Rain, rain go away, let our roses bloom for May!

Here I am in mid-March and wondering how many rose blooms will I have for our rose show on May 7th? Today  I spotted one bud on my “Best Kept Secret” rose! So there is hope. I did notice that in my garden the aphids have been held back by all this rain.

Speaking of aphids, when the aphids do arrive, attack them early and there won’t be any damage to your rose blooms.  My defense system is light water spray from my garden hose and wiping them off with my fingers. Please try to avoid sprays because it may harm other beneficial insects. 

On March 4th many of our members joined a pre-planning meeting for our May 7th rose show.  The meeting was put together by our show chair, Patti Spezzaferro, along with the help of our show co-chair Lydia Truce. It was nice to have the opportunity to meet up with committees in person.  Now that our show is a little over a month away, maybe some of you have found that you will be in town on the 7th. If you would like to join in on helping out with the show please contact Patti via email or phone.  There are many different aspects of the show where you can help. She will find a job that is of interest to you. We will be having another in-person meeting, the date to be advised, so if you can please join in on the fun this year.

At our April membership meeting on Tuesday, the 21st, there will be a demonstration by Stu Dalton on how to groom your roses for the show.  This is a very informative meeting and can really help novices, like myself, feel confident in entering a rose at the show.  Plus you will have help on the day of the show on how to display your rose.  

In closing, I have a quick story about last year’s show.  By show time my roses had finished their first bloom cycle because we had much warmer weather.  As I was heading out my gate on show day I noticed that I had only one bloom that had popped open. I thought, that bloom looks pretty good.  Well, it did look good.  I won my first-ever blue ribbon at the show! I kept the ribbon and hung it on my winning rose bush all year long.