Baby Roses in the Basement

One corner of my basement workshop is set up as a place to nurture my fall rose cuttings and to hold over any resulting plants till it's safe for them to live outside in the spring.  It feels wonderful to work with green, growing things in winter, while the world outside is brown and dormant.  It's the main way that this gardener survives the downtime of winter.

My light set-up is simple ... a chrome-plated shelf rack from Costco, and each shelf is fitted with a cheap four-foot two-bulb fluorescent light fixture.  One bulb is cool spectrum, one bulb is warm spectrum.  This is not as efficient as the expensive grow lights, but it does the job that I need.

This year's crop of roses is very special to me.  They are some of the rare ones from my garden, along with plants from the collection at Monticello's Tufton Farm.  A few of these babies are destined to be traded with rose friends.  Most of them will be sent to rose nurseries, for use as stock plants ... with the goal of making them available in commerce in the future.  This is the best way I know to preserve these roses, and to do what I can to insure their continued survival.

In addition to the roses, I also have some baby fig plants.  These came from cuttings that I took last October at an abandoned service station in Louisa County, Virginia.  (I love figs almost as much as I love roses.)

There's a Magnolia seedling in there, too, that I found growing underneath one of my roses last fall.

In the next week or so, I will package up the Florida-bound plants and ship them to their new home at Rose Petals Nursery.  The rest of them will stay safely in the basement till the end of March.  That's when I plan to transplant them into six-inch pots and begin to transition them to their life outdoors in the garden.

"Preserving history one rose at a time" 

(This is the motto at Rose Petals, and it perfectly expresses exactly how I feel about what I do!)

Click HERE to go to my propagation photo tutorial.  It's really, really easy!

International Heritage Rose Foundation Conference

The Heritage Rose Foundation conference in Lakeland, Florida, last weekend was wonderful!!  I spent five days immersed in everything roses, and I met so many new people.

Travel day on Thursday started on a bad note (accidently showed up for my flight at the wrong airport).  JetBlue fixed everything, I phoned the rental car company and amended my reservation, and things went smoothly from then on.  The conference kicked off on Thursday evening with a reception at Florida Southern College, our host location.

This is the new rose garden, designed by Stephen Scanniello to coordinate with the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on the campus of FSC.

Friday, our group boarded two tour busses and set off to see the rosy sights, accompanied by a steady drizzle.  Our first stop was Rose Petals Nursery, owned by my friend Cydney Wade (who was responsible for planning the whole bus tour.)  This was my first opportunity to see Cydney's place in person.  She and her husband worked SO hard to prepare to host our group ... the place was beautiful!

The sign that greeted us as we got off the bus.

 

A beautiful vignette in the potting/working area, with a note from Cydney's sweet husband.

 

I plan to absolutely steal this idea to display my own collection of antique watering cans.

 

A little bit of light rain can't stop true rosarians from enjoying a beautiful garden.

 

 

My magic umbrella must have lost its power.  I bought it two years ago, have taken it unopened on every trip since then, and it had never rained until this trip.

 

This is 'Emmie Gray' a China rose from Bermuda.

 

'Papa Gontier', Tea rose, with a windmill in the background.

 

Bottle tree!!!

 

Rusty rooster in a hanging basket, with 'Reve d'Or' in the background.

 

Hibiscus, with benches full of Rose Petals' roses for sale beyond.

 

Spanish Moss in the trees seems so exotic, to this Virginia girl.

 

Next stop was The Dudley Farm, a Florida state park.  It is one of the last vestiges of an intact working central Florida farm, donated to the state by the last Dudley to live there.  Unlike some historic sites that are recreations of a way of life, this one is the REAL DEAL, with the 1880s house, outbuildings, fences, livestock, gardens, and crops.  I wish we had had more time to explore here ... I will certainly return when I go back to visit Cydney in the next year or so.

The Dudley house is a short walk from the visitor's center, along a path that was once the main road to Gainesville.

 

More trees with Spanish Moss.

 

The Dudley House, with its swept garden, full of original roses and other plants.

 

The main hall.

