his vision and 40 years of dedicated and insightful rose breeding, for he has given us all a perfect blend of the very best of the old and new to grace our gardens, and to fill our homes with color and delicious fragrances.

‘ENGLISH ROSES’ FOR COLORADO GARDENS:

Graham Thomas 1983

Tamora 1983

Mary Webb 1984

Abraham Darby 1985

Charles Austin 1973

Constance Spry 1961

St. Cecelia 1987

Proud Titania 1982

Ellen 1984

Leander 1982

Fisherman’s Friend 1988

The Pilgrim 1991

Gertrude Jekyll 1986

Belle Story 1984

Charles Rennie MacKintosh 1988

Evelyn 1991

Fair Bianca 1982

Heritage 1984

Jacquenetta 1983

Mary Rose 1983

Othello 1986

Queen Nefertiti 1988

Red Coat 1973

Sweet Juliet 1989

The Squire 1977

Wife of Bath 1969

William Shakespeare 1987

Windrush 1984

Moonbeam 1983

Symphony 1986

Yellow Charles Austin 1981

SOURCES:

Tagawa’s

Birdsall

Harlequin Market

The October Cool Down Is Here!

2011-10-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Not only are my winter veggies thriving, roses that sulked in the record-breaking heat this summer are sighing with relief and budding and blooming. What a joy to see and smell blossoms on 'Baronne Prevost', Fairmount Cemetery treasures "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" and "Fairmount Proserpine", my own hybrids 'Sarasota Spice' and 'Gold Blush' (both sold by The Antique Rose Emporium in Texas), 'Teasing Georgia', 'Mme. Antoine Marie', "Maggie", 'Cramoisi Superieur', 'Archduke Charles', R. bracteata, 'Marechal Neil', 'Belinda's Dream', 'Duchesse de Brabant', and 'Graham Thomas'. John

Hey "Grouchy"

2011-10-08T06:53:00.001-07:00

I tried to contact you via Google, did not work. The autumn cool down is here.....ready for those cuttings of "Barfield White Climber"? Those cuttings you sent me died.....care to try again? John

Answer to a blog reader about my pink Rambler derived from Blush Noisette

2011-10-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks Alice! I like my for-Florida hybrids to have a direct Florida reference in the name, like my 'Sarasota Spice' sold by The Antique Rose Emporium and 'Gainesville Garnet', both of which you can see at my Breeder page at http://www.helpmefind.com/ For months now Google will not let me respond directly to comments but I will try again, though I will likely have to cut and paste it as a new posting. John

Spider Mites

2011-10-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hi John,

I read your article about organic roses in Florida Gardening. I live in South Tampa and I have about 9 Knockout roses. I have continually had a problem with spider mites -- one year, they killed most of my bushes. How can I treat this organically?

Thank you,
Carroll

Hi Carroll,

I don't grow that rose but I've never had a problem with spider mites on my roses or those of my landscape clients since 1989, I believe due to the all-organic soil feeding regimen I use, and the presence of many beneficial predatory organisms. A short term solution is to simply blast them off the plants with a sharp stream of water from your garden hose, being sure to hit the undersides of the leaves. Plus you can spray the plants until they are dripping with the Kirk's castile soap solution (recipe in older postings here), again being sure to spray the undersides of the leaves where the mites reside.

I am curious...what do you feed the soil around your roses?

John

'Teasing Georgia'

2011-09-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of maybe three roses I have on the for-Florida Fortuniana rootstock, and it is very vigorous indeed, always needing to have LONG new canes tied to the rebar post. Now that there is a touch of fall in the air in Tampa (60s this weekend nights!) many of my favorite roses, including 'Teasing Georgia', are blooming. Here are some pics from past seasons. Enjoy, John

Teasing Georgia

Maggie

Duchesse de Brabant

Marechal Neil

one of my remontant Wichuraiana Climbers, half open

Reve d'Or

A Remontant Rambling OP Seedling of Blush Noisette Easily 7-8 Years Old

2011-09-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Good hip setter, very rambling, with a sweet scent reminscent of both R. multiflora and Blush Noisette. I may name and register it. John

That First Touch Of Autumn In Tampa......

2011-09-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

After a record breakingly hot summer this bit of cool has blessed me with buds and blooms on Mme. Antoine Marie, Duchesse de Brabant, Marechal Neil, Gold Blush, Cramoisi Superieur, Gainesville Garnet, C. F. Meyer, Rosa bracteata, Oklahoma, Baronne Prevost, Reve d'Or, Teasing Georgia, Coquette des Blanches, "York Street Yellow" and more! John

2011-08-25T10:38:00.001-07:00

"If you follow your bliss, you'll have your bliss whether you have money or not. If you follow money, you may lose the money, and then you don't have even that. The secure way is really the insecure way and the way in which the richness of the quest accumulates is the right way." - Joseph Campbell

Low Tech Rose Propagation

2011-08-22T08:26:00.003-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T6fKtf1Kt0

Water Wise Container Gardens For Roses

2011-08-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

With their 7/8 inch drainage holes three inches from the bottom these bucket gardens allow the roses tlo survive the ongoing drought and watering restrictions and once root bound, they can send new roots out of the holes way down deep where the mulched soil will be damp. Lots of work and digging, but I am determined to again have a vast roses collection but THIS time one that is far more water responsible. John

Roses in Tampa's Humid Heat

2011-08-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a cooker lately, but nonetheless I've been enjoying blooms from own-root, organically-grown plants of 'Ducher', 'Don Juan', 'Cramoisi Superieur', "JoAn's Pink Perpetual", 'Baronne Prevost', "Fairmount Proserpine", Rosa bracteata, 'Duchesse de Brabant', 'Coquette des Blanches', "Pink Cracker Rose", "Dade City Red China", a few of my own hybrids, 'Mme. Antoine Marie', 'Archduke Charles', plus my plants of 'Marechal Neil' and 'Teasing Georgia' budded on Fortuniana. John

That Roses Link Does Not Work....Hmmmmm

2011-07-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well if you'd like to see that pic of my Denver home and roses do as I did...go to Google and type in:
1684 Willow Street Denver CO 80220

That was my first home (not counting my mobile home I owned in Tampa in the 1980s) and nice that I paid $53,000 for that little 829 square foot house in 1987, its equity (I made countless extra principal payments over the years) bought THIS home for $60,000 cash November of 1998, and I sold it for $153,500 JUST before the bottom fell out. Oh those were some hard yet heady years out there, trapped in that horrid climate by a VERY upside down mortgage for many years until things turned around. But how that home made my current ease, and love of Old Roses possible, is sweet poetic justice. John

Own Root Roses Still Thriving At My Old Denver Home!

2011-07-22T07:46:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a heads up from my long time customer and friend Donna Bevis, I learned of this photo taken some June (which year I'd love to know) of my home in Denver where I fell in love with own root Old Roses in 1989. I moved out November of 2002, it was a poorly maintained rental for two years, but just look at all those roses! This picture evokes a whole ocean of memories. John

http://www.homes.com/Home-Prices/ID-500012432738/1684-WILLOW-ST/

'Conrad Ferdinand Meyer' in Tampa

2011-07-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

Despite humid heat hitting the upper 90s, my three year old plant in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden has sent out a wave of new growth and this first bloom. That smell!!! In Denver my plant was utterly cold hardy and HUGE, You can buy it from the good folks at The Antique Rose Emporium 1-800-441-0002. John

New Roses for Former 'Mermaid' Bed

2011-07-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

Today I plan on choosing from my inventory out back likely candidates to be planted in 5 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens then buried in that bed that currently is home to "Pink Cracker Rose", "Walnut Street Yellow" (a Wichuraina Rambler found in Boulder by Mikl and Eve Brawner of Harlequins Gardens nursery there) and a recently purchased own root Mystery Rose that I suspect is 'Belinda'. I am leaning towards 'General Jacqueminot', 'Mrs. B. R. Cant', 'Nastarana' and a few other shrubs, plus will choose two climbers for the two naked rebars in that bed. I am planting annuals and perennials in between the roses, with daylilies and Louisiana Iris in buried 4 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens due to their thirsty natures. I recently had a big pile of beautiful mulch delivered by Independent Tree Service here in Tampa and am swathing the front beds with it, then redoing the pathways with nice fresh red pine needles I rake from my neighbor Theresa's yard.

One new problem is troubling...the heat and the rain we HAVE gotten has made a weed I LOATHE re-emerge in the bed nearest my front doorn and the adjoinng path...nut sedge! Once again I can pull and pull and it persists, coming up right THROUGH the carpet in the pathways....arrgghhh! I will likely resort to my home made answer to Round Up that is based on pure glyphosate but with NO scary adjuvants.....I have for years called it "Weedz-B-Fucked" and I feel okay using it after spending 18 months in Denver investigating Glyphosate vs. Round Up. I'd LOVE to eliminate that damn sedge once and for all.

I am likely cutting down then digging up 'Newport Fairy' as not only did it not bloom at all this spring despite a cold winter, it is HUGE and has die-back. I can just imagine 'Crepuscule' in a buried 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden in its place.

Now off to tackle weeds and progagate Moringa Tree and my own hybrid roses plus pot up edible passion fruit vines and more.

John

Mystery Rose from a Tampa nursery

2011-06-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

TNS Nursery on West Hillsborough Avenue, right next to the airport runway in Tampa, is selling this virtually scentless rose, own root, in 3 gallon pots, for $7 as I recall. My initial reaction upon seeing them,. then checking http://www.helpmefind.com/. is that they are the Hybrid Musk 'Belinda'. It is now planted in my former 'Mermaid' bed in a 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden where I hope it prospers.....I'd love to use it in my breeding worker as I am a slut for big clusters of blooms.....I can just imagine boinking 'Duchesse de Brabant' or "York Street Yellow" with it and getting stellar seedlings.

