Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens

More Information about Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens

Lee explaining the Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens project

The 40th Annual Rose Show of the Riverside Rose Society will kick-off the organization’s national campaign of “Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens” on Saturday June 3rd, 2006. The show will be held at the Moreno Valley Conference & Recreation Center located at 14075 Frederick Street in Moreno Valley. The entries for competition will be received from 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. the day of the show. Judging will be from 9:30 a.m. until noon. The doors open to the public from noon until 5:00 p.m. All persons who are interested in entering their roses or arrangements for competition may contact show chairman Bonnie Brokaw at 951-247-6808 for further information. Admission and rose entries are free.

This event will mark the first time in the forty-eight year history of the Society that it has taken in donations to benefit people living in other states. Donations received at this year’s event will be used to purchase roses to help restore beauty to the lives of the survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast. Over three hundred roses and eleven hundred letters of encouragement have already been sent to affiliates of Habitat for Humanity and Friends of New Orleans in the storm affected states, and more will be sent in the weeks and months to come.

Ms. Ginette Evans, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity in Lake Charles, Louisiana, will be an honored guest at this year’s show. Ms. Evans will be addressing attendees to the show and providing a compelling visual presentation of the positive impact these gifts of roses are having on the rose recipients in her area located east of New Orleans. (Acknowledgement from Habitat for Humanity.)

Cathy MacNamara (l), Paul Soniat (r) of the City Park Botanic Gardens, New Orleans, receive 17 new roses for the Park from Sharon Lidenheimer of Friends of New Orleans(c), one of the many people assisting us in the Gulf Coast with getting the roses distributed.

The public is encouraged to bring their pocketbooks and generous hearts. There will be opportunities for people to sponsor a rose and write a note of encouragement to help bring joy and hope into the lives of fellow Americans in the South and remind them that they are not forgotten.

Indeed, Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens is more than a project. It is a personal way for each person to participate in the recovery of the Gulf Coast. People in the South are struggling with enormous burdens that have led many to depression and some even to suicide. The roses that will be given and the letters of love that will be sent will not make everything better for these men, women and children, but they will be reassured through the giving of these roses and letters that others genuinely care about them and what they are going through. Kind words of comfort and gifts of beauty may actually hasten the healing of the human heart.

For those attending the show who are Thomas Kinkade fans, they are in for a real treat, as the Riverside Rose Society will be unveiling the Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens’ project’s new national symbol...an image of Mr. Kinkade’s entitled The Garden of Hope. The Thomas Kinkade Company has endorsed this campaign by allowing Riverside Rose Society the use of The Garden of Hope to symbolize the Society’s endeavors in Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens and restoring hope throughout the many battered Southern communities.

(L-R) Dennis & Bonnie Brokaw, Marilyn Smith, Gary Wagner and son Nate, outside the Moreno Valley Counsel Chambers following the Mayoral Proclamation on May 23, 2006, from Moreno Valley Mayor, Bonnie Flickinger, in which she declared that day to be "Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens Day" in Moreno Valley.

Several of the nation’s top rose growers, local nurseries and other rose-related businesses will also be present the day of the show, such as Jackson and Perkins, Kellogg’s Garden Products, Dr. Earth, E.B. Stone & Son, and the Parkview nurseries in Chicago and Jackson. Roses and rose-related products will be available for purchase, and representatives from each of these companies will be on hand to answer rose-growing questions and assist gardeners in their selection of the perfect rose or rose-related product for their gardens. The American Rose Society’s DVD on how to grow beautiful roses at home will be playing throughout the day, and free literature will also be available. 

The Riverside Rose Society, founded in 1958, is one of over 350 local clubs affiliated with the American Rose Society – the world’s largest organization devoted to America’s National Flower. The main objective of The Riverside Rose Society is to broaden the field of study and appreciation of roses and to teach its members and the public how to select, grow, groom and exhibit roses. This organization is the third oldest rose society in Southern California. Dedicated members of the Society have participated in numerous civic projects such as founding the Rose Garden at Fairmount Park, and assisting with the rose projects at the Riverside Public Library, Riverside Municipal Airport and Rose Garden Village on Adams Street. The Society has also donated gifts of roses to other local beautification projects and currently holds pruning demonstrations each January at several locations in the area. In March, the Society launched its first website, www.riversiderose.org, where visitors will be able to obtain more information, directions and maps to the show.