ROSE ARTICLES

GOPHERS. They’re properly called “Pocket Gophers.” These furry little tunnel-makers are a problem in many parts of the western United States, and they are considered to be one of the top three garden pests in coastal California. Contrary to what you MAY have been told, they WILL eat rose roots, often killing the plant. And they are a little like Star Trek’s “Borg.” If you have them in large numbers, you begin to feel a bit like “resistance is futile.” To protect roses from th

Scent is an incredible potential tool in the repertory of the gardener. Fragrance can tease, evoke memories and emotions, or set a mood. However, most of the time, we fail to make use of scent in even the most elemental way when planning a garden. There are some good reasons for this common neglect of one of our senses. Scent is something that enhances our lives, at this point in our evolution. It is not a human survival tool. Although our noses are considered to be 10,000 ti

English Roses before David Austin – surely this is an oxymoron? By now most rose fanciers are aware that David Austin, of Wolverhampton, England, coined the term “English Rose” to describe the products of his breeding program, begun in the 1960s with Constance Spry®. With their combination of Old Garden Rose flower form, modern color range, and rebloom, this breeder’s many English Rose introductions have gained enormous popularity over the past decades. So much so that Mr. Au

Disbudding is the practice of removing undesirable buds. It is achieved by placing the bud between thumb and index fingers and rocking it back and forth until the bud breaks off at the base. The earlier in the bud’s life this is done, the easier it snaps off and the less scar that remains on the stem. Disbudding for One-Bloom-Per Stem For entries of one-bloom-per-stem hybrid teas and miniatures, it is essential to remove the side buds, or the entry willbe disqualified. The le

by Gail Trimble, from Marin Rose April 2004 Disbudding is the practice of removing undesirable buds. It is achieved by placing the bud between thumb and index fingers and rocking it back and forth until the bud breaks off at the base. The earlier in the bud’s life this is done, the easier it snaps off and the less scar that remains on the stem. Disbudding for One-Bloom-Per Stem For entries of one-bloom-per-stem hybrid teas and miniatures, it is essential to remove the side bu

Gone are the heavy Victorian furniture, beaded curtains and Tiffany lamps of the 18th Century. Along with them, the rose rage of the season, the hybrid perpetual, slipped almost unnoticed into obscurity and near extinction. Out of the nearly 3,000 varieties hybridized during this golden age, we have only about 100 left, and only about 50 varieties are commercially available today. While they were in vogue, they were very popular as people rushed to include the newest variety

Cutting and storing roses, and transporting them to rose shows are techniques that each rosarian develops to fit his or her particular interest and level of involvement in exhibiting. At one end of the scale is the casual exhibitor who picks roses the morning of a rose show, places them in a bucket, and drives off to a local rose show. At the other end is the exhibitor who collects blooms up to a week before a show, places them in a separate refrigerator devoted to storing ro

The possibilities for using miniature roses in arrangements are endless. You can use miniature roses in many types of arrangements: mass, line, line-mass, or oriental manner. You can find further information about creating these types of arrangements in the other arrangement sections here in this web page. Arrangements using miniature roses in rose shows are typically 10 inches or less in any direction. Some rose shows may have arrangement classes for designs as little as 3 i

Container grown roses can be just as satisfying as roses grown in the ground and for those with limited space or those whose rose collections are growing faster than their planting beds, it can be a necessity. Here, I will address container choices, the size containers roses need, and the basics of growing roses in containers. Container choices range from the black plastic pots that nursery plants are usually sold in, to the elaborately painted ceramic pots that can be bought

A reader has requested clarification regarding the use of a floral conditioning solution (e.g. Chrysal RVB) vs. a floral preservative solution (e.g. Floralife, Oasis or Chrysal Cut Flower Food). The concern is well-founded because the terms are easily confused and somewhat misleading. First, please note the use of the terms conditioning and hardening in the previous article. These terms describe two time periods in the processing of cut flowers. Confusion sets in because both