John

Roses in the drought

2011-06-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

"Jo An's Pink Perpetual"

"Fairmount Red"

The original plant of "Fairmount Proserpine" in Denver

"Fairmount Proserpine" bloom in Tampa

As I luxuriate in the good energy of having healed in less than 24 hours from my first stomach flu in 20-25 years, I was further bolstered this morning to enjoy, despite this crushing drought, new blooms on 'Safrano' and "Fairmount Proserpine" and "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" and Rosa bracteata, plus my first ripe OP hip this year on 'Louise Odier' as those on "Fairmount Red" ripen. Folks can order "Fairmount Proserpine" and "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" from Heather Campbell at High Country Roses in Utah. John

'Reve d'Or'

2011-06-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

I love this rose and lost a couple here in the long term drought when they were very young, but this one is thriving in a 4 gallon Water Wise Container Garden made from a hard boiled eggs bucket and is buried next to my mail box. The ancestry of this stunning climber is alluring, so I look forward to seeing in 2013 or so the seedlings resulting from the open pollinated seeds in this very nice crop of OP hips now ripening on it. Plus I have fat hips resulting from my pollinating this lovely Tea-Noisette with 'Rose Eduoard' and "York Street Yellow" from Denver.

I love the sensuous, tawny petals plus the vigor of the plant if given ample moisture. When I lived in Denver I knew someone growing one in Ft. Collins! I intend to do a lot of breeding with this gem of a climbing rose.

John

2011-05-31T18:25:00.001-07:00

"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." -George Washington

"Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac." -George Orwell

Time for Tea

2011-05-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

We are VERY dry here in south Tampa and most of Florida so I've been treating my roses in various Water Wise Container Gardens, both buried and above ground, to good soaks from the hose, rain barrels and kitchen graywater, and, beginning today, giving them a tea made from my stable's "Super Poop" dumped into barrels filled by that last precious rain we had. I hope to see lush new growth and blooms soon. As usual, I am asking the Universe for a super-wet summer and fall as I learned yesterday that Tampa's rain deficit for 2006-2009 alone was THIRTY inches! John

Blog Less, Earn More John!

2011-05-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

As much as I love working on all three of my blogs, it is time I pay more attention to boosting attendance to my classes and my plant sales that actually pay my bills. So instead of 1-2 blog posts daily, I will wean myself to 1-2 per week as I must increase my income to avoid depleting my retirement savings. Some blogs make their creators wildly wealthy, but mine have generated just a tiny trickle of income.....$20 plus some very nice gifts to date! So time for me to be a realist and get my financial house in order. But it HAS been fun. John

A Portion of Gene Waering's Informative Talk

2011-05-19T07:32:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtTf3kLwSSs

'Gainesville Garnet' Climbing Rose for Florida

2011-05-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

This remontant Wichuraiana climber I bred some years ago boasts voluptous blooms, extremely healthy foliage (due I am sure to the Wichuraiana genes), but, sadly, that foliage is less than lush, plus the apple-skin and roses perfume is, to my demanding nose, faint. Despite those shortcomings it passed 3 years of trials at Ashdown Roses, with its commercial introduction to have occured this year. But sadly, they went under financially in these lean times. My original plant, own root of course, thrives all these years later in spite of long term drought and my minimal water use and just blessed me with new blooms. It has never set hips, be the blooms boinked by me or open-pollinated. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40687&tab=1.

Commercial Rose Growing in Saudi Arabia

2011-05-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

I did not see the name(s) of the rose cultivars in the article, but that photo SURE reminds me of what I called "Fairmount Kazanlik" in Colorado. I thought all of Saudi Arabia is hot, but either these roses are heat tolerant or growing in cooler zones. Boy I'd love to get one of those vials of rose essential oil! Enjoy, John

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9485069.stm

The Third Annual Roses Lovers Gathering in Alachua, Florida

2011-05-09T07:25:00.003-07:00

What a grand day! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_ioKCLsL0

Rose People

2011-05-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

As I've shared before, less than a year ago I had lost most of my roses mojo due to 6 years of drought, severe watering restrictions, and my own values as a Florida native environmentalist regarding water use as a permaculturist who grows much of his own food. But I am getting my roses passions back due in part to the Water Wise Container Gardens I make, grow roses in then bury to give their roots a chance to survive long enough to go deep, and due to meeting dedicated rosarians who've NOT lost their mojo. Recently I had the pleasure of a brief visit from Anita Clevenger on her way to give two talks to Malcolm Manners' roses group....sadly, due to my having failed to plan in advance regarding the scheduling of the classes I teach here on weekends I had to miss both....I bet the slide presentation was lovely! Anita was effervescent in her love of the Sacramento Historic Rose Garden, and since I've had the pleasure of being visited by Fred Boutin twice in Denver, it was a delight to meet the other half of the team. Despite the Third World appearance of my urban farm as I re-invent it based on my Water Wise Container Gardens, Anita seemed to appreciate my efforts to work exclusively with scrounged/dumpster-dived materials in my projects inside and out. I hope to visit their cemetery garden at full peak some year.

At the Third Annual Roses Lovers Gathering in Alachua, Florida last Saturday, I finally got to meet Gene Waering, co-editor of the wonderful 'The Sustainable Rose Garden'. As I expected he was a true gentleman, as can be seen in the short video I shot of a portion of his great talk I will soon be posting on YouTube (I will share the link here when I do). I think I expected him to be a academic type, but he was effusively friendly. The host of the event, Pam Greenewald was a trip.....endless energy, funny, irreverent, curious, well informed about biology and ecology and in the spirit of thoughtful experimentation is growing a VAST number of roses rarely seen in Florida and free of the dogmas of spraying chemicals and budding on Fortuniana as a "necessity".

These folks and others have helped me to revive my roses passions largely smothered by perennial drought. Since the collapse of J & P, roses budded to Fortuniana are even more rarely retailed to the public here, who is now back to the Dr. Huey roses that gave roses the reputation of "annuals" in Florida years ago. I gather that Florida is down to just one grower of Fortuniana roses, and here in Tampa the one nursery I know of that sells them, Hardin's, is open just a few hours on Saturdays as despite its advantages, Fortuniana is a VERY thirsty rootstock due in part to its roots staying in the top few inches of the soil as a mat. So they too are often short lived in a non-rosarian's garden. But Tampa's "sugar sand" has minimal ability to hold moisture, and with the rainy season now a fraction of the length it was in the 60s and 70s, roses on Fortuniana are a rare sight in yards except in those of the very well off who can afford the drip systems and the monster water bills that result. So I am hopeful that pioneering rose folks like Pam can make roses in the yards of regular folks thinkable again. I intend to begin selling roses grown in these Water Wise Container Gardens so that people can bury them and sustain the roses in that finite soil mass with minimal watering, even if they do not save their kitchen graywater as I do.

John

Abundant Hips on 'Seagull' in Tampa

2011-05-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

open pollinated seedling of 'Seagull' in Tampa

Hips on 'Seagull' in Tampa

My ten year old own root plant has endured sheer hell in terms of drought and neglect, yet it blooms profusely each spring. I feel it sets even heavier crops of hips than it did in Denver...and they can be very tasty. The OP seeds germinate readily after a few months of cold stratification, and many of the seedlings are these charming little remontant Polyantha-ish things with a sharp/sweet Multiflora perfume. John

The Third Annual Roses Lovers Gathering in Alachua, Florida

2011-05-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

Pam Greenewald

north central Florida verbascum along I-75

I had a great time, met many interesting people, and gloried in the presence of so many roses rarely seen in Florida. I finally got to meet congenial Gene Waering, co-editor of the groundbreaking 'The Sustainable Rose Garden' book, and who grows roses in both Manhattan and Jacksonville. But first, I met the host and organizer of this fine event, Pam Greenewald. She is a likeable human dynamo, very informed about biology and ecology, passionate about growing her vast array of roses on their own roots and all-organically, mindful of the interconnectedness of life. Her property of the last twenty seven years houses a wonderful spring fed lake populated by blue pickerel weed and yellow native lotus.....and alligators. (OH how I envy her access to water!). Wildlife, plus whimisical and spiritual garden art abounds over the six acres peppered by gardens and greenhouses. She was a stimulating and gracious host, kept us laughing a lot, and she clearly has a mind that races, like a spiritual Margaret Mead on shrooms. She showed and sold us wonderful roses, and afforded all present a chance to bask in a rural paradise, surrounded by roses and rose lovers with perfect north Florida weather. Videos to come. John

"York Street Yellow"

2011-04-29T18:15:00.000-07:00

Denver rosarian Toni Tichy, who passed away several years ago, passionately studied and promoted roses at Denver's Riverside Cemetery owned by the Fairmount Corporation, her beloved giant climber "Mr. Nash" (sold by High Country Roses in Utah) plus this lovely remonant shrub she'd noticed on York Street some blocks north of Colfax on the east side. I got to know the elderly black woman who lived there...I forget her name but in her youth she was a famous ballet dancer. The bush was dense, maybe 5' X 5', totally cold hardy, and remontant from June through the first hard freezes. It set vast numbers of walnut sized bright yellow hips with seeds that germinated freely after a few months of cold stratificatio. Before I left Denver I mailed cuttings to Heather Campbell at High Country Roses so that folks all over could enjoy this gem. When I bought one last year I felt I was likely throwing away my money, assuming it would need winters much colder and longer than south Tampa could offer. But it is VERY happy in a Restricted Drainage Container Garden, my fancy name for a large black plastic tree pot with a used plastic grocerty bag drawn half way through each and every drainage hole to restrict but not block drainage, a strategy I use for other roses and veggies in this 6 year long drought. The blooms can reach 5 inches across and often occur in mini-candelabras. The scent is a light, sweet, slightly spicy Tea perfume. Its pollen was readily accepted by "Fairmount Red" and 'Seagull' and others in my Denver breeding work. So far, as in Denver, no disease issues, which surprises me.
When I showed a branch to Stephen Scanniello and others when I co-hosted the 1997 Heritage Rose Foundation Conference in Denver in 1997, they agree with Toni's and my idea that it might be a Brownell. In Denver it rooted easily from cuttings so I will try here.
I love this rose and am so glad I risked the money on this unlikely candidate for hot muggy Tampa, and hope lots of folks order one to try in their respective areas and share the results. Heather also sells my cemetery find "Fairmount Red" and "Fairmount Proserpine" and my own hybrid 'Four Inch Heels' (Great Western X Othello).

