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This page will carry a selection of reports on talks at our meetings.
ROSE MISCELLANY
For our May meeting, we were pleased to welcome member John Baxter who gave us an interesting talk about the different organisations that are endeavouring to keep old roses in cultivation.
We were told of the work of the Welsh Heritage Rose Group,
a group in Italy concentrating on species roses and other rose groups that were set up to rescue roses before they are lost to civilisation. One rose that had been growing on the wall of a church was thought lost when the church was bombed in the war, but the ash from the burned out church acted as a mulch for the rose and the next year it sent forth shoots and grew again.
John is writing a report of his findings which will be in our next issue.
WELCOME TO CALIFORNIA
Welcome to California was the title of the talk and film show by Ray Martin when he visited our Society on April 15.
Ray and his wife Pauline had been to the American Rose Convention in Palm Springs last year and Ray took us on a scenic tour showing the route that they took. Starting in San Francisco we saw the famous cable cars and looked across the bay to Alcatraz before going to Pier 39 at Fisherman’s Wharf with the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company as seen in the Forest Gump film. Next came the bridges of San Francisco with the Golden Gate, which was so named because it was the beginning of the way to the Gold Fields for the early prospectors.
The Rose Garden at the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco gave us Julia’s Child, a lovely yellow rose, Marmalade Skies and a mauve rose called Sweet Inspiration, then off to see some 3,000 year old trees which measured 20ft across their trunk bottom. When camping out in the mountains here all food has to be kept in lockers to keep it safe from animals. There were some beautiful waterfalls and a rock face of pure granite.
Next we visited Weeks Roses where five million roses are grown in long rows and are watered by water running through channels from one end of the field to the other. Ray said these roses were pruned using a tractor which cuts off the tops of the plants then Mexicans go down the rows pruning to a bud after using a stick to determine the length required to fit the mailing boxes, usually 78 – 80 cm before the tractor digs up the bushes.
On to Las Vegas with Caesars Palace and the Venetian Hotel which has its own Grand Canal and gondolas inside it. The gondolas move on underwater rails as the canal snakes around the hotel and shopping mall. The inside resembles St Marks Square, the entrance even features a Sistine Chapel styled roof. Sadly the canal, statues and facades and even the blue skies are all fake as the whole thing is built inside the 100 million square foot hotel. It sounded a wonderful place to visit.
Visiting Kelso, which started as a place for the steam trains on the new railway to pick up water, we were told that the only inhabitant now was the desert tortoise. Even the famous California Route 66 sign can now only be seen in the Kelso museum.
On to Descanso Gardens where the LA Rose Society hold their fall rose show. One class they have is for hybrid tea’s in Pallets and a lovely yellow rose with 70 petals which was in one display was called St Patrick. In the Basket class Ray had picked out Dancing Flame and told us that because of the clarity of light and consistant temperatures over there, the roses bloom exactly 12 weeks after they have been pruned
Arriving at Palm Springs we saw many very pretty roses. Ray’s friend Cliff Orent grows over 5,000 roses which he works on at night under floodlights as it was too hot to work during the day. He imports roses from the UK and Europe which have to be kept in a special part of the garden, separate from the American roses for a period of quarantine. One single dark red rose which had caught Ray’s eye here was called Paul Ecke junior.
At the Empire Polo Club some of the more eccentric members play polo in golf carts. When Prince Charles visits and plays there, he apparently prefers a more traditional mount. The ground is surrounded by mountains and the temperature reaches 110 degrees in the Summer. Plenty of fresh water springs come from the ground to nurture over 3000 very healthy roses which are grown around the polo fields. No blackspot here due to the desert atmosphere and growing conditions.
We saw exhibitors for the Desert rose show in Palm Springs staging their roses in the car park; bringing trestle tables on which to put up their displays or using the tailgate area of their very large station wagons to arrange their exhibits before taking them into the show. Some bring an awning to work under and even install floodlights so that they can work during the night. Cotton wool buds that are larger than ours are used to separate the petals and as the stems of these stick up from the rose there is less chance of leaving any in the exhibit when the judging starts.
There is the story of one exhibitor, Ron Gregory, who had just one rose ready for the show and travelled 200 miles to show it. His long trek paid off as his exhibit was awarded Queen of the Show.
Four roses that were shown here caught Ray’s eye. Hot Princess which was a deep pink HT and a mini flora called Class of 73. Both these varieties are available from R V Roger. Floribunda, Paul Ecke Jr, again, with its dark red outside petals and orange inside and Ralph Moore’s pink floribunda, Playgirl are not available in the UK yet but should be on our wish list.
The American Rose Society have a different way of presenting their exhibits. In the mini classes all exhibits are crammed together on the show bench after judging with no thought of the public wanting to see each individual exhibit, not like ours when much thought and attention is given to each exhibit having its own space. Exhibitors use their own vases and one rose that stood out in the class a Bouquet of Shrub Roses was a purple one named Purple Tiger.
Ray said that some of the roses can be purchased over here from Rogers roses but not all of them flourish as well because of the different climate.
Roy thanked Ray for his very interesting presentation and thanked him for making the journey. Unfortunately the evening was spoilt when Ray went outside to load up his car and found a side window had been broken and his Sat Nav stolen. John Anthony managed to fix him up with some plastic for over his window so that he was able to drive back to Felixstowe but it wasn’t something you would expect to happen when your car was parked outside a Church Hall. Hope it won’t put him off visiting us again.
Jean
ABERDEEN TO TOKYO
Aberdeen to Tokyo was the title of the talk and show of slides not seen before given to us on October 8 by Mike O’Loughlin. Fourteen members were present and Roy welcomed Mike and his wife Jean and thanked them for making the long journey to see us.
We started off with a slide of Nan Cocker of Cockers Roses and Mike told us that Nan was now living in a home and that the business was being carried on by her son and grandson. From Aberdeen we went to the Glasgow Convention and saw Princess Nobuko from Japan with the pink HT rose named after her. Her Imperial Highness received the Convention flag as Japan would be holding the next Convention. The Princess had given Mike and Jean six small dishes embossed with the Royal Emblem as a token for helping in setting up the Friendship Garden in Gifu between England and Japan.
