By Stuart Dalton, President
Fall is here and so are some regional and national American Rose Society (ARS) activities. I’ve mentioned these ARS items before, but this is a reminder that the Lodi Regional NCNH meeting and show is coming up 6-7th of October. The Consulting Rosarian school (attending or auditing) in San Francisco is on October 14. The ARS National convention is in San Diego October 25-29 and I will be flying there and back.
In PRS news, the Board has been discussing ways to get more people to exhibit roses and arrangements at the monthly shows, especially judged shows. Some of the ideas follow:
1. (All shows) A limitation for some people is not knowing all the rose names. Even the most experienced rose people can have trouble with this so a “help me identify this rose” section where you leave your name can be an area set aside to provide help.
2. (All shows) A “help me identify the problem” section.
3. (Judged shows) Some don’t know the classes of ARS arrangements (mass, line etc) or how to make or display them (front, back etc). And many do not know how arrangements are judged. Announce external workshops or classes and have some as speakers. Show sources of information (e.g., judges’ handbooks). The one I see online is 110 pages for arrangements here. My copy is decades older 🙂
4. (Judged shows) The rules for judging individual blooms and sprays are also important. The rules for judged shows are here.
5. Things like a separate raffle prize with tickets given out free based on number of entries.
6. Acknowledgment of the monthly show awards at the same meeting as well as afterwards in the Rosarian.
7. Small prizes at the meeting for Best of Show on judged shows.
If you have other suggestions or thoughts on this, please email them to me or voice them at the next meeting.
Our last show of the year is a non- judged show in October, and anyone can bring in a Rose for ID or for problem identification any time, so the first ideas can be started as a trial right away. Since there is less color in October feel free to bring in roses that might make us all smile, or fragrant roses in case the stems are short, or they have issues. Thanks.
We also need people from membership to help out on an easy task, we need three nonofficers to be on the nominating committee. This really is easy and may not require more than a few phone calls and emails, and it should be wrapped up by November.
October to do’s and don’ts for roses:
Do take off spent petals by hand, save blooms for the show, and let the remaining roses go to hip. This tells the rose growth hormones to shut down for winter and “go dormant”
Don’t cut off blooms like you would for summer pruning. Don’t fertilize now. Trimming and fertilizing will cause new growth and make tender growth vulnerable when it gets cold.
Happy Gardening