John

"For some people, happiness is too mild a sensation". unknown

"The only normal people are the ones you don't know well". unknown

Roses As Teachers

2011-04-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

I'm inspired most by rosarians who are curious and open-minded and willing to experiment instead of being fossilized by dogmas that can prove to be baseless.....Miriam Wilkins and David Austin and Ralph Moore come to mind as free-thinking heroes of mine. Rose growing here in Florida has long been constrained by "truisms" like "you have to spray for bugs and disease" or "you have to bud roses onto Fortuniana".....the latter overlooks the fact that in the 1800s and early 1900s Floridians grew vast numbers of own root roses successfully long before the advent of Fortuniana budding. For 19 years I created all-organic rose gardens for my landscape clients using a wide range of own-root OGRs, occasionally planting a modern rose on Fortuniana to meet a specific wish of a client, say 'Peace', as many modern roses DO seem to suffer here own root. Those gardens thrived long term until this now-perennial drought and draconian watering restrictions became the norm... many roses DO love water.

Since the early 90s, rosarians of note in central Florida have decreed to me that "Bourbons won't grow here" except for 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' and 'Souvenir de St. Anne's' due to the infusion of Tea blood via 'Gloire de Dijon', and even they needed to be budded onto Fortuniana. (both thrived own root in clients' gardens, with 'Cl. Souvenir de la Malmaison' displaying extreme vigor). I loved the Bourbons in Denver due to their form and fragrance and so I try one now and then here, own-root and all organic and in the Water Wise Container Gardens I make from 15 gallon plastic barrels that mimic the basic principles of the Earth Box. As a result I am blessed with the lovely blooms of 'Coquette des Blanches', 'Louise Odier' and "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" from Denver's Fairmount Cemetery that when I still lived in Denver, Fred Boutin and I discussed as possibly being 'Champion of the World'. I am so glad that these roses don't know they can't grow here, and that the hundreds of own root OGRs I planted in those many clients' gardens were also blissfully unaware of that "fact". A friend has a thriving 'Mme. Isaac Pereire' I gave him three years ago, no spray and own root in a large pot in his greenhouse.

These same Florida rosarians told me that the Wichuraiana class and Multiflora class also can't grow here, but don't tell that to the 'Francois Juranville' and 'Aviateur Bleriot' and 'Gardenia' and 'Jersey Beauty' and 'Leontine Gervais' and others, plus the 'Seagull' and 'Pink Clouds' that are stupendous performers own root and all-organic here IF given ample water.

In the early 90s an influential Colorado rosarian stated as fact that "David Austin's English Roses are not cold hardy in Colorado". But when I realized he had trialed only those on Manettii from Wayside, on multiflora from Pickering, and Dr. Huey, I bought some own root ones from HOGR and found them to be stellar performers in my and clients' gardens. So I promoted own root English Roses in my column in The Rocky Mountain News, local nurseries started offering them, and I got nothing but glowing feedback from them and their customers who had previously lost grafted plants to the brutal winters there, and when I left in 2002, many hundreds were being sold annually in Denver as people built UP collections of own root English Roses vs. replacing dead ones.

I am very lucky to have known Miriam and others who served as models for me to try new approaches vs. obeying the dictates of self-appointed "experts" who'd long since substituted dogma for humble, curious experimentation. For years I've been inspired by the fact that not long before the Wright Brothers made their first historic flight, the world's top scientists released a report declaring that heavier-than-air flight was "impossible' as it would require "infinite acceleration'.....they totally overlooked the principle of lift that keeps heavier-than-air birds aloft!

Before the drought set in and when we were getting so many hurricanes my front yard here had 170 roses; just a few were on Fortuniana. But I was an environmentalist long before I was a rosarian and so as the drought deepened I would not use the copious amounts of water they demanded and I lost them to attrition (plus consumption by a MONSTER 'Mermaid' that gloried despite the drought). But by making then burying 5, 7 and 15 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens, I am slowly rebuilding my collection while keeping my water use very low despite growing much of my own food and raising ducks and chickens on my urban farm...my water bill last month was $3.84. I turn 58 in August and so can remember a lush, green WET Florida where even the IDEA of watering restrictions was unthinkable. Yet we live with the current fine structure of $100 first offense, $500 second offense, $500 and court third offense...if you blow off the court appearance a lien is put against your home. Two rosarians I know here who grow budded, sprayed roses using underground emittters to avoid the fines, in all seriousness say, "I give just 7 gallons per day per rose". While Fortuniana DOES resist nematodes admirably, it is a very thirsty rootstock due to its roots hugging the surface vs. going down deep as do my own root roses. Nonetheless I cherish my 'Oklahoma' on Fortuniana growing in a restricted drainage container and will try it own root next.
I said goodbye to Bourbons when I left Denver in November 2002, so it is such a joy to be seeing and SMELLING and breeding with them again!

John

A Quick Tour of My Evolving Front Yard

2011-04-27T11:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdAc-DALAEQ

'Dr. Huey' root stock in Tampa

2011-04-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Each July, Denver is peppered with thousands of bushes of 'Dr. Huey' in full bloom, with the cultivar once budded to it long since killed by the brutal winters. Here in Tampa, modern roses sold on 'Dr. Huey' are often informally viewed as "annuals" due to poor performance and limited lifespans unless grown in pots. While I have over the years here seen several 'Dr. Huey' plants growing long term in yards, I'd never seen them bloom.....until this year. A long time landscape client sent me pics of hers in bloom as she was baffled as she knew she had not bought a rose that looked like that a few years back, and today, on my first long bike ride up Bayshore Blvd. after cracking a few ribs about a month ago, I got an up close look at one grown as a climber whose peak bloom was about 10 days ago. I'd assumed it was a giant 'Knockout' but sure enough it is good old 'Dr. Huey'. Funny how what is seen as a nuisance in Colorado can get a Florida rosarian excited! This winter and last we had nights with sustained temps of 27 degrees Farenheit.....I can't help but wonder if that was the catalyst for this very rare event. John

Third Annual Rose Lover's Gathering

2011-04-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that due to my spring frenzy and space cadet nature I did not think until today to share this upcoming roses event in Florida just over a week away! Sorry Pam! This looks to be a premiere roses events for Florida rose lovers, with an eclectic mix of speakers and presentations (I am giving a talk on Probiotic Rose Gardening) plus many roses and related products for sale. I look forward to meeting Pam and other rose maniacs, including Gene Waering who will be signing copies of the wonderful book he edited called 'The Sustainable Rose Garden' which I will soon be reviewing here upon finishing reading it....he maintains personal rose gardens in both New York and Florida. I am proud that he chose my article 'Probiotic Rose Growing'. Pam has an astonishing collection of roses, approximately 1,700 on 6 acres as I recall, so guess who is bringing his cameras and wish list?

I hope my failure to promote this event does not result in some folks learning of it too late to attend. See the link below about her nursery and what I am sure will be a grand event for Florida rose lovers.

John

http://www.angelgardens.com/

'La France'

2011-04-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

I adored this rose in my Denver garden due to its two-toned petals and breathtaking perfume. But Denver winters knocked it back hard annually, due I suspect to its Tea Rose heritage. A few years ago, Mike Shoup honored me by having me speak at his Fall Roses Festival where he gave me many bareroot roses to cram into my suitcase...one was 'La France'. That own root organically grown plant thrives in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden, fed mainly home brewed fish emulsion and horse manure tea, with kitchen graywater its main source of moisture. While I no longer consider it "The First Hybrid Tea" I nonetheless love this rose as much as I did in Denver. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.3669

'Conrad Ferdinand Meyer' in Tampa

2011-04-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

This own root plant has thrived in Tampa for 3.5 years in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden, grown all-organically and given mostly kitchen graywater. The rich perfume is sweet, spicy and sultry all at once. In Denver my plant was huge and husky in a bed out near the street...here it is a manageable pillar rose that blooms throughout the year beside my back door where lucky visitors can indulge in the silvery pink color and luscious scent. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCBN8pCk5aU&feature=related

Question from one of my readers of 'Florida Gardening' magazine. John

2011-04-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

"Although my enthusiasm outweighs my ability, I am a Florida gardener who was born here and am familiar with growing in Florida. I love the Florida Gardening magazine and always read it cover to cover, then I save it. I have stayed away from growing roses because they are supposed to be so "delicate", but would love to try one or two. Your "Poop Soup" recipe in the April/May issue is intriguing, since it is all natural, but I don't have ready access to fresh horse poop. I do however, have four cows that leave me plenty of raw materials. Can I substitute cow poop for the horse poop? I will be using it on my vegetable garden as well as my new rose. Thank you for your time and assistance."

I would think that fresh cow poop would work just fine. Give it a try and let me know how it does for your roses. Happy Gardening! John

"Hybrid Perpetuals can't grow in central Florida".....

