By Carol Wong, President
Looking out over the sere brown and green stems of pruned roses, we wondered if we could renew some of our rose garden. You might consider doing as we did, shovel pruning less than stellar roses and replacing them with roses we’d purchased in the fall sales. We put the old roses in pots to give away, and now have something new to bloom. In the January-February edition of American Rose Magazine the Roses in Review national rating scales listed the top ten big roses and top minis for gardens and exhibitions. Don Swanson, RIR National Coordinator, encouraged everyone to grow a few new roses. Rose suppliers are consolidating and going out of business, and ordering new roses in the fall for spring delivery can help. Aren’t names like, “Oh My! (Dad’s Day)” or “Oso Happy Petit Pink” tempting?
Join us on Tuesday, February 16th at 5:30 p.m. at Harry’s Hofbrau at 1909 El Camino Real, Redwood City 94063 to meet fellow members and our speaker Otto Lund from Santa Cruz who will be talking about “organic fertilizers”. We purchase our own meals from the delectable lineup and meet in the back of the restaurant left of the doorway. We leave for the Veteran’s Memorial Senior Center about 7 p.m. We are planning to meet at Harry’s Hofbrau for dinner before each membership meeting. It will give us a chance to socialize and meet our speakers.
Please print out a copy of the Membership survey attached to this newsletter. Barbara Todd and Pam Schenk put this together so that we can gather feedback to plan programs and activities that might suit your interests.
We are gathering ideas for field trips. Would you be willing to carpool to places such as The Marin County Rose Show and a garden, the San Jose Rose Garden and Guadalupe Old Roses garden, have lunch or a picnic? Will you drive and how many could you take? We will be sending around field trip signups once we decide on 2-3 events. Rose gardens are at their peak in April and May. Let us know your interests in the survey and turn it in either at the February membership meeting or mail it to Barbara or Pam.
Raffle prizes can be donated by anyone and can include any rose or gardening tool. The signup sheet was suggested by Jerry Georgette who noticed that the Mt. Diablo Rose Society used it. Please participate by attending meetings, replying to the survey, and giving us your input. The Peninsula Rose Society is only as lively as you make it!