Ready, set, Show

I hope you are out walking your gardens looking for prospective roses to bring to our May 5th Rose Show. Remember the show is at 1400 Roosevelt in Redwood City (not our normal venue for the monthly meetings. Please remember what you signed up for to help at our show. Thank you for our show committee and especially to Barbara Todd, our chairperson. Invite your friends and neighbors and post on social media, and email others

I realize roses are a bit late to bloom in some of our gardens this year but, at least in my garden and at Filoli (which I walked on the 27th) they are starting to come out. I know I have some new roses this year including some fragrant ones and David Austin roses. Our weather is predicted to be seasonal/ not roasting and cool or even showers on Sunday. Some of the blooms should be good, but you may need to pick them Saturday. Quick last-minute tips for showing your roses follow.

• Walk the Garden -Looking for likely blooms that show color. Baby those blooms

• Read the Schedule

• Disbud -as soon as possible if side buds distract, or remove the center (terminal) bud if you are planning a spray.

• Water -Give your blooms plenty of water the week before (best to water early in the day so foliage is dry by night.)

• Early cut and refrigerate. May 1 when this newsletter should reach you may not be too early to cut a few blooms that will not last in the garden. Condition and refrigerate these “best” blooms (I’ve done this 5-6 days ahead and won trophies in judged shows).

• Feed – No harm (unless it is scorching) to give a foliar applied fertilizer spray for a quick boost if you have not done it the past week. A hose end sprayer works well.

• Prepare Tags– As the show approaches prepare some tags. A pencil does not run if it gets wet. Use the names in the ARS Handbook for Selecting Roses.

• Cut blooms early in the day, probably Saturday if you have many, noting names (if unidentified bring them in anyway if they look good and ask for ID), recut under water, condition them and if they are good when cut, keep them cool or refrigerate them.

• Pick up bottles if you help on setup or early on the 5th for prep.

• Groom the Rose – blow open tight blooms, or use Q-tips carefully to open tight blooms.

• Clean the leaves – even fingers work, but soft cloths help.

• Transport carefully

• Enjoy the show and participate.

 

Filoli Update

I want to say a thank you to Judy Weber and Patti Spezzaferro for work done with Jim Salyards, the Head of Horticulture at Filoli. PRS worked with Filoli for a talk and rose garden walkthrough for the Filoli House and Garden Docents, and Jim on 4/27, and it was a very good session. Judy and I did an inside presentation and used some of Patti’s material as well. The Docents liked it. In addition, to giving the talk I had a chance to look at the venue rooms for a possible Fall 2020 NCNH show and meeting. More work on this is needed before we decide whether to host this event, but things look promising with Filoli.

Stuart Dalton, President