2011-04-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

General Jacqueminot

Baronne Prevost

I remember being informed of this "fact" in the 90s by folks that conceded one could grow a couple ONLY if budded to R. fortuniana and sprayed heavily and routinely.....good thing my own-root, organically grown 'General Jacqueminot' and 'Baronne Prevost' thriving in Water Wise Container Gardens don't know they can't grow here! I adore the scent of both, plus they make me flash back to my wonderful rose gardens in Denver each June where they REALLY thrived and got very husky. John

My Roses Will LOVE This!!!

2011-04-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

The first rain system a few days ago drenched my gardens with 3.3 inches......Wednesday I got just under 1.5 inches...then yesterday all hell broke loose (INTENSE gusts and lightning, no electricity most of the day and night so out came the candles) and I got ANOTHER 2.5 inches! My huge R. bracteata was already covered with buds...the display should be stunning. (guess who is delaying pruning it a few weeks now?). Woo Hoo! John

"Denver Roses" in My Tampa Yard

2011-03-29T20:56:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcC9kZji3sk

Tea Rose 'Mme. Antoine Marie'

2011-03-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

I bought this a few years back, I believe from the good folks at Chamblee's Roses, as a drought tolerant Tea Rose, and tested it in a dry bed out front by the street where it clung to life in this 6 year drought and my water stingyness. But as soon as I dug it up and put it in a 5 gallon Water Wise Container that I then buried, it took off. Time and time again, such as when it makes these massive candelabras, it is SO reminiscent of Florida's iconic Mystery China "Pink Cracker Rose". But the scent of the blooms IS the classic "tea" scent vs. the fruity-rose perfume of the Chinas, which "Pink Cracker Rose" boasts of in abundance. Plus the color is paler. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.3967&tab=1

Rose Edouard

2011-03-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to encounter this rose for years, and the specimen that Mike Shoup gave me a few years when I gave a talk on Probiotic Rose Gardening at his Fall Roses Festival, began to grow and bloom like crazy as soon as I transplanted it into a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden. The perfume is heavenly! I note that my plant looks very different from most of those at HelpMeFind. Hmmmm..... John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.5472&tab=1

"Fairmount Red"

2011-03-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Year four for this own root plant in a large restricted drainage tree pot....what a thrill to see and smell and breed with the rose that inspired my dozen years of roses studies at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery and that turned my mild interest in Old Roses back then into a life-shaping passion. Once bloomer, cold hardy in Denver and this year my specimen has begun suckering just as it does in Colorado! This suckering, and the saturated purplish-red color (darker in real life than in this photo), has long made me think it has a Gallica in its blood. Enjoy, John

"Walnut Street Yellow" from Boulder, Colorado

2011-03-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Years ago when I still lived in Denver, Mikl and Eve of Harlequins Gardens in Boulder told me of a lovely, once-blooming yellow climber they'd spotted in an elderly woman's yard on Walnut Street there in Boulder, and one early July day Eve took me to meet it. We agreed that it is clearly a Wichurana due to the glossy foliage, once-blooming trait and eager winter hardy growth. I bought one from them a few years back via mail but it died in the drought. So I bought a new one this winter but THIS time planted it in a 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden and buried it next to the stump of the now-dead (thankfully!) 'Mermaid' that got SO out of hand I could not get into my own front yard for over a year and a half.....yesterday I spotted buds!!!!

Years ago Eve and I concluded the true ID was very likely 'Primevere' and after I sent pics of it to Bill Grant and his friend Odile who has one in her garden in France, they agreed. Since I have EXCELLENT results with other Wichurianas here, even in the dry soil, I hope that this one benefits from the buried Water Wise Container Garden and takes off and consumes the rebar beside it.

John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.4970&tab=1

'Easlea's Golden Rambler'

2011-03-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

This was my first candidate many years ago for the true ID of the Denver Mystery Rose "Mr. Nash" discovered there by Toni Tichy. I have long been sure it is not, but nonetheless I fell in love with Easlea's when I met it in Peter Beales' nursery in 1997, and some years later again in Bill Grant's landscape...he got his from Beales. VERY VERY bushy for a "climber".....I REALLY hope I get one from Desert Roses bare root closeout sale to at LAST try here in Tampa (in a Water Wise Container Garden of course) and I was not able to root cuttings I got from Bill's plant years ago. I have very good luck with Wichuraianas here in Tampa, even IN the ground, and the extreme glossiness of the foliage convinces me of the claim that it is a Wichuraiana. See too Cliff's e-mail so you can reach him to place an order. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1698&tab=1

cliff.eurodesertroses@yahoo.com

'Cynthia Brooke' Hybrid Tea 1943

2011-03-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with this rose many years ago when I was first going mental over roses due to having checked out from the Denver Botanic Gardens library a copy of Peter Beales' '20th Century Roses'. I bought from in the mid 90s from a California grower, but it very soon succumbed to the "Black Death" that killed about 40% of the roses I ever bought from him. Desert Roses is having a closeout sale, so I e-mailed Cliff an order including this lovely gem and others to try here in Tampa in my Water Wise Container Gardens. Look at the form and color!! John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1408&tab=1

'Variegata di Bologna'.....a quite controversial rose.....sport? hybrid?

2011-03-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

I stumbled on this lovely video....no voice over, just the sumptuous roses and ambient sounds...birds, a teen laughing. I loved the specimen of this rose that I grew in a Denver client's landscape but had forgotten about it until I stumbled on this video. I look forward to seeing his other roses tours videos. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-BEnU0nGy4&feature=related

Update on 'Teasing Georgia' pillar rose

2011-03-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIG3UUonXVE

'Cramoisi Superieur' in Okeechobee, Florida

2011-03-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

I bought this plant for Mom and Dad from The Antique Rose Emporium......Mom now passed but Dad and I both think I gave it to them at least 8 years ago. Dad never sprays it, feeds it mostly chemical fertilizers and prunes it annually each early spring. His low lying property gets quite soggy in summer, with water standing for days after a hurricane, then gets bone dry each winter. Yet it prospers on its own roots year after year, always in bloom to some degree, at times spectacularly. I just visited Dad.....here are two pics he took of it with me beside it for scale. John

Oral iodine in case of radioactive plume from Japan

2011-03-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

The horror in Japan just might lead to a wind-driven radioactive plume heading east from at least one nuclear reactor, with the U.S. a likely early landfall, then Europe then the Middle East. So I thought I'd share this data I learned of about three years ago.

Poland gave their citizens tabs of 130 mg. iodine RIGHT after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown...the Soviet Union did not.....Soviet citizens have since seen HUGE increases in thyroid and other cancers, but not the Polish. I and friends some years back stocked up on Life Extension brand of these 130 mg. iodine tablets in case Bush/Israel attacked Iran....I took my first of 14 daily tabs this morning even though I supplement my diet with iodine due to its many health benefits. My Dad told me he saw on the news yesterday morning that the Japanese gov't has begun distributing iodine to folks within a certain distance of the reactor. Better safe than sorry plus most folks are grossly deficient in iodine anyway. Any excess gets peed out....just pee in your gardens so your crops can absorb it so as to not waste this vital nutrient.

The scale of the devastation in Japan is numbing, and my heart goes out to them. Please pass this iodine data on. John

'Safrano' Tea Rose

2011-03-08T16:54:00.000-08:00

This early Tea is one of my favorites due to its soft apricot color and role as a potent parent of lovely roses to come after it. I lost my in-ground one years ago once the drought and severe watering restrictions became the norm here, but after a few months in a buried 5 gallon Water Wise Container Garden this little baby has leapt into growth with very few waterings....my water bill last month was $9.10 due in part to my growing much of my food and nearly all my roses in Water Wise Container Gardens even though I showered many times indoors due to cold weather, and despite my doing a few deep watering of large scale planting of Rapes to feed to my poultry. John

"Dade City Red China" rose

2011-03-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

A few years ago my gardening and farming non-rosarian friend Pat Lawhead showed me a Mystery Rose he had propagated from one he'd seen thriving in an opening in a sidewalk by the Dade City, Florida library. As I recall he took 100 cuttings and 60 took...good thing as he says the original is gone. From the second I saw it I knew it was a red China Rose but felt immediately it is not 'Cramoisi Superieur' which I have encountered many times in Florida, mainly because the color is a dark garnet red plus the petals edges roll back (reflex?) much as one might see in a Hybrid Tea. As you'd expect the center petals have white striations, and the scent is classically fruity-rose though different from 'Cramoisi Superieur'. The foliage looks very China-ey as does the twiggy growth. Once again my camera added a magenta wash to the dark red garnet color, though in the pics I've attached this is less pronounced. I was just on the phone with Lee Sherman about it and told her the color reminds me of that of 'Chrysler Imperial'. I did some Googling and checked www.helpmefind.com as my first thought was the 'Ma Tulipe' as seen in 'The Roses at The Cape of Good Hope' but found little data and no images. BUT...I stumbled on a red China I'd never heard of...'Cruenta'. I'd love to hear from folks their notions as to a possible ID, knowing it might just be a chance seedling. It is thriving in a restricted drainage tree pot on the north side of my home, but I intend to root several and grow one in a 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden and bury it as I recreate my drought-ravaged collection with these buried Water Wise Container Gardens now that perennial drought is the new norm for Florida. Pat said the original was very husky vs. petite as in the semi-double "Martha Gonzalez".

Mystery Roses are VERY uncommon in Florida so as Bill Grant would say, I am levitating! Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have to offer.

John
p.s. remember to mentally subtract the magenta tones as it is virtually a true deep garnet red. Also, the bloom size has increased quite a bit since that pic of a bloom in my hand.

