Summer is here, the Peninsula Rose Society Picnic came and went and I’m reminded again what a wonderful group of members we have. Thanks to Priya for opening her lovely home and garden. The setting was great and the food was both abundant and tasty. This year the weather cooperated and the stroll through the roses was very pleasant. Hard to believe Priya waters all those roses by hand!

Right now in my garden, the second bloom seems ready to finish on some of the roses. Time to water, renew mulch, deadhead and add alfalfa meal to get later blooms and clean out the center to reduce rust and powdery mildew as days get shorter. I will go over other tips in the Consulting Rosarian Article.

I’ve been redoing my front yard, adding drip, timed automatic watering and adding about 20 roses as well as a few other flowers and vines. A number of these roses has started from cuttings since last year. I’ve been amazed at how well many of these have started and taken off in only eight months! See the Consulting Rosarian Article for tips. I have added five Sally Holmes from cuttings plus a Clair Martin, and all are almost three feet and blooming. In my experience, roses that do well on own roots are great. They can’t sucker, and the vigorous varieties grow well. I’m going to try a split-level trellis for two of my new Sally Holmes’ plus two kept short in of a redone bed. The Filoli rose garden has a huge “climbing” Sally Holmes and a short well-pruned one. Tell the rose what to do!

As mentioned elsewhere in this issue, Patti Spezzaferro (a 2017 PRS member and a UCCE Master Gardener) and I will be presenting a UCCE Master Gardener talk August 4th talk on Roses at 10 -12 AM at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center (the same venue as our monthly meetings)

I look forward to seeing many of you at the PRS meeting August 21st.

Happy Gardening

Stu Dalton