Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
This rose species, Rosa multiflora, can be invasive in colder U.S. states where many decades ago it was planted on purpose for erosion control....I've met it in my many road trips between Denver and Tampa. I love the simple form of the bloom, and the sweetly sharp fragrance. Today I was blessed with hips of it in the mail! LONG shot in south Tampa between the lack of winter chill and nematodes, but why not at least try? IF they grow here, since it is a once bloomer, I MIGHT get blooms in 2016 for me to work with as a breeder, so I WILL be bugging a certain woman in Missouri next spring to mail me in normal envelope with one stamp a few dozen of the tiny barely opening buds so I can use the pollen on my Teas, Chinas and Noisettes, plus 'Teasing Georgia'.
Monday, November 18, 2013
From two years ago when Pamela Greenewald asked Gene Waering and I and others to give talks at her spring rose festival there at Angel Gardens in north Florida. All of her roses are grown on their own roots and organically vs. on Fortuniana and endlessly sprayed. A shame the 2013 HRF Conference did not take tour goers there for a real eyeful! She is a high energy and delightful person and does SO much with just the help of her husband and with their own funding. Her curiosity about roses is insatiable.
Friday, November 15, 2013
'Cramoisi Superieur' entered commerce around 1834 and once was common in Florida where it thrives. For many years there was a HUGE hedge of it at the south end of the meridian for Bayshore Blvd. so people could enjoy the incredible perfume when they'd use the water fountain. Sadly, when I was in Denver, for some incredible reason the city dug it up!!! In Okeechobee where my Mom and Dad once lived there is a yard with several huge ones that have been thriving for decades, and the last time I was at Marie Selby Botanic Gardens in Sarasota there was a HUGE one growing next to the sidewalk and street, EASILY 8' X 8'! I am growing two here that my Dad rooted from the one I gave him and Mom maybe 20 years ago.....last time I was there to sell his place it still thrived with zero care.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
One of my life missions for my 60s is reminding Floridians that in the late 1900s and early 20th century, Florida landscapes boasted Chinas, Teas and Noisette roses, long before the advent of the Fortuniana root stock and modern chemical fungicides and insecticides. I used to love to curl up on the warm carpeted floor of the Denver Botanic Gardens library on snowy days and savor articles about this in old American Rose Society annuals. For sure, long term drought has very badly impacted rose growing here in central Florida, except for the wealthy and subsidized who can afford gargantuan water bills while plundering a plunging aquifer, but Floridians can grow own root and organically 'Cramoisi Superieur', 'Old Blush', 'Francois Juranville', 'Seagull', 'Leontine Gervais', "Barfield White Climber" and so many more without running up their water bills if they mulch deeply. I pee on my roses both for the water and the dissolved nutrients. Even if one prefers roses budded to R. fortuniana, they are very rarely retailed here. Some advocates of R. fortuniana bud their own as a result, an option not open to Florida gardeners and home owners who just want to enjoy the grace, beauty and fragrances of Old Roses. To me, pesticide-based, high water use rose gardening is not sustainable and discourages people here in Florida or elsewhere to even try roses. My intent is to see the iconic Mystery Rose "Pink Cracker Rose", that was common in Tampa up until the early 80s, once again widely available as it eats nematodes, laughs off fungal attacks, thrives own root and is very long-lived, plus is wonderfully fragrant.
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