A Half Opened Blossom of "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" from Denver's Fairmount Cemetery

2011-03-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend both students and friends smelled this highly remontant (even in Denver!) gem and were astonished by the sultry, sweet, POTENT Old Roses perfume. I love the heavily quartered form. Enjoy, John

'Pat Austin' in Tampa

2011-03-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

I bought this own root plant from the good folks at Chamblee's Roses in Texas (1-800-256-7673) last year and about 6 months ago I planted it in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden placed on my north-facing driveway outside my office window to spare it Tampa's harsh south winter sun and to afford it the most chill from what passes for a "North Wind" here. It seems quite happy, gets mostly kitchen graywater and water from my front porch rain barrel, is never sprayed, and gets fed a few things now and then when I think of it. Sometimes I give it home made horse manure/fish emulsion tea, and some weeks back I gave it a weak solution of a high nitrogen lawn fertilizer dissolved in rain water. I had the joy of meeting this rose AND David Austin at his nursery in England in 1997 when I attended the Historic Roses Group Conference in Cambridge shortly after I co-hosted in the Denver the Heritage Rose Foundation Conference...talk about a heady summer!! Since in Denver I collected for a clients a few of the Pernetiana hybrids I love the vivid WARM tangerine color....surprising as orange has long been my least favorite color. So far I don't detect much aroma, but I forgive it that due in part to the lovely, cupped, peony-like bloom form. Here are pics of a bud, opening then fully blown bloom this last week....enjoy! John

'Jo An's Pink Perpetual"

2011-03-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

A few years before I began working with the folks running Denver's historic Fairmount Cemetery in the mid 90s, their then Director of Public Affairs, the very colorful and piquant Jo An Cullen, had located a few plants of this EXTREMELY fragrant, highly remontant Old Rose that laughed at Denver's climate extremes. It rarely set hips there. My best guess to date as to its true identity is 'Champion of the World', which some years ago Fred Boutin felt too was likely. I bought this plant from the folks at High Country Roses to whom I gave the cuttings of it plus those of "Fairmount Red" and "York Street Yellow" and 'Hiawatha' plus quite a few OGRs I discovered and/or catalogued over 15 years in Denver. They also sell my own hybrid, 'Four Inch Heels' that I bred in Denver from (Great Western X Othello).

This plant is thriving in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden on my driveway, facing north, to spare it Tampa's intense south sun in winter, plus to afford it whatever North winds we get in winter. I plan on using its pollen on 'Duchesse de Brabant' and 'Reve d'Or' just to play with the possibilities.

I so wish I could attach the FRAGRANCE to this post! Enjoy, John

Morning blooms of 'Rev d'Or' Tea-Noisette, 1869 February 27, 2011

2011-03-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

'Gainesville Garnet' and sister seedling

2011-02-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo of a sister seedling of 'Gainesville Garnet' that came from the same hip that I love in spite of the mild scent due to the heavily quartered Victorian form reminiscent of a pinwheel. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40687

Rose Blooms on February 22, 2011 in Tampa

2011-02-22T17:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9hSb-TQ5Q4

My New Mirror Floor February 19, 2011

2011-02-20T13:22:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWkLijEwcAM

Low Hassle Roses

2011-02-16T05:03:00.001-08:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217125557.htm

The Lovely China Rose 'Archduke Charles'

2011-02-15T05:47:00.000-08:00

I grow an own root one in a 15 gallon Water Wise Container Garden made from a modified plastic laundry detergent barrel and give it primarily water from my one gallon outdoor solar shower and kitchen graywater. Both visitors and I swoon over the perfume. In some ways it reminds me of an improved dwarf form of the Mystery Rose "Pink Cracker Rose". My plant came from Chamblee's in Texas....great folks. See data below at the great site HelpMeFind. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.337

mid-February roses progress report

2011-02-13T06:20:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2Ij8O1yYbY

China Roses for Shade Tolerance in Mild Climates

2011-02-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

Years ago I planted this grouping of own root China Roses in the semi-shady front yard of a long time north Tampa landscape client who loved her eclectic collection of own-root Tea Roses plus 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' in her sunny back yard. As I recall, these China Roses were four years old when I took the photo. But this was way back when there were no watering restrictions in Tampa. I think I will pay her and her roses a visit to see if both are still thriving. She was quite elderly even then, an immigrant from Holland with a thick accent...her first name was "Jopie", pronounced "Yo-pee", and she had a colorfully cranky yet warm personality indeed. If she has passed, I will be curious to see if the new owners kept her roses as she especially loved her hyper-vigorous 'Mrs. B. R. Cant' and 'Duchesse de Brabant' and 'Lady Hillingdon' and 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' and the 'Souvenir de Mme Leonie Viennot' that back then High Country Roses sold as 'Gloire de Dijon' and that had consumed the east side of her home. Her landscape once again demonstrated that own-root China Roses can perform luxuriantly in less than the full sun they prefer. None of her roses were diseased as I relied on NOT spraying and instead adding beneficial microbes and macro-organisms to control bugs, fungi and pathogenic bacteria. It would be so cool if I can locate her yard and find her AND her roses stalwart as ever! John

Wichuranas in Florida

2011-02-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

This article ran in my St. Pete Times column in 2007. But drought has been a new norm since then, so I'd add to grow new plantings in Water Wise Container Gardens, and to obsessively save rain water and kitchen graywater (don't use 'Dawn' as it fries plants) to indulge established plants in for the best growth. John

WHICH WICHURANA?

Sure I love central Florida, but like many northern transplants I had long wished for the grace and fragrant charm of old fashioned rambling roses. Generations ago they covered cottages and garden arbors with sweet swirls of pinks and white and reds, and here we Floridians are cursed with countless ugly chain link fences just waiting to be used as trellises But every time we buy a “climbing rose” it struggles to reach the top of our mailbox then often dies. So we conclude that climbing and rambling roses “won’t grow in Florida”. WRONG

But you’d be right IF you were referring to the Climbing Hybrid Teas like ‘Climbing Peace’ or ‘Climbing Oklahoma’ many of us have seen in full glory in Oregon or Tennessee, and that what is generally sold to the public here as “climbing roses”. Those areas offer roses high rainfall, clayey soil, and winters that offer essential periods of dormancy. But here, climbing Hybrid Teas are denied that winter rest while they cope with a long spring drought, funky acidic sandy soil teeming with microscopic nematode worms that sting their roots, plus a long hot steamy summer far more suited to subtropical plants. But we don’t have to endure blizzards and icy sidewalks to have rambling roses thrive here.

Years ago I experimented in my yard and my clients’ yards, and found that if we just switch gears mentally and instead purchase “own root” plants of a certain class of Old Roses called “Wichurana Roses”, also long called “Wichuriana Ramblers”, we WILL enjoy raging success Their blooms boast a pleasing palette of colors, most are quite fragrant (often of rose and ripe apples ), and their growth is RAMPANT in Florida Bred mostly in the late 1800's and early 1900's, these genetic climbers display rapid growth, great vigor and are largely aloof to the bugs, heat, humidity and fungal diseases that plague most wimpy modern climbing roses in our climate. All were bred from a wild Japanese species called Rosa wichurana noted for its toughness, beautiful glossy leaves, and rampant flexible canes.

Like all roses they prefer full sun, slightly acid soil well-amended with compost, a thick mulch (my favorite is the chipped limbs and leaves from a tree trimming company) to keep the soil damp and cool, and a feeding of a good organic like menhaden fish meal, Calf Manna (from a feed store) or Mills Magic Rose Mix or every March, July, September and December. Most of inland central Florida has quite acid soil, so most rose folks give their roses a light sprinkling of dolomitic limestone every March to neutralize that acid and to supply needed calcium and magnesium.

Oddly, you’ll get much faster coverage of a trellis or fence if you train the long new shoots of a climber as HORIZONTALLY as possible, not UP as is our instinct. Why? Trained horizontally that long rose cane will send up many vertical new shoots that will then eagerly climb UP. Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut up old pantyhose and nylons into flexible and inconspicuous plant ties to lash those vigorous new shoots to your fence or arbor….they will stretch as the canes thicken and so not strangle them as can a metal twisty. And remember, these climbers are VIGOROUS, so don’t bring home a wimpy little trellis but instead make a sturdy one out of pressure treated 2” x 2” lumber, construction rebar, or plumber’s pipe, or train them on that long-hated chain link fence. They rival Jack’s magic beanstalk with their growth so plan accordingly with a strong structure for them to consume. These are Climbing Roses on steroids

The upcoming cooler autumn and winter months are ideal for mail ordering and planting these lovely toughies, so scan your landscape for a sunny spot in need of a touch of class and year round splendor, then choose from the Wichurana Ramblers listed here, keeping in mind that they can tolerate light shade. Notice their dates of commercial introduction to give you an idea of their longevity into the 21st century These tough but exquisite beauties may well outlive you, so your yard deserves a few on a funky fence or on an English style rose arbor framing your front doorway. Life is short and has prickles of its own; why not invite in the soft, sweet but reliable beauties our great-grandmothers knew and cherished?

