It's raining!!

I had to share this blissful news with everyone. The misting turned to actual rain at 5:45 this evening and fell steadily at a medium rate for more than half an hour on my garden and the surrounding Ocala area, a part of the earth that is decidedly unfamiliar with the concept of rain for, lo, these many months. A sustained rain is a wonderful thing, but the icing on this cake is the off-and-on rain for hours afterward. I can't wait to check out the rain gauge in the morning.

The daylilies and dahlias that I hurriedly planted after work are thinking they're in garden heaven right now. Maybe this portends good things for the dahlias which were the bagged kind from Walmart. What can I say? I'm a sucker for those beautiful flower photos on the package even though just about nothing on those racks - except the caladiums and elephant ears - will ever survive in this part of Florida. Oh, but the hollyhock I bought as a bagged root is, indeed, sprouting!! The photo on the bag was pink - oh, joy - hopefully, it's the beautiful baby pink that I grew once and that graces my computer desktop. Yes, folks, it's not a rose. It's a gorgeous fluffy 'Summer Carnival' hollyhock.

I also want to clarify my pruning practices. Since I mostly grow OGR's, my garden's pruning needs are not typical.

• The Teas and Chinas get cleaned up, i.e., dead stuff is removed, growth that has extended into walkways or neighbors is cut off where it sprouted from the older cane, and just a bit of trimming - a scant few inches is removed from some tips for shaping. The freeze killed the brand new growth that was there, so all of that has to be removed back to healthy cane. I also remove any low growth that is growing downward or laying on the ground, and I try to thin clumps of growth, usually leaving a "Y" at the end of the cane. I've found that usually that third or fourth shoot will die back anyway later on.
• Some Polyanthas - notably 'Clotilde Soupert' - appreciate and need a refreshing pruning. My two bushes are about 4 feet tall, and I probably don't take off a foot of that height. However, the cutting triggers the auxin, and lovely new growth follows. There is nothing more gorgeous than Clotilde covered with her tender, spring-green leaves.
• My only Hybrid Tea is an antique and does not have the typical modern HT form. You saw her in yesterday's post, and she sort of resembles a tumbleweed (before it tumbles) with at least a couple of dozen canes coming up from the base that mostly bloom singly or in small clusters of two or three flowers at the tips . This type of rose needs to be shortened some (I don't think she was damaged at all by the freeze), but I don't think I took off even a quarter of her size. Afterwards I thought perhaps I could have cut more, but I wasn't up for a second round. She'll just be bigger this year. Oh, I forgot 'Mme Joseph Bonnaire', but she's a one-cane wonder so... not a problem.
• I have two shrub roses, 'Quietness' and 'Polonaise' that are similar to HT's. They're young and spindly, and I'll probably just shorten them a bit, not even 25 percent.
• The small Bourbons, 'Souv de la Malmaison' and her kin, do not like to be pruned according to those more knowledgeable than I am, so I just removed the dead stuff. Their size is not an issue, so the roses and I were happy with that.
• I don't have a clue yet about the Austins I have. I'm trying to find out if my two candidates for pruning are among the ones that resent pruning. I'll let you know.
• Climbers are a whole post unto themselves, except 'Reve d'Or'. She responds well to a simple haircut - nothing technical about it.
• Damask Perpetuals will be pruned by ear. I only know to "prune them hard". Winging it is such a pain!

Dr. Malcolm Manners of Florida Southern College recommends removing every leaf from all rose bushes as a way of eliminating any remnants of fungal disease and of triggering new growth. I did that last year, but I don't think I will this year due to a lack of old leaves and new growth being well under way. 'Mrs B. R. Cant' may be the exception. I haven't really looked at her yet, but she is fully clothed with last year's leaves. My situation is probably different from others, because I have so few roses that are susceptible to black spot. (Winnowing works!)  Although, I'm wondering if my new baby 'Chrysler Imperial' might be a candidate for leaf stripping, but maybe I should let her get established before I strip away all her energy sources, ya think?

DH's pruning suggestion was something to the effect that I should get out the chainsaw, or maybe he was suggesting I go buy some hedge clippers. He was quite adamant about it, too. However, my deep love and respect for him notwithstanding, his non-orthodox opinions will be ignored. All pruning "doctrine" should be tested to be sure it pertains to your roses, because all roses are not the same.

By the way, I do  intend to stay out of holes for a while!