Coming down into England we stopped at Teesside to see Susan Hampshire presenting a trophy to Mike at the Rose Show, then on to Lakeland where we had a glimpse of Rita from Coronation Street and Don Charlton’s beautiful entry in the class which was marked NAS as he had put in one extra rose – twenty two instead of twenty one! At Preston we saw some beautiful roses, Valentine Heart, a lovely pink rose, Alison, a pale apricot, Our Mollie, red with a yellow eye, then on to Formby to Mike’s previous house with Golden Showers, Wendy Cussons, Korresia, Leaping Salmon, Bright Smile and a hanging basket which had a cascade of Suffolk pouring over the edge. Mike said as long as some ground cover roses in hanging baskets were watered frequently, they were ideal.
Going on to Shrewsbury we saw The Dingle with the fountain which had been erected in 1897. We saw John and Vera’s exhibit at the Shrewsbury Show and John’s exhibit which won first prize. Next came the West Midlands Show at Shugborough where we saw John’s box of twelve roses and John Windsor’s Artists Palette which had won him a first prize. Mike then showed us some slides of The Gardens of the Rose at St. Albans how they used to be with the Princess Mary’s Walk. Visiting the gardens was the Governor of Gifu, Japan who posed for a photograph with the late Dick and Della Balfour and Colin Horner, as well as Mike and Ken Grapes by the pool. Another visitor to the gardens was the late Clarissa Mason, widow of James Mason, who had a rose named for her.
After the break we went to Japan to see the Friendship Garden in Gifu and heard that the gardens have half a million visitors each year. There is a little train to take visitors round the acres of garden and a tower to view the complete gardens. David Austin roses grow very well there. We saw Jean and Mike planting a tree and the wall plaque commemorating the opening of the garden in 2002 by Princess Nobuko and her husband Prince Tomohito. The garden was designed by David Stevens and it was promised that a Japanese garden would be planted at St. Albans but so far this has not materialised. A new Japanese Tea House in the gardens was opened by Mike and the Governor.
Leaving the gardens we went to Takeyama where there was a gold statue of Buddha and a garden of cedar trees. Many buildings in Japan are constructed to withstand earthquakes and everything looks very clean. While they were there Jean and Mike went for a ride round the town in a rickshaw which they said was very comfortable.
Mike was asked to judge at the International Roses and Gardening Show in the large Seibu Dome and we saw beautiful weeping standard roses in a container, Bonsai roses and classes for HT and floribunda roses in pots. There were about 40 entries in each class and the party of judges had to first choose ten of these, and then put them into 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Mike said the prize money was very good to encourage people to enter.
On to the Keisei Rose Gardens in Tokyo, the biggest producer of roses in Japan where we saw a lovely apricot rose, Brass band. It seemed as if a whole army of gardeners tended the gardens as there were no dead heads on the roses as far as we could see. The last slide was of Jean and the American Exhibitor Tommy Cairns standing under a rose arch full of pink roses.
Roy thanked Mike for his talk and mentioned how the slides of St. Albans had brought back happy memories of the Gardens how they used to be. He wished Jean and Mike a safe journey home and said he hoped to see them again soon.
Jean
SEPTEMBER 2009 MEETING TALK BY ANN BIRD
Nineteen members came to hear Ann on 10 September, including member Ray Martin from Felixstowe who happened to be in Walsall that week and was able to join us. Ann, Ray and other members from outside the area were given a warm welcome by Chairman Roy Evans. Ann said she had just five weeks and two days left as President of the R N R S, and thanked all the members for the support she had received during her term of office. She said she could not have carried on without this support. Her next public role will be that of Vice President of the Rose Society for Northern Europe, which she had been invited to take on at the Vancouver Convention and she was looking forward to that.
Ann’s talk and slide show started with her visit to Japan in 2006 and we saw two Japanese Flower Ladies made out of roses that she had seen at a Tea Garden in Tokyo. We saw a Garden Centre stocked full of roses which was charging £20 each for small roses and £40 each for large ones. She said everywhere she went there were David Austin roses and because of the climate there was no disease on any of them. One slide showed a 6ft standard of Just Joey which was beautiful and over there the HT roses seem to be bigger and healthier than when they are grown in England.
Visiting the Baseball Stadium we saw what is the biggest Rose Show in the World. The show lasts for a whole week starting at 6.30 am each day and the roses are changed every two days. Growers have stands at the show and they charge £25 each for their rose bushes.
We then had a look at Tokyo’s equivalent of Harrods which had a roof garden centre on its 13th floor. Bonsai is very popular in Japan and some of the pots used for this had been made in England by Wychford Pottery. Ann had been to Gifu where the Friendship Garden had been created to show English Roses. We had heard of this garden from Mike O’Loughlin, and one of the roses she saw was Chris Warner’s rose Patio Honey, a lovely white/cream rose and a pretty pink/lilac rose named Blueberry Hill which was an American rose sold here by Peter Beale.
We then went to the R N R S Summer Show which was held in a greenhouse at David Austins and saw Ray and Pauline’s winning exhibit of Tickled Pink and the magnificent bowl of mixed flowers exhibited by John and Vera.
Next Ann showed slides of her visit to the Rose Convention in Vancouver earlier this year. There was only one day of sunshine while she was there and the temperature was cooler than in England. Vancouver seemed to be in two parts, one the modern part with its skyscrapers and the older part which was more like Victorian England and had a steam clock with chimes like the toot of a train and steam which came out of the top when the chimes sounded. Not so many delegates at the Convention this year as it was very expensive but the roses on show were beautiful.
We then came back to England with the Gardens of the Rose and a view of the Old Garden Roses and a beautiful red James Mason and the deep apricot Westerland. Moving on to her visit to Country Garden Roses where she mentioned how tidy everything was and how welcoming the owners were, we saw the lovely pink Channel and a very impressive pink/cerise Magic Carpet.