THE MENU:

Albertine (1921) pastel salmon pink

Leontine Gervais (1903) warm apricot, gold and tangerine

Cl. American Beauty (1909) deep rose pink and magenta

C. Red Fountain (1975) rich red

Aviateur Bleriot (1910) pastel apricot and yellow

Alberic Barbier (1900) pale lemon and cream

Dr. Van Fleet (1910) baby blanket pink

Francois Juranville (1906) clear pink and salmon

Gardenia (1899) pastel yellow and white

Jersey Beauty (1899) 5 petals creamy yellow

Francois Juranville

Leontive Gervais

Leontine Gervais training on rebar

Aviateur Bleriot on rebar in north Tampa

Aviateur Bleriot bloom

Francois Juranville

MAIL ORDER:

Roses Unlimited (864) 682-7673 e-mail: rosesunlmt@aol.com

Antique Rose Emporium 1-800-441-0002

Chamblee’s Roses 1-800-256-7673

Mill’s Magic Rose Mix 1-800-845-2325 www.millsmix.com

"Denver Roses" here in Tampa

2011-02-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

My Water Wise Container Gardens are allowing me to grow an increasingly eclectic mix of own root roses organically, including cold hardy ones that thrived in my Denver rose gardens and those of my clients there. John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoFpHh3rHqY

Florida's Indestructible "Pink Cracker Rose"

2011-02-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

Way back in the mid 70s when I was an art major at the Ybor campus of HCC and I was not into roses at all (though nuts about other plants) I noticed stunning specimens of this beauty here and there in Seminole Heights where I lived and elsewhere. I used a bike vs. car for seven years and so really got to know yards well .While I am overwhelmingly an own root man when it comes to OGR in most climates, here in Florida it seems that most moderns DO languish then fail own root. But Fortuniana is a VERY thirsty rootstock and this has become a very dry state since the 1970s. So I will root some Pink Cracker Roses and try budding moderns to them as this enigmatic China I have been looking into since 1982 utterly thrives for many decades even in conditions of total neglect. It can become a pillar rose or made into a dense hedge. It VERY rarely sets hips, has been a VERY poor parent for me (dammit!), is very remontant and disease-free, seems to FEED on nematodes (lol!) and I learned years ago was introduced to the area by Holmes Nursery for Mother's Day of 1933. Investigating it is what, literally, turned me into a rosarian. I have bought MANY pink Chinas over the years to compare, and after MUCH research I feel it is very likely either 'Burbank' or its sister seedling 'Santa Rosa'. Here is a link to my page about it at HMF. John

http://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.40071&tab=1

Thanks!

2011-02-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

Over the years my bi-climate studies of own root roses, both Old and Modern, have been aided greatly by Mike Shoup of The Antique Rose Emporium, Heather Campbell at High Country Roses, Mark Chamblee at Chamblee's Roses, Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses, and Michael Marriot of David Austin Roses, all generously donating plants to aid specific points of inquiry I was pursuing. This has helped me to confirm then share with retailers and my readers that in many if not most climates, own root roses can offer truly perennial performance. THANK YOU!

As I expand my Water Wise Container Rose Gardening experiments here in dry south Tampa, I'd be delighted to receive donated plants (I pay shipping of course!) of the following:

Sydonie
Old Blush
Champney's Pink
Secret Garden Musk
Mme. Berkeley
Mlle. Franziska Kruger
"Mr. Nash"
Belle of Portugal
Rosa moschata
"Portland from Glendora"
Devoniensis
"Not Park's Yellow"
E. Veyrat Hermanos
Thor
Blush Noisette
Radiance
Mme. Gregoire Stachelin
Mme. Isaac Perierre
Aloha
Maman Cochet
Paul Neyron
Rose de Rescht
Chrysler Imperial
Hansa

I hope to demonstrate that roses can be grown organically in this manner in central Florida without wasting increasingly scarce water. In the 1990s I planted a vast number of own root roses in my Bay Area clients' garden that thrived and gave them, and me, joy year after year. BUT....back then there were NO watering restrictions vs. the very severe ones that have become the norm since 2001. The super-busy hurricane seasons of 2004-2005 made Tampa wet indeed, and did much to delay the demise of roses all over Tampa, both own root and Fortuniana. My profound hope is that by easily modifying discarded 5-7 gallon buckets with a 3/4 inch paddle bit we can again grow roses both own root and on Fortuniana while using no pesticides and very little of the water that Florida is now perennially short of.

John

Florida Rose Growing Myths

2011-02-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

An e-mail I got today reminded me of several widespread myths that even a few rosarians embrace and repeat that do a great disservice to growing Old Roses in my beloved state, the biggest being "It is a proven fact that roses need to be budded onto Fortuniana to grow in Florida". From 1989 through the late 1990s I created many gardens for clients here using own root OGRs and they thrived right up until the drought settled in 6 years ago when the hurricanes ceased to arrive here and when harsh watering restrictions were imposed (current penalty structure is $100 first time, $500 second time, $500 and court appearance third time, with liens against one's home if you blow off the court appearance). Tampa's high-sodium/high chlorine reclaimed water quickly killed surviving collections. But folks I know with rural wells they can run in secret have THRIVING collections of own root OGRs. I note that those who insist that Fortuniana is a must are not concerned by its famous thirst and use amounts of water that blow my mind as an environmentalist that has watched Florida dry up dramatically since the 1970s.

A Florida rosarian I once knew who subscribes to and proclaims as fact that baseless Fortuniana myth also "informed" me in the 90s that Bourbons, Albas,Wichuraianas and Multiflora Ramblers won't grow here.....good thing that my very long lived (in the ground) 'Jersey Beauty' and 'Leontine Gervais' and 'Francois Juranville' and 'Seagull' don't know that! A friend grows own root without sprays the 'Mme. Isaac Pereire' and 'Mme. Alfred Carriere' I gave him three years ago, and my own root specimens of 'Coquette des Blanches' and 'Louise Odier' thrive in their Water Wise Container Gardens long term, again without sprays. 'Zepherine Drouhin' and 'Albertine' and 'Mme. Plantier' and 'Climbing American Beauty' thrived in the soil here for years until the drought settled in....they finally died 3-4 years ago. A 'Pink Clouds' Multiflora Rambler I gave a highschool era acquaintance thrived for many years beside their hot driveway for many years before they dug it out. I WOULD agree from many trials that the majority of Modern Roses DO best on, or even require, the Fortuniana rootstock.

Another myth that harms the Florida environment BIG time is "You HAVE to spray for pests and diseases in Florida". Again....good thing the all-organic rose gardens I created for clients that I maintained using pro-biotic methods did not know that! The sickliest rose gardens I've seen here ARE the ones that are routinely sprayed and thus are absent entire communities of macro and micro organisms that combat bugs and disease FOR organically grown rose gardens.

La Reine

Seagull

Louise Odier

Coquettes des Blanches

Albertine

Leontine Gervais

Great Western

Mermaid

"Fairmount Red"

Francois Juranville

Aviateur Bleriot in a client's yard

Jersey Beauty

Enjoy the pictures from my yard of roses that some Florida rose "experts" years ago told me can't grow here. John

Keeping My Eyes on the Prize as I Re-invent My Rose Garden

2011-02-06T08:07:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvuR_6akedk

Progress of the "re-rosifying" of my front yard

2011-02-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

Buried 5-7 gallon Water Wise Container Gardens are the fulcrum upon this effort to grow roses in Tampa's sandy soil after 6 years of drought and severe watering restrictions balances. I feel it will work....I hope so as I miss my roses. A video soon. John

Graig and Shanti and their roses in Denver

2011-02-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Graig and Shanti with 'De La Grifferie'

Their back patio in June

Them with 'Cornelia' on a pillar

It looks like I forgot to attach the pics of them to that older post about OGRs in Denver. Hard to believe that when I created this garden behind their home, and the ones out front and on the south side of their lot, most of the roses were in 1 gallon pots! Here you go. Enjoy! John

A wonderful January rain storm in Tampa

2011-01-30T13:13:00.000-08:00

My roses (and veggies) will LOVE this! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ7B7im35UU

Roses in My Life and Here in Florida

2011-01-27T10:08:00.000-08:00

I went "mental" over Old Roses in Denver in 1989 after living there for a year and a half, and until two years ago they were a primary shaping passion of my life. But I realized some months ago that for the last two years or so I'd lost easily 90% OF that passion due to six years of unrelenting long term drought and draconian watering restrictions that had steadily decimated my collection, leaving me with a few tough stalwarts like 'Mermaid', R. bracteata, "Barfield White Climber", 'Newport Fairy', "Pink Cracker Rose", Francois Juranville, and R. laevigata. As an urban farmer who grows most of his own food and who has seen the lush wet green Florida of his youth (Key West native) turn into a dessicated sandy peninsula prone to catatrosphic fires, with the Everglades at death's door, I use what little water I DO have access on my food crops vs. roses. Plus I have heartbreakingly witnessed Tampa's high chlorides/high sodium reclaimed water destroy in months wonderful collections I'd created over the years in my landscape clients' gardens. So 20/20 hindsight made me realize some months ago that SLOWLY, very slowly, I'd lost most of my love for roses as here in Tampa they are a VERY rare sight except in the landscapes of the VERY wealthy who can afford sprinkler systems that A. Let them evade the restrictions without getting busted and B. They can AFFORD the resultant water bills. But with Tampa Water now talking about QUADRUPLING the base water rate, rose growing here could be even more of a challenge. But I MIGHT be getting my roses mojo back due to something I invented a few years ago by trying to figure out why so many of my St. Pete Times readers did not like their expensive Earth Boxes for veggies growing.....

I take 5-7 gallon discarded plastic buckets, and, for roses, use a 3/4 inch paddle bit to make about 5 drainage holes on the SIDES of each bucket, about 3 inches from the bottom, add layers of soil and compost, plant the rose, then bury the bucket. This protects the plastic from the brutal UV here, but also, when the rose gets rootbound, the roots can exit those holes at that depth of 2 feet or more where the sandy soil will have at least SOME moisture present and hopefully anchor then grow deeper towards the ever-dropping water table. Prototype plantings out front seem very hopeful: Safrano, "Fairmount Proserpine", Baronne Prevost, "Pink Cracker Rose", "Natchogotches Yellow" (sp?), "Morrocan Rose" and Cramoisi Superieur seem to be thriving! So even though my income has plunged due to the loss of my Times column 2 years as they struggle to stay afloat, I just placed a big order from Chamblee's Roses (Mark just called to confirm the order) plus will order an Autumn Damask from ARE and a THIRD 'Louis XIV' and 'E. Veyrat Hermanos' from RU. All will be planted in what I call 'Water Wise Container Gardens' and buried as one last effort to grow roses RESPONSIBLY in my native Florida, in hopes I can recover all my former roses passion. The whole experience reminds me of long term married folks I've known who've shared with me that they'd realized they'd fallen OUT of love with their spouses and wanted it back. Since I am still healing from the demise of my first real romance since 1994 with a top shelf guy who turned out to be confused and in denial about his sexuality, loving roses again could perhaps aid that process too.

