By Karen Flores, President

Happy New Year to all! This is a big year for PRS – it is our 75-year anniversary! We will plan a fun party to celebrate during the year. We have a great line up of presentations for our meetings and we have our kickoff in January with a pruning talk and hands on teaching! See the details in the newsletter and we hope to see you all there.

We had a great year in 2024 – a very successful show and rose sale, a new focus on our monthly shows, great speakers, a successful intern program with pruning help to our senior members, much progress on the lovely community rose garden at Red Morton Park, and a strong presence at the RWC farmers’ market. We have welcomed many new members and for the first time in quite a while we have all of our volunteer positions filled for 2025! I would like to thank those who served and are now moving out of their roles (some into new roles): Judy Webster as VP, Carl Brannon as Board Member, Stuart Dalton as Membership, Bob Giarusso as Raffle Coordinator, Tomoko Lee as the webmaster (still helping out) and official thanks to Priya Kamath for over 20 years organizing the monthly shows. Jenny Tsao took this over last year and will continue on with help from Carol Wong. Thanks also to Jerry Georgette, who was the lead in our internship program with Foothill College and supported by a grant left to PRS by Barbara Todd.

I am looking forward to this year with a great team in place to help out so stay tuned for more fun events as the year unfolds.

Officers and committee chairs for 2025:

President Karen Flores

Vice President Heather Dalloul

Secretary recording Judy Webster

Secretary corresponding Doug Brees

Treasurer Sonia Picone

Director 1 Anne Quincy

Director 2 Pam Schenk

Director 3 Cindy Georgette

Membership Judy Sleeth

Newsletter editors Stuart Dalton and Karen Zack

Raffle Chris Holm

Refreshment Sue Robinson

Social Media Jaden Houston

Annual Show Chair Stuart Dalton

Monthly Show Jenny Tsao/ Carol Wong

CR Coordinator Susie Sedlacek

Community project liaison Judy Webster

Webmaster Jeremy Yip with Tomoko Lee assisting

Awards 2024

Bronze Medal

Judy Webster was awarded the PRS Bronze medal for all of her amazing work for PRS. She served as President , Vice President twice, as well as spear heading the RWC Farmers market and the Katherine Brennan Rose Garden project.

Master Rosarian Award

Presented to Jerry Georgette for all of his many hours leading our intern program and assisting many of our senior members with their annual pruning. Jerry has done so much for PRS and we greatly appreciate it!!

Monthly Shows 2024

Overall Highpoint for Cut Flowers Horticulture

Stuart Dalton

Overall Highpoint for Floral Arrangements

Tomoko Lee

Overall Highpoint for Cut Flowers Novice

Doug Brees

Individual category awards:

Hybrid teas/grandifloras Carol Wong

Floribundas Santina Campi

Polyanthas Karen Zack

Climbers and Ramblers Stuart Dalton

Shrubs Carol Wong

Old Garden Roses Stuart Dalton

Miniature and miniflora Stuart Dalton

Challenge Classes Doug Brees

We revamped the awards this year with lovely plaques for highpoint winners and recognition and small awards for each category winner, so make sure you plan to enter this year’s monthly shows! It is great practice for our big show in May.