Finally we saw slides of Ann’s visit to Belfast and the lovely roses in Lady Dixon Park before moving on to the DARD garden with Crème de la Crème and Light Fantastic which scored highly with the International Judges.
Ann ended her talk with a nostalgic look at her old garden which she had cultivated for 37 years before moving on to her new garden where many of the plants were in pots waiting to be transplanted to permanent positions later. As her new garden has a Victorian Wall running down one side she is hoping to grow the white rose Perpetually Yours and the red rose Rambling Rosey along it.
Roy thanked Ann for coming and giving us such an interesting insight into her foreign visits. During the coffee break she was inundated with questions from members about the Gardens of the Rose and the Royal National Rose Society which she was pleased to answer.
Jean
BREEDING NEW ROSES May 2009
For our May meeting Bob Webster from the Yorkshire Rosarians came down to speak to us about his Rose Breeding programme.
Fifteen members were present including four well-known amateur rose breeders and many questions were asked as each wanted to know the secrets of the other’s success.
Bob started off by showing us slides of the RNRS Gardens as they used to be about ten years ago with rambling roses on the arches and the beautiful Princess Mary Walk. He then told us of his first
experiences of rose breeding in the late 70’s when he had no greenhouse and his seedlings were protected by snow falls in the winter. In 1987 he had his first greenhouse and when in 1993 it was Sheffield’s Centenary he was asked to nominate a rose for the occasion. The one chosen he called Sheffield’s Pride but with hindsight he would not have chosen this one as it did not drop its petals and said to us that if a grower was not really pleased with a rose he should not let it be chosen. Some of his roses such as Bob’s Peach and Eric’s Choice can be purchased from Hanley’s Nurseries.
Bob said he used Laura Ford, Cider Cup and Marquis of Bristol a lot in his breeding and aims for roses that are disease resistant. He would like to breed a true red rose but is finding this difficult. Edith Holden is one that he uses for colour and Crazy for You for good health. One of his newer roses was a burgundy with lots of perfume which he got by using Rhapsody in Blue as one of the parents.
He brings his pot roses into his greenhouse in April and pollinates them in the middle of May using no heat. He gets his first flush in the middle of July with a rate of 40% for HT and 60 – 70% for his minis. On an average he keeps 40 plants after raising some 300 – 400 seedlings. At the moment he has about 600 seedlings. He believes that once a rose has reached its perfection you can never get another one as good. One of the breeders present said he used Elina, New Zealand and Paddy Stevens to get good results.
Bob now has two 6 x 4ft greenhouses and sows his seeds in trays. He keeps his greenhouse doors open to keep them dry and this way he has very little trouble with spider mite. He gives each hip a number on a plastic tie and this also shows the cross he made. With his seedlings he puts each one into a separate pot and uses a peat based compost. When they have flowered he puts them into the garden where the soil has been barren for one year. He does not sterilise his soil.
After the coffee break Bob showed us some beautiful slides of roses he has bred, many by crossing other roses with the Marquis of Bristol. We then saw the show benches at his Sheffield Show, with the A.R.B.A. stand where members of the public judge the new roses to say which they would like in their own garden. Next came the new Gardens of the Rose at St Albans with the Bird Bath dedicated to the past President and Breeder Colin Horner.
Bob told us that he had been given eleven awards for his roses.
At the end of the evening Roy thanked Bob for coming and giving us such an interesting, informative and colourful talk and wished him a safe journey back home. Members showed their appreciation with a round of applause.
Jean
THE UK ROSE SHOW SCENE April 2009
For our April meeting Tony Bracegirdle, 13 years National Champion, came with his wife Alice to give us an interesting illustrated talk on how the Rose Shows as we know them today developed.
He told us that it was all down to the Dean of Rochester, Reynolds S Hole, who was the first President of the then National Rose Society from 1877 – 1904. The first Show took place on the 1 July 1876 at the St James Hall in London. Ann Bird had found the original poster detailing this show when she had cleared out the store room at St Albans and had a copy made of it which was used last year as a background display at the Rose Stand at the NEC Gardeners’ World Show.
The Dean wrote a little ditty about the exhibitors as follows:
They have travelled to our roses show from North, South, East and West,
By rail, by roads with precious loads of the flower they love the best.
From dusk to dawn, through night and morn they’ve dozed mid clank and din,
And woke with cramp in both their legs, and bristles on their chin.
Tony went through the classes that were available at that time which included a box of 24 individual blooms and said it would be almost impossible to do this class today.
We then saw a picture of a young Tony in 1981 with his first Silver Medal and he said that he had been in love with roses for the last 40 years.
Pictures of the main Rose Shows followed and Tony gave us a list of what he thought were the top English Roses for today’s shows which included Alice Bracegirdle, Debbie Thomas, Red Devil, Tom Foster, Ravenswood Village, Julias Kiss, Michael Crawford, Selfridges, Wimi, Die Welt, Silver Anniversary, Admiral Rodney, Irenes Delight. Grace Abounding, Sea of Fire, Sally Homes, Fred Loads, Loads of
Pink, Escapade and for Minis, Doris Morgan, Amber Star, Cleo’s Star, and Astra.
He said his roses were fed on a diet of Horse Manure and ended with another quote from the Dean of Rochester “He who would have beautiful roses in his garden must have beauty in his heart.”
A useful question and answer time followed then Roy thanked Tony and Alice for coming down to talk to us, said how much we had all enjoyed it and wished them a safe journey home.
Jean
SEPTEMBER TALK 2007
For our September evening meeting John Anthony entertained us with slides of the roses seen on our visits to Moor Wood and Hunts Court. Moor Wood holds the National Collection of Rambler Roses and these cover an area of 5 acres, with 135 different varieties to see.
Although it had been raining when we visited, the slides had come out very clearly and reminded us of the enjoyable visit we had had. Those members who had not been on the trip were most impressed with the colours and varieties of the roses and said they would like the opportunity to go next year.
Next year’s visit may be a couple of weeks earlier if the weather conditions are the same as this year as some of the roses we were told had been at their peak a little earlier.