I must apologize to Kim and Anita for failing to mail them cuttings of "Pink Cracker Rose" for a year now plus losing my cherished plant of "Not Fortune's Yellow" to this freakin' drought before I buried its bucket as I had not yet cut down the MONSTROUS Mermaid that had consumed my front yard. "Pink Cracker Rose" is now buried out front in a buried 7 gallon Water Wise Container Garden made from a swimming pool tablets bucket and should take off in the spring. Realizing that I had failed Anita and Kim repeatedly was a wake up call that I was very close to not caring about roses.

A few other catalysts to getting the fire in my belly back was having success in early prototypes of these Water Wise Container Gardens made from tree pots and 15 gallon detergent jugs with "Fairmount Red", Louise Odier, "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" (a Fairmount Cemetery rose), Pat Austin, and "York Street Yellow" (one of Tony Tichy's Denver finds), plus being asked to speak about Probiotic Rose Gardening at a roses festival April 30th near Gainesville, plus learning recently that my article on that topic was published in the newly-released wonderful book ' The Sustainable Rose Garden' co-edited by our own Gene Waering and Pat Shanley and Peter Kukielski.

Today I made three postings at my roses blog (see link below) about the roses at Denver's Fairmount Cemetery, and my years of work with them.

So maybe I AM falling back in love with roses!! Like I told Lee Sherman, if this labor intensive approach of buried Water Wise Container Gardens DOES not work in the increasingly dry climate here, that could well trigger a final break up and divorce. In my youth I could have never imagined that a flower of all things could be so capable of moving OR stilling my heart.

John

List of Fairmount Roses presented to the Board in 2003

2011-01-27T07:47:00.000-08:00

Sadly, I was informed 2 years ago that this list plus the many years of notes and reports I had prepared and given to the Board of Fairmount Cemetery, at no cost, was lost. I see now why I was told years ago by people who knew I was not charging Fairmount for my work that people don't value what they get for free. I'd love to have a dollar for every hour I spent at the cemetery, and researching the roses I catalogued there, over that delightful 12 years! It saddens me to think of the gems lost there needlessly due to my cautions not being heeded. John

ROSES OF FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY,

CURRENT AS OF 9-16-03

1. “Austin Pink Damask” ( Duc de Cambridge?)

2. “Fairmount Pink Moss” ( Beranger? Glory of the Mosses?)

3. “Fairmount Malton” ( almost certainly IS ‘Malton’ )

4. ‘Harison’s Yellow’

5. “High Country Banshee” smooth form

6. “High Country Banshee” prickly form

7. “High Country Banshee” semi-double form

8. “Fairmount American Pillar”

9. “Fairmount Red” (George IV? William Jesse? Prince Charles? Sir Joseph

Paxton? Vivid?)

10. ‘Alba maxima’

11. ‘Alba semi-plena’

12. “ Desiree’ Parmentier” (a Gallica likely NOT of this name)

13. ‘Dr. Huey’

14. ‘Dr. Huey Pink Sport’

15. ‘Dr. Huey, double form’

16. ‘Pink Grootendorst’

17. ‘Red Grootendorst’

18. “Jo An’s Pink Perpetual” ( Champion of the World? )

19. “Fairmount Semi-Double Pink” (St. Nicholas? Amelia? Gloire de Guilan? )

20. ‘Cl. American Beauty’

21. “Alice Flores’ Purple Hybrid China”

22. “Myers’ Magenta”

23. “Fairmount Flouncy Pink”

24. ‘Manettii’

25. “Jeremiah Pink” (the “real” Banshee?)

26. ‘Rose de Rescht’

27. “Fairmount Blaze”

28. “Fairmount Chameleon Rose” ( Hybrid Multiflora? )

29. ‘Mothersday’

30. ‘Rosa multiflora, thornless form’

31. ‘Rosa multiflora, thorny form’

32. ‘Rosa multiflora, thornless/rugose form’

33. ‘Rosa cinammomea’

34. ‘Rosa canina’ (banks of High Line Canal)

35. “Fairmount Scabrosa” (died)

36. “Odom Light Pink Moss”

37. ‘Gruss an Teplitz’

38. “Barclay Pink Moss”

39. “Alice Flores’ Alba/Damask hybrid” (“Evans Rose” of Riverside)

40. “James Russell Rambler”

41. ‘Ragged Robin’

42. “Fairmount Red Radiance”

43. ‘Dorothy Perkins’

44. “Fairmount Excelsa”

45. ‘White Dorothy Perkins’

46. “Fairmount Magenta Damask”

47. “Alameda Alba suaveolens”

48. “Anderson Red Hybrid Tea”

49. “Fairmount Proserpine”

50. “Couchman Pink Perpetual” ( “Fairmount Malton”? )

51. “Fairmount Paul’s Scarlet”

52. “Caswell Moss”

53. IXLR

54. “Fairmount Aloha”

55. “Rex Red HP” ( General Jacqueminot? )

56. “Fairmount Careless Love”

57. “Catherine Warren Gallica”

58. “Dardis Red HP” (Captain Hayward? Lord Bacon?)

59. “Sister Knight Species” (R. acicularis?)

60. “Rutherford Cerise Wichuraiana” ( modern groundcover rose? )

61. “McCray White Climber” (Cl. Frau Karl Druschki?)

62. “Strang Portland” (Delambre?)

63. “Rettig Lavender Rambler” (perhaps a thornless Geschwind hybrid?)

64. “Fairmount Kazanlik”

65. “Fairmount Eglantine” ( likely ‘Anne of Geierstein’ or ‘Amy Robsart’)

66. “Delaney Red HT, 1902”

67. “Johnson Magenta Damask”

68. “Ada Crouch Single Pink” (seedling of “Fairmount Semi-Double Pink” ?)

69. “Gaskin White Rambler” ( modern groundcover rose? )

70. “Alexander Thornless Pink” (Hybrid Bourbon? )

71. “MacDonald Pale Pink Myrrh”

72. “Elaine Holm Red HT’

73. Condesa de Sastago

74. Peace (likely an old original plant)

75. “Fairmount Chevy Chase”

76. “Butchart Apricot Pink Shrub” (Canadian?)

some photos of roses from Fairmount Cemetery, Denver Colorado

2011-01-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

Enjoy! John

"Fairmount American Pillar"

My first find there circa 1991 "Fairmount Red"... 'Rivers IV' ?

"Fairmount Proserpine"

"Mae Fair Pink" R. manettii

a remontant VERY fragrant Damask Perpetual

The Roses of Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado

2011-01-27T06:38:00.000-08:00

I spent 12 years tromping this lovely 260 acre historic cemetery founded in 1890 and over that time with the help of folks taking my tours found and catalogued 77 varieties of roses, not counting Moderns and Minis. I helped the folks there, along with Jo An Cullen, to create a collection of many around the lovely Victorian gazebo, and submitted detailed annual reports. My friend Michael Mowry was invaluable in his dedication to helping me photograph specimens there over MANY a sleep-deprived morning. Sadly, I was informed two years ago that after the departure of yet another director of public affairs that ALL of those reports were missing. I will now and then list here some of the reports I gave them but will not list the locations of the roses as when I did, a board member there despite my warnings, had roses dug up to be moved to the gazebo.....which killed them...in some cases they were the ONLY specimen. Since I dearly loved (and love) those roses that were a centerpiece of my life for twelve years, I won't share data that could further endanger those that remain. Despite the objections of world famous rosarians, that same board member convinced the board to ban visitors from taking cuttings to root at home to increase their numbers to help insure their survival as had been done for many many decades. Since the Fairmount board's ACTUAL concern for the roses as demonstrated by real world action vs. words can easily be questioned, I agree with the many rosarians who called that year for civil disobedience by discreetly taking cuttings to make sure those stunning gems survive both time and political machinations seemingly stemming from a primary focus of tax-emempt status vs. truly caring for the roses as I did and do. See below the balance of a report (now lost) that I submitted to the board in 2003.

Balance of 2002 Roses of Fairmount and Riverside Report

Hi Nancy,

As promised I am providing the balance of my report on the roses at both cemeteries, along with my invoice for the tour I was asked to lead last June.

1. At my expense last year I sent cuttings of approx. 24 more varieties of the roses of Fairmount to 3 growers in Utah, Texas and Colorado as additional insurance against the extinction of any more varieties due to raspberry cane borer (now assaulting “Sister Knight Species”), landscape crews, herbicide applications and due to the public last year suddenly being denied its traditional century old role as an invaluable ally in the preservation of the wonderful roses at both cemeteries. I will not being asking to be reimbursed for those costs nor the time involved in gathering, processing, packaging or mailing them.

2. “Study names” were at last chosen for all 4 seemingly heirloom red Hybrid Teas I have found, catalogued and photographed at Fairmount. Comparisons so far indicate none are ‘Crimson Glory’ and a 5th was determined to be a somewhat modern red HT.

