Rosefiend Cordell - Rose to the Occasion

Rose to the Occasion:

An Easy-Growing Guide to Rose Gardening

Easy-Growing Gardening Guide, Vol. 2

Rosefiend Cordell

DEDICATION

To Brad, Sophie, and Stevie

as always

The Rose Family

by Robert Frost

The rose is a rose,

And was always a rose.

But the theory now goes

That the apple's a rose,

And the pear is, and so's

The plum, I suppose.

The dear only knows

What will next prove a rose.

You, of course, are a rose

But were always a rose.

Rosefiend Publishing

Copyright 2017 by Melinda R. (Rosefiend) Cordell

All rights reserved. Although the author has made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, explosions, zombie apocalypses, angry birds, freak rose accidents, your cat getting into stuff that he shouldnt, Death Eaters, meteors, or any other cause.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A million thanks to Charles Anctil, ARS Master Rosarian at Moffets Nursery, for looking over this manuscript and offering suggestions, all of which I took. I learned a lot from him over the many years I knew him, and it was always so good to talk to him. Charles passed on in December 2017, and we all miss him very much.

Table of Contents!

Seven Sisters rose, a fine old variety.

INTRODUCTION

W hen I started working as city horticulturist, I took care of a bunch of gardens around the city, including the big Krug Park rose garden. It included a bunch of the usual scrawny tea roses, some shrub roses, and a bunch of bare ground.

I was more of a perennials gal, but when I looked at the roses, some of them were really nice. The Carefree Delight roses were covered with rumpled pink blossoms. There was a tall Mr. Lincoln rose and some Double Delights that smelled amazing. A bunch of Scarlet Meidilands were really putting on a blooming show, with tiny scarlet flowers cascading all over them. Not shabby at all.

I started taking care of the roses, but I noticed that a lot of the Scarlet Meidilands were sprouting odd growths. Most of the new growth looked fine, with bronzed, flat leaves that looked attractive. But some of the new growth was markedly different skinny, stunted leaves with pebbled surfaces, and hyperthorny canes that were downright rubbery. The blossoms on these shoots were crinkled and didnt open worth a darn.

I hollered at Charles Anctil, a Master Rosarian with the American Rose Society. Wed known each other since 1992 when we both worked at the Old Mill Nursery. Hed been working with roses for a good 50 years, and he knows his stuff. At any rate, Charles looked over the roses and told me that those roses, and others, had rose rosette virus, a highly contagious disease, and a death sentence for a rose. Every one of those roses had to come out. He couldnt believe the extent of the damage. He said that he had never seen so many roses infected by rose rosette in one place.

Oh great! Why do I get to be the lucky one?

I dug up many roses that spring. That winter, I got a work crew and dug up 50 more. I had to replace all those roses, so I started researching new varieties.

As city horticulturist with no staff, I was already running like hell everywhere I went, so I wanted roses that wouldnt wilt or croak or wrap themselves in blackspot every time I looked at them cross-eyed. I wanted tough roses, roses that took heat and drought and bug attacks and zombie apocalypses with aplomb and would still come out looking great and covered with scented blossoms. (And the blossoms HAD to be scented there was no two ways about that.)

I started reading rose catalogs. I talked to Charles some more, which is always fun. Somewhere along the way, I got obsessed. I immersed myself in roses. Thats how I learn I get excited about a subject and start reading everything in sight about it, as if its a mini-course in school. I read about antique roses, which were making a comeback. Different rose breeders, most notably David Austin, were crossing modern varieties with old varieties and to get roses that combined the best of the new and the old. Other breeders were creating roses that were tough and disease-resistant, such as the Knock-Out landscape rose, which now you see everywhere.

I planted some antique roses, and they looked great. I planted more. The rose garden was starting to look spiffy, even though I still had to take roses out every year due to the rose rosette virus. I even tucked in some annuals and perennials around the garden to doll up the place when the roses conked out in July and August.