By Stuart Dalton, President

The First bloom is amazing! I just hope it holds for the PRS show May 6th. As I write this at the end of April we have had some warm weather and the blooms are popping. All the new, mostly Austin, roses I put in large pots bare root to try out (much like the excellent recent ARS American Rose magazine article Jan-Feb 2018) are starting to grow rapidly, though they will not be blooming for the show. Many of the cuttings of Sally Holmes I started during the winter have sprouted, and it is always fun to see how these develop and which ones survive the drier, warmer weather. A few items for the future.

Show signups:
If you signed up for show activities, please help out. And we can always use more help in setup and clean up. Thanks to all who are volunteering and to Barry Johnson for his generous donation helping with the expenses.

Morcom Garden tour:
Thanks to Anne Quincy for setting up this tour of the Morcom Municipal Garden in Oakland on May 23rd. Look for ride-sharing opportunities and check the signup sheets that were passed around in April if you can line up rides or offer them.

Filoli Flower Show: 
We will again have a display at Filoli Flower Show June 1-3. Thank you to Pam Schenk for setting this up. Pam and Dorothy Hunter (a past PRS member) and I are working with Filoli’s Horticultural Director to train and set up Filoli rose tours. I will be giving talks June 2nd and 3rd at the Filoli Flower Days on mid-year rose care much like last year, with emphasis on how Filoli is managing their garden.  Refer to this link.  

Prepping roses (to show or for your enjoyment):
From my own experience, I offer a few tips to those of you who want to cut flowers for your home, for gifts or for the show to keep flowers in great shape.

Planning (for a dinner party, arrangement or for a show):
• Finish any disbudding early, at least a week in advance (remove side buds for single bloom, terminal buds for a spray). Preferably several weeks out.
• Scout out likely roses just opening to see which may be ready when you want them. Partly open roses with nice foliage are usually identifiable early.
• If you have insects. Rinse off with water early in the day or hand pick. Spittle bugs hand squish, then wash. Light colored roses attract thrips so inspect those blooms carefully. Moving specks may be thrips.
• If blooms look great a few days early, cut and refrigerate. This can be done several days in advance, think of florists refrigerating blooms.
• If for a show, check the name (and spelling) or, if you think you know it but are not sure, look online to check the image.

Cutting and prepping:
• Cut early in the day, put in water, recut at 45 degree angle under water in a shallow basin.
• For shows I carry water in the garden and a notepad. I always think I will remember any I cut, but experience says to write them down so you can tell which rose is which. I use a crude paper tag if I have many roses. Use the handbook for selecting roses from ARS.
• Take them to a shady place to groom the roses.
• If stored for a couple days use floral preservative or stale 7-up plus water.
• If blooms are near perfectly open, put in cold water and keep cool or refrigerate
• Gently remove guard petals (outside, misshaped or poor petals by pulling them off carefully)
• If not quite open put in tepid water, blow on the bloom to loosen petals
• If still not open, use a Q-tip or cotton ball to open gently
• Trim damaged leaves
• Gently polish the leaves by rubbing with a soft cloth or even your fingers to take off dust and give shine. Don’t use leaf polish
• For judged shows the foliage, balance and proportion are important, and when it says no stem on stem it means only the unbranched stem can be above the bottle neck, but for our unjudged show it is not important. If it looks nice to you, it will look good to the visitors. Here are a few photos of blooms I wish would last until the show, tea form to old rose form.

Leonidas

Gemini

Rose de Rescht

For our May 6th show, have fun! Don’t worry if it is not perfect, bring blooms so people can see some examples of different flowers, rose forms and fragrant roses. Remember, have FUN!

Happy gardening!