President's Message

Spring is here! Do you believe it? Wasn't it just yesterday that we were all dressing up to go to the Christmas Party and Installation of Officers? I really do love this time of year. The rain has been wonderful for the roses and all our other flowers and plants, as well as the lawn. Everything is so rich and green, contrasting with the new burgundy growth on the roses. On Saturday, April 1st, Dennis and I will begin applying fertilizer, and I am going to try Diana Kilmer's recipe for success, E.B. Stone Rose Food, then alternating two weeks later with Magnum Grow, to which I'll add fish emulsion, chelated iron and Worm Gold Tea. (Remember her recipe for it in our newsletter a year ago?)

Speaking of roses, I want to share with all of you something that has become my passion over the last two years - "standards", or to use the more popular term, tree roses. I love 'em! They're so easy to plant and tend to, and they produce the most beautiful, eye-level blooms I've ever seen! We just finished planting seven new 36" standards in a straight line, parallel to the concrete block/brick wall that borders the south side of our property on the front. They are: Brandy, Tahitian Sunset, Neptune, Full Sail, Miss All-America Beauty, New Zealand and Mister Lincoln. These, added to the others we have strategically placed around the front yard: Mellow Yellow, Memorial Day, Ingrid Bergman, and Barbra Streisand, make for eleven in the front. Then in the back are thirteen more: St. Patrick (2), Bewitched, Perfume Delight, Sunsprite, Livin' Easy (2), Showbiz, Ebb Tide, Iceberg, Angel Face (2) and Sexy Rexy, making a grand total of twenty-four. I love every one of them! Tree roses just give and give. If you are smart about which ones you choose (I choose all proven performers, i.e., AARS winners or very good ratings) they will make your yard the talk of the neighborhood. I've heard people complain about standards and their susceptibility to winds in this area, but Dennis remedies that for me by staking them with green fence posts like we used to build fences with back in Illinois! I tell you, those puppies don't move! A leaf or two may blow off when the winds are strong, but the trunk doesn't budge!

On another subject, I don't know about you, but if my roses are good this year and I have the time, I'm going to give exhibiting a whirl. I must admit that I am not the exhibitor type; it's just not my thing. I raise roses to beautify my home and give away to people. That is what I truly enjoy. But even so, this year I am going to try exhibiting because it is another facet of rose-growing that we all should be learning more about. In fact, it is one of the very reasons I wanted our society to return to sponsoring rose shows, because of the educational benefits I knew we could derive from it. There is a wealth of things we can learn at shows. So come on you guys, let's try this together! Let's exhibit!

Well, I better sign off now. Before I do, though, if anyone reading this has a couple of floribundas called "Fragrant Apricot" that you would like to sell and they're good specimens, I'd like to buy them. Jackson & Perkins stopped selling Fragrant Apricot for some reason.

back to the hill…Bonnie