Thank you Donna Massari Bevis for thinking to call me from Sam's Club to ask if I wanted an 'Oklahoma' rose.....then bringing me TWO husky ones! These will get potted up to use as pollen parents in my newly re-christened rose breeding program aimed at creating roses that will thrive own root and with no sprays in Florida's now perennial drought.

What a joy....the first bloom of the year from my Fairmount Cemetery rose "Jo An's Pink Perpetual" that years ago Fred Boutin and I, after he visited the original in Denver, felt might be 'Champion of The World'. Astonishing perfume!

First bloom of the year from the Mystery Rose "Moroccan Rose" that years ago Mike Shoup gave me to trial here in Tampa. It too grows in a large Water Wise Container Garden in response to the perennial drought. Some feel it is a Portland Rose, but here it is a once-bloomer. The scent reminds me of that of a Centifolia but with a touch of Tea rose.

This gem has been here at least four years now, own root and organically grown.

I just stumbled on this link to an old article from my Denver days...

brought back a lot of good memories from that very intense era in my life!

http://www.westword.com/1999-05-13/news/dig-this/

'Teasing Georgia' grown as a climber on the Fortuniana root stock in south Tampa

Lust List

 E. Veyrat Hermanos

Louis XIV


I lost my beloved 'E. Veyrat Hermanos' and 'Louis XIV' years ago to the drought, but will check and see if Roses Unlimited still sells both and try them again but THIS time in buried Water Wise Container Gardens made from 7 gallon swimming pool chlorine buckets.

I began growing Old Roses on their own roots and all-organically in 1989 in my Denver gardens and those of my landscapes clients in Denver and Tampa, usually with stellar results vs. those I'd see elsewhere that were budded and routinely sprayed. I used my gardening columns in The Rocky Mountain News, The St. Petersburg Times and in several magazines to promote this "green" approach to rose growing since most folks think of roses as being fussy and NEEDING pesticides. But 'Probiotic Rose Growing' relies instead on introducing a mix of beneficial microbes and fungi to create a stable, complex ecology that crowds out pathogenic ones. And it is MUCH less expensive and hassle. Tampa is in year eight of water crisis, and I've seen my beloved home state dry up since the late 60s. As a water conservationist and urban farmer growing much of my own food, with watering allowed just once weekly, I now grow nearly all my roses in buried home made Water Wise Container Gardens. This allows me the joy of growing roses while GREATLY reducing my use of precious water. John Starnes