John ended his slide show by showing us the changes he had made to his own garden with new climbing roses round an obelisk and clematis entwined with his ramblers round the boundary of his garden. A very colourful evening which we all enjoyed.
Jean
MARCH VIDEO EVENING
Our video evening in March saw John bringing in a pile of videos with the explanation that he wasn't sure what was on them but hoped they would be interesting!
The first one went back a few years to show us Geoff Hamilton and Chris Warner discussing rose growing at the Rose Gardens in St Albans. It was lovely to see how the gardens used to look.
After this came a video from the 1960's with an account of John and Vera's wedding. John said this one had got in by mistake and we certainly had to look twice to recognise him! I think we all will have changed from 40 years ago.
To end we saw a video from the 1970's West Midlands show at Kenilworth including exhibits by Philip Wesson featuring roses such as Royal Highness, Fred Gibson and City of Bath and members said what good roses had come from Watkins Roses.
A vote of thanks was given to John for showing the videos and giving the fourteen members present a look back at how the staging and exhibiting of roses had changed over the years.
ROSES IN AMERICA
In April we had a visit from Tony Bracegirdle who gave us a talk with "laptop presentation" on his recent visit to America. Tony had taken part in a combined Seminar with the American Rose Convention which took the form of four days touring in America and five days on a Cruise boat. Tony was booked to give a talk to the delegates while on the cruise.
We saw how the American shows had different classes for their roses and Tony's talk and presentation was to show delegates how exhibitors displayed their roses in England. We saw some of his own exhibits at shows such as a basket of 18 stems which had 11 Debbie Thomas roses round the outside and a beautiful basket of Incognito from Tommy Cairns.
He said his favourite rose for exhibiting was Escapade and showed us a lovely vase of these delicate blooms.
One member asked how many roses Tony grew for his exhibiting and we were told that he grew 60 bushes of each of his "bankers". No wonder he is able to put in so many exhibits at the shows.
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He ended by giving us a list of his award winning varieties and I give a few of the names here in case it helps any new exhibitors who are wondering which varieties to grow. I'm sure Tony would be pleased to let anyone have the full list if they got into touch with him.
Alice Bracegirdle, Debbie Thomas, Red Devil, Tom Foster, Ravenswood Village, Jubilee, Mike Sheppard, Julia's Kiss, Michael Crawford, Selfridges, Admiral Rodney, Irene's Delight and Silver Anniversary.
Tony and his wife Alice were thanked for coming down from Lancashire to see us and wished a safe journey home.
AN EVENING OF ROSES
It is always a pleasure to welcome Jim and Pauline Naylor to our meeting and on May 4 they made the journey down from Leeds for Jim to give us a talk with slides for - as he called it - a Trip down Memory Lane.
He played a guessing game with the members, trying to see if they could remember some of the names of the roses he showed to us. Those who had been growing and exhibiting for many years recognised nearly all of them but there were still a few that escaped even John and Ian.
Jim started with the David Austin rosesfrom 1935 such as Crimson Glory and Mr Lincoln then went to the 1950's with Pink Favourite and Malmesbury. 1962 gave us a bowl of Don Charlton and Royal Highness with Red Lion and Fragrant Cloud coming in a few years later.
Next Jim showed us some of Cocker's roses, one of which was Northern Lights then we went on to Flamingo and Margaret Thatcher. 1975 gave us Dovedale then came Jan Guest and Big Chief which unfortunately were not seen on the show bench these days. For a rose with a very strong scent he picked the red rose Royal William but the best scented one he thought was The McCartney Rose. A Rose of Special Merit was the pale apricot Indian Summer.
Going on to Shrub roses in the 1950's we saw Dortmund, Yesterday, New Zealand and a rose Jim uses for the Spring Show at Malvern, Hakuun. Climbing roses for the 1900's gave us Dorothy Perkins. a photograph of which had been taken at the Rose Convention in Brussels in 1997. The Miniature roses brought us Stacey Sue, Little Woman and Sweet Dream thencoming up to date we saw Silver Anniversary, Ice Cream, Golden Beauty, Pink Abundance, Amber Nectar, Red Finesse, Summer Gold, Friend for Life, Cliff Richard and Birthday Girl.
To end Jim showed us some Flower Arrangements then took us to Lady Dixon Park in Belfast to see their wonderful displays, a look at Styles Roses from Spalding, the Autumn Show at Harrogate and then two vases of Ballerina either side of a seat in Dublin.
Roy thanked Jim for coming down, apologised for the small number of members present and said we were all pleased to see Pauline looking so much better than she had been last year. She said they enjoyed coming to see us as it was a meeting of "old friends" and they enjoyed the social part of the evening as well as giving the talk.
Reports from meetings in 2004/2005
THE FUTURE OF THE ROSE
Talk by Derek Everett, Secretary of the Amateur Rose Breeders' Association
Sixteen members were at the meeting to hear a talk by the Secretary of the Amateur Rose Breeders' Association on The Future of the Rose but the evening did not quite turn out to be as we imagined.
Derek said he was trying to breed a Brown Rose but the majority of the members thought this would not be very popular with rose growers. He also said that Rose Breeders were still trying to breed the perfect red Hybrid Tea rose as the Hybrid Tea was the one the exhibitors gazed on at the Shows. Not many people could recognise the modern roses and remember their names but old roses such as Peace, Anne Harkness, Silver Jubilee and Super Star were always mentioned when visitors to the Shows spoke about roses they used to grow.
He thought the popularity of the rose was dwindling due to bushes needing spraying and people being unsure just when to do pruning and how to do it correctly. Breeders should always aim for disease resistance in their roses, set out with something in mind although their chances of getting it first time were fairly low. He then asked the members which roses had set them on the path of growing and exhibiting roses.
Len Scrivens, a well known breeder said he got a lot of pleasure from Lilly the Pink and the shape of City of Worcester. Chris Warner said Emily Gray got him into roses, Roy Evans mentioned Super Star, Peter James mentioned Speke's Yellow and Ena Harkness, John Windsor thought scent and colour went together, especially in the David Austin Rose such as Graham Thomas.