3. A board member theorized last year that the reason so many roses at both cemeteries can’t be identified was due to “120 years of exposure to high altitude UV”. But even if either cemetery had been open that long, there is no evidence, anecdotal or scientific, that UV radiation causes roses or other plants to “sport” (mutate). Plus such sports do not displace entire original plants but are individual branches, such as the pink sport discovered on a plant of ‘Dr. Huey’ at the south end of Fairmount 3 years ago. Instead it is simply a question of continued dedicated studies at Fairmount leading to the identification of the Mystery Roses at Fairmount as I have undertaken the last dozen years, aided by fellow rosarians fascinated by and commited to them. Last year was a watershed year in that effort, with visiting California rosarian Marlea Graham either directly confirming, (or providing crucial leads) that:

“Mae Fair Pink” is in fact the rootstock rose R. Manettii

“Fairmount Ragged Robin” is in fact Ragged Robin

“Fairmount Gruss an Teplitz” is in fact Gruss an Teplitz

All of these roses are associated with mild climates i.e. southern California so each year rosarians would hesitate to make those conclusions. Yet after her notion for “Mae Fair Pink” (which has stumped everyone for years) I used digital photographs sent on the internet plus a plant of R. manettii sent me to receive confirmation from some of the best rosarians that her seemingly odd hunch based on her familiarity with R. manetti in mild climate settings WAS on target

4. I have confirmed again with America’s top rose breeder Tom Carruth that Mystery Roses at cemeteries and elsewhere can NOT be renamed and patented for resale for profit as they are pre-existing varieties. I had hoped that this could be a source of in come for the preservation of the roses at Fairmount but plant patent lawns clearly prohibit it. All that can be done is for them to sold under their study names as Mystery Roses to increase their numbers and spread the recogntion of the Fairmount name. Perhaps growers selling them might agree to donate a portion of each sale, but patenting and renaming would be unethical and illegal. The notion that they are all radiation-induced mutants capable of being patented is a false one that the Fairmount Heritage Foundation would be ill-advised to follow through on.

5. While I may be in Denver to pursue business and rose studies this summer, I cannot project any dates with certainty that would allow me to conduct tours of and for Fairmount as in so many years past. Special provisions would need to be made to enable my schedule to coincide with the peak bloom times of mid June.

6. It is increasingly possible that the vigorous plant I found of ‘Peace’ near a 1948 headstone is in fact a specimen of the long sought after original strain of ‘Peace’ sold before it was weakened by decades of over-propagation. And it seems the cuttings obtained by a skilled plant propagator are in fact thriving in that greenhouse Since author/lecturer/rosarian Bill Grant has proposed that the traditional date dividing Old Roses from Modern Roses be moved up from 1867 (the year ‘La France’ was introduced) to 1945 (the year ‘Peace’ was introduced into commerce) finding and cloning from one of those original plants sold would be in valuable. Last June I showed this plant to several rosarians and we all agreed that due to the vigor of the plant, its apparent longevity in that spot, with its base nearly integrated with the base of the headstone, and that tantalizing death date of 1948, there is cause to be hopeful.

7. Heather Campbell at High Country Roses in Utah continues to be a valuable ally in my efforts to increase the numbers of the best roses at both cemeteries off site, and this year should have a few more available to the public. In 2001 I sent her cuttings from Riverside knowing that none there had ever been cloned off site and it is thrilling to know that Toni Tichy’s lovely discoveries “Beulah Blakely” and “Obrecht” are now finding safe haven in the gardens of rosarians and rose lovers. I have 3 testing here in Tampa as “longshots” and several in my Denver garden plus many are now thriving on the grounds of the Denver Zoo due to the foresight and dedication of Merle Moore, who a few years ago was entranced by the roses at both cemeteries when I gave him and a few other rosarians a private tour.

8. Studying and cataloguing and preserving Old Garden Roses is hard work that takes TIME and focus, and early on I ignored the admonition I kept receiving from a now-board member that I was seeing the same 6 varieties over and over year after year. With so many noted authors and rosarians now having visited Fairmount and Riverside and seeing why I was so enthralled with the richness of rose varieties and Mystery Roses and now aiding me actively in my ongoing efforts that will continue despite my now living in Florida, I am hopeful that the board of the Fairmount Heritage Foundation will perhaps this summer spend some time getting to know (and hopefully love as I do) the remarkable roses under their oversight and thus reverse the tragic decree barring the public from taking cuttings that so alarmed high caliber rosarians within and outside of Colorado as it embodied the antithesis of Old Rose preservation. Maybe even a few board members will take cuttings and root them for their gardens.

9. In 2001Frank and Mary Sue asked me to commit June 16, 2002 to lead an abbreviated tour of Fairmount for the usual fee of $150. Please accept this line in this report as my invoice for having returned to Denver from Tampa and meeting that commitment and also providing detailed handouts to the tour-goers. My address is:

John Starnes

3212 West Paxton Avenue

Tampa, FL 33611

10. I have made provisions that photographs be taken of a few remaining varietes at Fairmount in June, and possibly all at Riverside by Colorado photographer Michael Mowry who has with great dedication and no pay allocated the last 3 sleep deprived Junes to cataloging the Fairmount roses just after sunrise on countless sleepy mornings. I have also made provisions to insure more cuttings be taken of key varieties not yet cloned off site, in particular the remarkable “Fairmount Red Damask” that Fred Boutin and Marlea Graham and Brent Dickerson all suspect is a crucial early Bourbon or early Hybrid Perpetual stemming directly from the Damask Perpetuals. It is perhaps one of top 3 discoveries made at Fairmount

11. Despite many hours buried in books and many repeat visits to Fairmount in late June and early July, I have yet to devise an effective study name for the extremely enigmatic plants that Michael and I discovered last year that closely echo “Fairmount Excelsa” yet are very clearly different...based on my spending 2 weeks with author Stephen Scanniello who in 1998 was the curator of the Cranford Rose Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, using his and other books, and photographs I took on that remarkable trip with him seeing cemeteries MUCH older than Fairmount ( 1700's ) I keep returning to the notion that these 3 plants we photographed last year in fact contains traces of the species R. soulieana...on that basis I am succumbing to the urge to name them “Fairmount Chevy Chase”. That whole era that produced ‘Excelsa’ and ‘Dorothy Perkins’ and their ilk also produced a number of EXCEPTIONALLY similar hybrids, all stunted into dwarfdom by Colorado’s harsh winters. But since with the help of many rosarians over many years it was finally confirmed that the non-climbing mounds of pink roses all over Fairmount in July were in fact ‘Dorothy Perkins’ (which is a rampant rambler in mild winter regions like Seattle and Tennessee and England) I am hopeful that continued work by myself and others will solve this new intriguing mystery that illuminates once again the singularly spectacular treasure trove of roses that Fairmount and Riverside together offer the world.

Sincerely,

John Starnes

813-839-0881

JohnAStarnes@aol.com

A truly decadent deep red rose.....Louis XIV

2011-01-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

Oddly, though considered a seedling of the Hybrid Perpetual 'General Jacqueminot' (1853), 'Louis XIV' is usually classified as a China Rose. I love the rich sultry color and heady perfume. John

OGRs in Denver

2011-01-13T17:12:00.000-08:00

'Ghislaine de Feligonde' and 'Russelliana'

When I lived in Denver I created for quite a few of my landscape clients informal gardens of perennials and own-root OGRs. My own yard at 1684 Willow Street contained 170 roses in the front yard, with my own hybrids, including named registered ones like 'Brenda Mowery' and 'Denny Arter' and 'Four Inch Heels' and 'Ruby Voodoo' and 'Gold Blush' grown in my back yard in between my food crops. Graig Weisbart and his wife Shanti Chakko had me create for them over a few years one of my favorite collections of roses ever in a client's garden due in part to the stature of some of the pillarized roses. If I ever visit Denver again I will visit their yard and my old one on Willow, where my love of roses germinated and took root. Photos of Graig and Shanti and a few of their roses. Enjoy, John

'Teasing Georgia'

2011-01-11T18:22:00.001-08:00

Newly repillarized for the 2011 growing season. Enjoy, John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irgw5pABxf4

Video about 'Teasing Georgia' being pillarized for 2011 coming soon!

2011-01-11T14:58:00.001-08:00

Stay tuned! John

Rainbows and Roses and abandoned McMansions

2011-01-06T17:20:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiVBZwh_Av0

Peace and Grace

2010-12-29T17:11:00.000-08:00

Grace is the vivacious and effusively friendly Mom of my long time customer and friend Donna Bevis, and some years ago she grew in a big pot a cheap plant of 'Peace' budded onto the Fortuniana rootstock that in Florida tends to be short-lived....look at the floral perfection of that classic rose she achieved! And with no pesticides.

Sadly, some low-life had the audacity to steal that lovely potted specimen from her own front porch that summer! They robbed her of a treasure she adored and tended to. As punishment for the scumbag I wish an eternity of threesomes with Dick Cheney and Rodney Dangerfield.

Enjoy, John

'Seagull' Rambling Rose, 1907

2010-12-17T12:42:00.000-08:00

I love this rambling rose as much here in Tampa as I did my monster specimen in my Denver yard. In the late 90's, as I co-hosted the 1997 Heritage Rose Foundation Conference in Denver, Stephen Scanniello suggested that I try 'Seagull' there. His advice was sound as that plant soon wove up into my west facing cedar tree there at 1684 Willow Street in Denver, each summer spilling out from openings in the cedar's canopy in fragrant white cascades. Some folks feel it is a Wichuriana Hybrid, others a Multiflora Hybrid....one suggested parentage I've seen that has intrigued me for many years is (R. multiflora X General Jacqueminot)...which might explain the high rate of remontant seedlings I get from open-pollinated hips from my Tampa specimen, which gets almost no care yet is very vigorous. Since I have memories of 'Seagull' from England, California, Texas, Colorado, Buschardt Gardens, all cooler climate areas, I love seeing my plant growing beside my Queen Palm! John

Check out this link at my favorite roses website:

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.5667

rose bouquets

2010-12-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

I enjoy most the informal bouquets I make on a whim. John