Heritage Rose District of New York City Project

Rosa Mundi is the official journal of the Heritage Rose Foundation

Rosey friends always seem to bond readily. Their love of roses even if they’ve never met in person creates a strong kinship. One of my rosey friends is Dr. Malcolm Manners, chair of the Horticultural Science Department of Florida Southern College and a member of the Central Florida Heritage Rose Society. On Saturday Malcolm sent me an email which I’m sure went to all of his rosey friends, requesting that I tell everybody about his NYC historic rose project and the need for funds to get the students and the roses up to New York this spring. Part of that fundraising effort is a Rose Sale at the FSC campus in Lakeland on January 28th. Hundreds of roses, grafted and own-root, will be for sale. They were all propagated by the students, intended to benefit the NYC Heritage Rose District. So I thought I would let Dr. Manners tell you about it himself by posting his official announcement here.

Sale of Old Roses for the Heritage Rose District of New York City Project

Since October 2009, the Florida Southern College horticulture program has been working with the Heritage Rose Foundation and the office of the Borough President of Manhattan Scott M. Stringer in developing the "Heritage Rose District of New York City."  The Heritage Rose District covers an area of northern Manhattan from Washington Heights through Harlem, and is the first of its kind in the country. Created entirely with donated roses and volunteer labor, this is more than a beautification project. The district is a celebration of the historic and cultural roots of these neighborhoods showcasing roses that grew there a long time ago. To date, over 500 heritage roses have been planted on more than 25 sites that include community gardens, cemeteries, historic properties, cultural institutions, and universities. The majority of the roses planted in the District are from the rose collection at Florida Southern College.
As a service-learning project, our classes (HRT 1000 Plants and Society and HRT 2100 Introduction to Horticultural Science) propagated more than 400 plants as own-root cuttings.  In April 2010, a group of four students (Mitch Varnum, Rachel Lichter, V.C. Hollingsworth, and Kenny Ray), our greenhouse manager Dewayne Hameline, and I carried them in suitcases, as checked luggage, to New York. Members of the Heritage Rose Foundation, community gardeners, girl scouts, local school children, senior citizens, and the Manhattan Rose Society joined us for an unforgettable weekend of fast and furious planting.
This was only the beginning. More planting days are scheduled and FSC continues to supply roses for the project.  Currently, we are propagating several hundred, including varieties that we've never grown at the college. As word of our involvement spreads, old-rose lovers from around the country have begun sending us cuttings of varieties we did not have, from their private collections for us to grow for the district. 
We hope to take another group of students back to New York in spring 2012 to plant the next crop of roses and to conduct rose propagation workshops for local community groups and school children. As you can see, the District continues to offer a great opportunity for our students to use their horticultural training to provide a valuable community service.

How you can you help? 

Obviously, sending students to New York is not cheap.  The trip will involve airfare, 2-3 nights lodging, and meals. The cost is estimated to be at least $600 per person.  Students will likely be expected to pay part of their own way, but we're hoping to bring that cost down as much as possible. 

There are two ways you can help us to defray the costs of this trip:

1. Purchase roses at our upcoming sale of rare Heritage Roses, to be held on the FSC campus January 28, 2012, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Many of these roses will be grafted to 'Fortuniana' roots, and as such, are available nowhere else in the USA.  Others will be own-root plants, but again, often varieties seldom seen for sale. Nearly all of them are from our rose mosaic virus certification program, and so are free of that disease.  Proceeds from the sale will be used to cover travel expenses for the project.

2. Help sponsor a student by sending a tax-deductible donation to the Heritage Rose Foundation with the designation ”Student travel to the Heritage Rose District of NYC”.

    http://www.heritagerosefoundation.org/3support/donors.html


For more information about the Heritage Rose District, here are three sites worth checking out:

1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritage_Rose_District_of_NYC

(While I'm always cautious about recommending a Wikipedia link as authoritative fact, this article is quite good in explaining the project, and it includes a good map of all the plantings completed so far.)

2.
The Heritage Rose District of NYC facebook page, for the most up-to-date information on the project: http://www.facebook.com/HeritageRoseDistrictNYC?ref=pb

3.
The website for the Heritage Rose Foundation:
www.heritagerosefoundation.org

Please feel free to contact me (malcolmmanners@me.com or cell 863-513-7073) if you have any further questions.
Thank you for helping to make this valuable educational project a reality!
Malcolm M. Manners, Horticultural Science Department, Florida Southern College
111 Lake Hollingsworth DR,  Lakeland  FL  33801-5698

_______________________

We'll have about 300 plants grafted to 'Fortuniana' and another 300-400 own root.  The grafted plants are mainly 2-gallon size, with a few 1-gal and 3-gal.  Most of the own-root stuff will be in smaller "band" pots, but a few of them are also 1- 2- or 3-gallon size.
Hope you can make it, and feel free to spread the word among rose friends if you like.
So feel free to tell anyone you may think would be interested.  Hope you can make it.

Malcolm