Lynn Lancaster said her father had grown roses such as Christopher Stone and mentioned the Harry Wheatcroft roses. She thought people liked looking at roses but not growing them. John Baxter gave us 18 roses that he liked growing ending with Spirit of Youth which was a new scented rose.
Chris Warner said the Nurseries were overwhelmed by new roses and didn't know which to chose. He thought the Trade should get together so that all Nurseries sold the same roses, perhaps the Best of the Best from the past ten years. John Anthony said that Dixon's had launched a cluster flowered Rose under the name of Glorious. He had first grown roses in 1967 and mentioned an orange HT named Zambra. Members thought Elina the best Hybrid Tea of the 80's and Warm Wishes for the 90's but.no conclusion was reached as to the future of the rose. What do you think is its future?
ROSES AROUND THE WORLD
Talk by Chris Warner
This was the first opportunity that the Society had had to welcome Chris Warner as its new President. Chris is recognised worldwide as one of the most successful Rose Breeders of today and the Society considers it a great privilege to have him as their President.
In starting his talk, Chris pointed out that there are very few roses which perform well throughout the varied climates of the world. Of the roses that do, "Peace" was given as an outstanding example. We were taken to Rose Gardens throughout the British Isles including beautiful gardens near Ullswater in the Lake District, the Glasgow Rose Trials and Harlaston in Norfolk where we saw the variety "Hot Cocoa". Amongst the many varieties shown were this year's Rose of the Year "Simply the Best" and also next year's choice the stunning "Rhapsody in Blue" bred by WMRS member Frank Cowlishall. I remember first seeing this variety in the Rose Trials at St Albans and it stopped me in my tracks as it really is quite "blue".
Chris then took us on a "Whistle Stop" tour of the Rose World, to Dublin, to the Hague in Holland where we saw member Len Scrivens' "Pretty Lady" doing well, also "City of London", "Pin Wheel" and the miniature "Sun Tan". We visited Meilland in the south of France, Baden Baden in Belgium, to Germany and the Kordes Nursery and to Tantau where we were treated to roses galore.
Next southern Spain where we saw the "Banksia" in full bloom in the gardens of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, then on to Rome so see the varieties "JCB" and Chris' own "Good as Gold" and "Lady Penelope" performing very well. Here too was the climbing "Orange Sunblaze".
Finally we were taken to America to California where there were what seemed to be mile upon mile of roses in rose fields, all watered by an irrigation system. A really stunning sight to finish off a wonderful evening, and it was pleasing to see once again such a well attended meeting.
Roy Evans
A GARDENER'S JOURNEY
Talk by Ann Bird
Thirteen members of the Society were pleased to welcome Ann Bird on 17 May when she came to speak to us. Ann took us on a tour of her favourite places in England and overseas and we saw slides of many beautiful plants.
Ann started by showing us slides of the 1977 Chelsea Show with the rose Silver Jubilee, bred by Cockers of Aberdeen making its first appearance. After becoming enormously popular around the world it has now unfortunately lost its vigour and does get diseased. We then had the contrast of Chelsea in the year 2000 in its new form and were told that the old exhibition tents had been cut up to make aprons and peg bags as they were no longer needed.
Leaving Chelsea we called in at the NEC to see the Gardeners World Show, visited Stapeley Water Gardens to see their Dome fountain that looked as if it had statues in the water then went to Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens, Birmingham, which had been restored to their original layout and had authentic pre 1740 roses, stocks and poppies.
Next a look at Chatsworth where we saw Mme Alfred Carriere twining round a statue to hide that gentleman's modesty, Morville Hall where Dr Katherine Swift, the designer of the National Memorial Arboretum War Widows Rose Garden had a collection of rare gardening books, Woollerton Old Hall where there was an intriguing Knot garden and a wonderful selection of roses then on to the British Clematis Society Garden. Clematis is the ideal plant to grow with roses and Ann told us she herself had 57 plants. She pruned them each year on 1 December and usually had good results the following year.
St Albans Mini Show gave us some more roses then we heard of the visit Ann had made to Roger Philips home in Ecclestone Square, London. It had taken two hours to go round the Square and there were masses of roses on both sides of the paths mixed with Ceanothus and Camellias.
After our trip round England we went overseas to Southern Spain to see the colourful Bouganvilleas, Hibiscus and Jasmine against the white walled buildings with the blue sky background. In a mass of Convolvulus Ann had found a bush of Alec's Red happily growing, although almost swamped by the convolvulus. In Nerja we saw how the village farmer used a Donkey to pull his cart and got water for his fields by taking a brick out of the local aqueduct wall at various points and letting the water flow through the gap. One of the crops was beans which were sown in straight furrows. Fences round the fields were made of old iron bedsprings held together by bamboo. The farmer's house was set on a cliff overlooking the sea and had a beautiful blue and while tiled kitchen.
Visiting a Garden Centre in Andalucia we saw cacti, one which only flowered every 10 years and exotic plants in large jars. Prices for buying the cacti ranged from 50pence to £2.00. Medieval Cypress Hedges were growing in the gardens of the Alhambra Palace and a Super Star rose looked quite happy in a small space surrounded by concrete. Visiting a cafe Ann saw a pale pink open Amaryllis which looked just like an orchid. She said she would be quite happy to live permanently in Southern Spain. (We would miss her if she did).
Coming back to England - or rather Scotland - we were taken on a tour of the International Rose Trial Gardens in Glasgow which had been planted in the shape of a flower with all the beds as petals. Orchids were seen in the Botanic Gardens and in Edinburgh there were the original Victorian Glasshouses with palms and their famous Heather garden. (I thought it would be a good idea to try to visit the Trial Gardens when I go to the World Federation Conference in Glasgow in 2003 - anyone else thinking of going?)
Ann concluded her interesting talk by showing us slides of her garden and her two white Westie dogs - Rosie and Emily. She says they keep her healthy.
A vote of thanks was given by Roy and we all agreed that it had been a very interesting and colourful talk for our last meeting of the season.