 

A bedroom, with quilting frame hanging from the ceiling.

 

Another bedroom.

 

Parlor.

 

Notice the swept paths in the garden.

 

Tropical plants, and a few roses, in the garden on the side of the house.

 

I don't remember what this building was called.

 

Chimney, made of native stone.

Our final stop was the garden of Don and Jan Rogers.  It's a brand new garden, filled with their collection of modern and old garden roses.

All of the roses are still small, since the garden is new.

 

'Gruss an Aachen'

 

This is Cydney, looking radiant and exhausted, as the day concluded.

We got down to the business of the conference on Saturday, meeting in the Alumni Center at FSC.  After a quick continental breakfast, the morning's programs began.  We first heard from Dr. Nancy Morvillo, who gave us a lesson on DNA ... in a way that we non-scientific folks could all totally understand.  Next, two students at a NYC science high school reported on their own rose DNA experiments.

Because of the rain, lunch was set up on the Frank Lloyd Wright esplanades beside the new rose garden.  If you look carefully, you can see me on the far left.

photo by Malcolm Manners

My program about the roses at Hollywood Cemetery was the first one after lunch.  I was a tiny bit apprehensive about the maiden voyage of a program on such an important subject in front of this distinguished audience ... but I needn't have been at all concerned.  The program went super smoothly, and I spoke for only a little bit over my allotted one-hour time slot.  I was told by lots of people for the whole rest of the weekend that they enjoyed it and they are now a LOT more interested in cemeteries and their history.  (I don't get nervous at all about talking to a large audience like this, thank goodness ... it may sound strange, but I think it's FUN.)

Stephen Scanniello's introduction, with my title slide on the screen.

 

Getting started.  (Malcolm Manners photo)

 

I'm rollin' now!  (Malcolm Manners photo)

Programs concluded with a beautiful presentation by Peggy Cornett, Curator of Plants at Monticello, about Thomas Jefferson and his roses.

The members of the Bermuda Rose Society had a lovely display of shadow box arrangements ... a form that they are famous for.  I'm not much of a flower arranger, but these were so beautiful and unique that I may have to rework an old picture frame and give this a go.

 

 

Saturday night was all about the buffet banquet and auctions.  Rare rose books and other goodies were on the Silent Auction.  We were treated, as we are every year, to Stephen Scanniello's talents as an auctioneer for the Live Auction.  He works the room like a pro, bringing lots of laughter and even more $$$ for HRF.  I won a very rare China rose in the live auction, but there was a mix-up at the cashier ... someone else paid for it and took it.  The person wasn't there on Sunday for me to talk to them, and I doubt I will get my rose.

Sunday was more relaxed, with the general HRF meeting, a taste of the new Rosa Mundi (publication by HRF) given by Gregg Lowery, and an inspiring program by Mike Shoupe on considerations for rose breeding in the future.  I spent some time in the sunshine in the new FSC rose garden, snapping a few photos and absorbing the atmosphere.

That steel gazebo in the center of the garden is HUGE.

  

 

 

 

 

 

... and then it was over.  Memorable snapshots from the weekend were the time I spent visiting with the delightful people from Bermuda, or having dinner chatting and eating Thai food with Tom Carruth (rose breeder and Curator of the garden at The Huntington) and Etienne Bouret (a SUPERB garden photographer from France), or comparing notes with Stephen Hoy (writer of the wonderful "Singularly Beautiful Roses" newsletter), or reconnecting with the lovely ladies that I met last year in the conference in Sacramento, and so much more. The whole weekend was a who's who of so many rose people that I admire ... don't pinch me, because I don't want to wake up.   

This said, I am really glad to be home. I am motivated and energized to get to work on my own roses. I got a great idea for a new garden while I was at the Dudley Farm. Speaking of roses, I only came home with two new ones from the rose sale ('Bloomfield Abundance' and "Green Mount Cemetery Red") ... I still can't believe that I had that kind of restraint.  To all of the rose people that I met this weekend, it was a pleasure to get to know you in person!   Thank you for helping to make my trip such a memorable one.