R.N.R.S. TOUR OF SOUTH AMERICA
As there was a slight delay before speaker John Baxter arrived due to traffic problems, Len Scrivens filled in the gap by giving us a foretaste of his talk which will take place next month on Roses in Australia,
John started by telling us that the flight time to South America was 13 ½ hours. The main part of the visit was to judge the Rose Trials and then attend the Rose Convention being held. Places visited were Buenos Ayres, San Diego, Uruguay, Montevideo and several other places in Chile.
At the rose trials the beds were separated by grass paths and the roses had different coloured number tags on them to show the types of roses. One of the roses was a lovely white one named Gorgette. Two of Chris Warner's roses there were doing well. John showed us slides of the English War Memorial and also the Military Academy which housed a rose library about five times as large as the one at the RNRS at St Albans.
It was the 50th Anniversary of the Rose Society of Argentina while John was there and to help celebrate this various private gardens were open for them to visit. Not only did we see these beautiful gardens but also the luxurious
houses and bungalows with swimming pools enclosed by rose hedges where members lived. Several members of the English party were asked how many servants they had at home as each household there had plenty of servants. One householder had taken up tapestry and had made a complete carpet for one of the rooms in his spare time. What a lovely way to live! Several of the roses seen, such as Jean Kenneally, grew much taller there than here. New Dawn, Fairy Queen, American Pillar all looked very healthy. The South American Rosarians were treating several of their roses as new varieties whereas here they had been around for at least twenty years.
In Chile the rose beds were separated by gravel paths and it was interesting to see white City of York growing amongst lemon trees. Most of the huge estates were run by Gauchos on horseback and each one in the slides we saw was wearing a rose.
John brought along photographs and memorabilia of his visit including a very useful document wallet for carrying his papers in, key ring, a precious stone only found in South America and programmes of events.
Eighteen members were present, including our two new members Alan and Pat Wright whom we were pleased to see,. John Anthony organised a raffle for two rose bushes and some plants which was well supported and a vote of thanks to John Baxter was given by Chairman Roy Evans.
PLANTS FOR BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS
‘Plants to encourage Butterflies and Moths’ was the title of an excellent talk by Celia Davies enjoyed by WMRS members and friends in November. Celia treated us to her usual entertaining and informative presentation, with some impressive slides.
There are 70 or so species of butterflies to be seen in England, some of which spend their whole lives here, even hibernating through winter. Peacock Butterflies are among these – and if you come across one, don’t disturb it or it will burn too much of its stored food and die before spring. Others, such as the Painted Lady, come from as far away as North Africa, navigating by aids such as the sun and magnetism. Moths are even more varied, with several thousand varieties.
Celia suggested that we should think of butterflies as providing an extra dimension to the garden; and of moths as being the ‘night shift’. Saying that, in order to successfully encourage their presence it is as well to understand their habits. Celia introduced us to some of the species we might be fortunate enough to see.
One of these was the ‘Orange Tip’ butterfly, (so named because of the striking wing colouring of the male). This butterfly lays its eggs (also orange) one to a plant, since its caterpillars take sibling rivalry to extreme lengths, in that if two of them meet up, one will eat the other! Some varieties of caterpillars however are very gregarious and go about in gangs, as Celia put it – no doubt hanging about on street corners and whistling at passers-by.
Adult moths and butterflies, as we all know, feed on nectar (or apparently juices from corpses – there were at times more macabre moments to the evening than might have been expected), so their mouthparts are adapted for this with extraordinarily long and flexible tongues. Caterpillars, however, have powerful jaws for biting – and a close-up photograph showed one caterpillar looking like a monster from ‘Alien’.
Celia pointed out that if we have only nectar plants in our gardens the adults will use them ‘like a cafeteria’ – snacking and passing on – but that if we provide plants for the caterpillars also then we can enjoy the adults, and the benefits of their pollinating, for much longer since they will stay to breed. Butterflies often restrict themselves and their young to one sort of plant for food while moths are less fussy. Shrubs and trees, herbaceous plants, grassland and particularly herbs are all useful. In fact, roses seem to be the one type of plant that isn’t of much benefit to butterflies and moths!
Ideally we should have plants flowering for as long a season as possible so that there is food from spring through to autumn. Single (simple) flowers are easiest for access, and native species, not surprisingly are best for native butterflies and moths. “If you only grow one plant for Butterflies grow this one” said Celia, of Echinacea (nee Rudbeckia), especially purpurea, which can be grown from seed. Other plants she particularly recommended include the old cottage garden favourites such as asters, wallflowers, salvias and valerian, honeysuckle, sweet rocket and lythrum. (Celia has found the red native lythrum to be a trouble-free plant).
Sweet Rocket is the chosen winter home for the young of the Orange Tip Butterfly. When Celia cuts the stems of this plant down in the autumn she examines them carefully (the pupae are well camouflaged) and keeps any with young on in a breeding cage.
Sedum is another ‘must’, useful since it flowers late in the season, and it is so attractive that while it is still closed insects will crawl over it trying to prise the flowers open and get in. It must be grown in the sun to be successful.
As far as herbs are concerned she suggests we let them flower and enjoy all the insects that come to them. And, talking of flowers, another highly recommended plant is Phacelia tanacetifolia. For those (like me) who don’t know it this is often sold as a green manure and grows from seed to beautiful flowers in eight week. It blooms for a long period and is very popular with hoverflies (which of course eat greenfly). Go out at night, with a torch, if you grow this, recommends Celia. (I think she means to look at the moths, not for a wild party. Although I suppose the two are not necessarily incompatible)
Beneficial trees (which support butterflies and moths at all stages of their life cycles) include holly and ivy, birches, pussy willows, apple trees, buddleias, and hebes.
We were shown examples of the amazing camouflage abilities of many of the moths and butterflies throughout their lives. The caterpillar of the Peppered Moth, for instance has legs at the front, suckers at the rear, and no other legs in between - so suspended between two genuine green twigs it is almost indistinguishable.
Some of the butterflies and moths we saw were truly beautiful, such as the Canary Shouldered Thorn Moth, which is yellow and fluffy and really looks like a canary! I also particularly liked the Holly Blue; a delightfully dainty little blue creature, which I reckon, could easily be mistaken for a fairy – even if it’s not at the bottom of the garden!
The talk opened my eyes (literally), and I’ll certainly bear what I learnt in mind when gardening (I was reassured that even Celia with her liking for them will kill caterpillars if there are too many on her brassicas). Those of us who were present for the talk will I’m sure have gained increased knowledge and awareness of the extra dimension and enjoyment that butterflies and moths add to a garden.
Celia and her husband Cyril open their very interesting sounding garden to the public under the ‘Yellow Book’ scheme. The date for 2003 is July 13th when a further 6 widely varied gardens in the vicinity of Balsall Common will also be open. Their address is: - The Pines, Hodgetts Lane, Berkswell, Coventry CV7 7DG.
Brian Schofield donated a special prize of Nu Grow Foliar Feed to the raffle. Chris Fullard was the fortunate man who took it home, and the rest of us were very envious.
Alison Symons
ROSE GARDENS AT THE FLORIADE 2002,
Haarlemmermeer,HOLLAND
The main rose garden was situated in the lake-side section of the exhibition. The designers wanted to follow current tastes for a natural-looking garden, and were keen to demonstrate that there were many roses appropriate to this trend. The site sloped down to the lake. The roses chosen were intended to emphasise beauty, scent and romance, as well as giving visitors ideas for their own gardens. Selections made were those considered appropriate to the natural display: shrub roses of varying heights, new English roses, and groups of cluster-flowered roses. In addition, a fairly large number of single-flowered roses were included. On the whole large-flowered roses were excluded. In the higher elevations apricot, copper and yellow roses had been chosen: further down the slope the colours changed via white to lilac, purple and dark red nearest the water. At the end of August, the apricot, yellow and copper roses were in full flower.
Among good varieties noted were Fragrant Delight, Golden Holstein (a very bright yellow, healthy and large variety), Apricot Queen Elizabeth, Graham Thomas, grown as standard and shrub, Sally Holmes, Amber Queen, Yellow Floretta, Orange Fire, Bantry Bay (as shrub, not climber) Dancing Butterfly and Rosa Glauca.
Over-planting was by large, well-established trees. The roses were also inter-planted with perennials, flower bulbs, and flowering shrubs. These were chosen to both complement and contrast with the roses, according to the seasons. In the Spring special tulips, narcissi and alliums had been floriferous. In August, botanical lilies, violas, purple bergenias, and geraniums provided a fine display, as well as hostas, heuchara and geum. Reddish foliage contrasted with yellow and amber roses, grey leaved shrubs were to contrast with the red roses.
There were other gardens with roses near the lake. These included a display of Lens roses near to the Belgium national display, and in the attractive and sunny Czech garden were several groups of very healthy and floriferous roses including Freedom, Satchmo, Baccara, and Sucha.
Lynn & Ian Lancaster
BACK TO BASICS
Nineteen members turned up to hear Tony Bracegirdle speak at our March meeting. The talk was to be Modern Roses and their Cultivation but Tony said that 'Back to Basics' was what it was all about. Tony and Alice have been growing and showing roses for the last thirty years so everyone was keen to hear some of their secrets of success.
As their garden is not very large Tony grows his roses on an allotment, together with some vegetables and five years ago he decided to change over his plots and put the roses where the vegetables were and vice versa. The width of his rose beds are just three rose bushes wide so that he is able to weed the beds from both sides using the grass paths that run at the side of the plots. The soil on the allotment has a layer of clay under the top soil and Tony brought this onto the surface and put the top soil underneath. Bonemeal, peat, organic material and some more top soil was then added and the soil left fallow for twelve months. Tony then rotavated this before planting and added some lime. He keeps a midden of well rotten manure which stands for twelve months before being used to mulch his roses. For watering he uses the leaky pipe system with water that comes from a local spring and is 98% pure.
When planting, a hole 10" square by 10" deep is dug and a 5 - 1 peat to bonemeal planting medium is used. If the roots of the rose are too long to fit the hole he cuts them to fit, bearing in mind that it is the fine roots that will encourage the plant's root system. He said make sure the node is level with the soil or 1" below then fill the hole with the planting medium. Hold the tips of the stems and carefully tread round the bush to make the soil firm. This stops wind rock etc. Mulch the bed when finished. He grows his own briars for grafting and leaves these for twelve months before budding up to allow a fine root system to develop. Tony showed some slides to demonstrate the correct method of pruning which was to make a sloping cut just above and away from a bud. Any dead or twiggy wood is cut out to open up the plant so that air can circulate. After pruning, his roses are given a high Nitrogen feed of Vitax Q4 HN at the rate of 3 - 4 oz per square yard. In May a second feed is given, this time Fish Blood and Bone and then at the end of July the third feed is Vitax Q4 for the second flush of blooms. He also used Sulphate of Potash if the growth is going soft.
Regarding the roses for his exhibits, Tony said his Number one HT was Red Devil. He had won more prizes with that rose than any other variety. The first time he won the Championship with the highest points he had used Escapade, Grace Abounding and Sally Holmes. Sea of Fire was another rose that he liked using on the Show bench. If a Show was on a Saturday he would cut his main roses on the Tuesday but any Old Garden Roses to be used would be cut at the last possible minute to avoid shedding. He told us that he disbuds his HT's 32 days before the Show to get the one bloom just right. This also applied to taking out the main bud on his cluster flowered exhibits. Regarding Blackspot, he sprays his roses BEFORE any Blackspot appears so that the roses are inoculated when any spores become active. It is too late when the Blackspot is there.
After the coffee break we were treated to slides of roses in the Trial Grounds, Exhibition entries over the years and also some of the roses that Tony had bred that had been accepted by famous personalities such as the patio rose Thora Hird, the yellow rose Harry Secombe and the rose Nikki for his granddaughter. It must be wonderful to breed roses to such a high standard as to have them accepted by Personalities.
A vote of thanks was given by Chairman Roy Evans who also said he hoped Tony would come to speak to us again in the future, then he wished Tony and Alice a safe journey home.
LEN AND CHRIS'S VISIT TO AMERICA
Due to the indisposition of Derek Everett on April 10, Len Scrivens and Chris Warner stepped in at the last minute to give us a fascinating tour of the American Rose Nurseries where they went last year to judge the Rose Trials.
Arriving a day early they spent their free time visiting the Paul Simon Museum of Art and Sculpture, the inside of which held an enormous painting of the interior of St Peter's Cathedral in Rome. There were also pictures by Van Gough, Rembrandt and Degas and outside in the grounds were statues by Henry Moore.
To get to the Rose Trials next day there was an early breakfast at 6.30 am then a drive on the freeway to the Cemetery where the trials were held. Rosarians from all round the world had roses in the trials and there were between three and four hundred roses in the beds covering sixty varieties. One that caught their eye was Secret, a large flowered pink blend hybrid tea and another was St Patrick, a golden yellow hybrid tea with chartreuse green on the outer petals. Both roses were named in the All America Rose Selection. Although the area was very dry, the modern irrigation system in the Trial Grounds meant that large blooms were produced in a full range of colours.
After looking round the Trial Grounds Len and Chris paid a visit to Tommy Cairns Rose Ground where he had about 1000 varieties of roses, sometimes four or five of the same one. Here they saw the rose Lilly the Pink which had been grown from budwood from England. (No wonder he is able to bring so many roses to the RNRS Miniature Show!) During Dinner, one of Tommy's lady guests took a fancy to Len and invited him back to her hotel room but Len made the excuse of an early morning start and hot footed it back to his own hotel! - at least that is what he told us.
Nurseries visited were Jackson & Perkins where 15 million roses annually are grown, Weeks Roses where Chris shivered in a vast cold store used for packing roses with the temperature at 40 F, Greenheart Farms to see a new technique of rooting cuttings and growing them in containers or under cover because of the poor surroundings. This has resulted in a 99.9% success rate. On to meet Ralph Moore who is still breeding and experimenting with roses at the age of 95. One of the roses he uses for breeding is Len's Baby Love.
Afterwards Chris and Len visited a Nursery used by Jackson & Perkins for growing and testing beautiful Japanese Annuals.
In the second half of the evening we were treated to some breath taking slides of the countryside round Santa Barbara including snowy mountains, red wood trees, beautiful birds and the fourth highest waterfall in the world which unfortunately owing to the dry season had no water in it.
Next came a selection of roses that had attracted them on their visit. These included a pink rose with yellow stripes, many lovely apricot orange and tangerine roses, velvety reds, purple/mauve Distant Drums and Purple Tiger a very deep purple striped with white and mauve-pink flecks. Len's Pretty Lady was seen growing and there was also a row of his Baby Love.
Chris and Len were a bit tired after their whistle-stop tour but both said how much they had enjoyed it and mentioned that the hospitality of the Americans is second to none. They were treated like friends wherever they went and recommended members to take a trip to America now that the air fares were so reasonable.
Chairman Roy gave a vote of thanks to Chris and Len for an interesting evening and wished them a safe journey home.
ROSES IN THE NORTH
Jim Naylor's talk with slides on May 15 took us on a colourful tour of Rose Fields, Nurseries and Stately Homes from North of Lincoln to as he put it "the Wild North".
We visited Cropton where we saw Standard Ballerina underplanted with Lavender, then onto Wetherby to see Constance Spry against a wall and Gruss an Aachen (1909) - probably the first floribunda rose. It has orange red buds, yellow flowers fading to creamy white.
On to Newby Hall to see a pathway lined with Apple Blossom and the Bobby James garden before visiting the Valley Gardens at Harrogate which were very colourful. At Benningborough Hall - a National Trust Garden - we saw City of York. This is a 1945 climbing rose named after a city in U.S.A.
In the Museum Gardens at York we saw the white Princess of Wales rose. Harlow Carr Gardens had Climbing Arthur Bell and we looked at the layout of the gardens where every plot was the same size and held 18 rose bushes. For a change we saw beautiful Water Lilies at Castle Howard then on to see David Austin's Rose Gardens with New English Roses - Gertrude Jekyll, Golden Celebration, the Moss Rose William Lobb and the Gallica Officinalis Rosa Mundi.
Tollcross Park Trial Grounds showed us curved rose beds arranged in the shape of a rose. Twenty new roses are grown each year and these are judged four times a year. The Prize Winners for these roses will be announced at the Glasgow Rose Convention Farewell Dinner. Some of the roses on display were a pretty pink Friend for Life, Sunset Boulevard and the World Federation's Favourite rose for 2002 Ingrid Bergman.
In theTrials were two roses of note - the Poulson Renaissance rose Bewitched and David Austin's yellow rose Charlotte which has a delicate tea-rose scent. Jim said a disappointing rose in the Trials was the Cocker rose Sunsplash. It had been chosen as the Convention Rose for the WFRS Convention in Glasgow this year and was a rather wishy-washy pale cream and low growing.
On the Isle of Arran Jim had seen some gardeners double digging a bed and enquired as to what was to be planted. Imagine his surprise when told it was for a bed of Tulips! At a Rose Show at Ayr bowls of roses were on display and the Premier Award went to a bowl of Peace. Arriving at Gateshead when the Garden Festival was on Jim and Pauline were very impressed by the Floral Art exhibits. It so happened that the Society had a Flower Arranger in the audience that evening and she was able to point out to the meeting why some of the exhibits had won prizes and one that Jim liked had not.
To end his enjoyable tour of the North of England Jim showed us slides of various exhibits from Northern Shows, a glimpse of the Victoria State Rose Garden at Werribee Park and the 10,000 roses at Melbourne Race Course which grew either side of the walkway used by the horses.
A vote of thanks was given to Jim and Pauline for making the trip down from Leeds and we all felt that a holiday in the North of England would be well worth while with so many Rose Gardens and Nurseries to visit.
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