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A Rose by any other name: "BearRose"

This Month we head North to the great state of Colorado.. Roses Symbolize "Love" in our Culture . So with Valentines' Day upon us who's garden better than to go visit than our Very Own Gardenbuddie Stan aka BearRose? His Love of Roses far surpasses anyone that I know..He has grown them and has it down to a science for his area of our Country!

My interest in roses goes back to my birth. I have been around roses from day one of my life. One of my fond memories of roses is when the Jackson & Perkins catalog used to come in the mail for my grandmothers and my mother. Those catalogs had the most wonderful fragrance of roses. I would watch the eyes of each of these important women in my life light up as they looked at the beautiful roses in those catalogs. An order was soon to follow I knew. My mother and my grandmothers on both sides had wonderful rose gardens, my mothers rose gardens at the farm surely exceeded a hundred roses. I grew up watching them all tend to their rose gardens with great love and affection. Slowly but surely they all let me help tend to their roses. I learned about the proper care of the roses including dusting roses, pruning roses, feeding and watering roses.

While each of them had their own way of doing things, I got an early education in seeing how each method of rose care worked. I realized early on that the main special ingredient in having beautiful roses was love. The loving care that was given each rose bush made for wonderful returns of beautiful smiles set against rich foliage. Being raised on a farm probably helped with my interest in gardening but the roses took a special place of interest with me. I learned not only the important rose care information but also some of the sentimental side too. Such as; my grandfather on my father’s side had a favorite rose named Tropicana. My grandmother on that side did not seem to have a true favorite as she cared for all of them equally. My grandmother on my mother’s side seemed to be real partial to her Chicago Peace while my grandfather on that side seemed to like them all, since they all made his sweetheart of many years smile. My mother’s favorite rose is Mr. Lincoln and she still has seven of those at her place today. Some of the best moments of my life are spent helping my mother tend to her roses.

I currently have 53 roses counting all of them. I have 21 mini roses and some of my favorites are Ivory Palace, Arcanum, Dancing Flame, Winter Magic, Ring of Fire, Harm Saville, Santa Claus and Orange Parfait. I also have 20 Hybrid Tea roses, 9 Floribunda roses, 4 Grandiflora roses, 1 shrub rose and 1 Austin rose. It is difficult to name my favorite roses as I truly love all the roses I have. I do have a Chicago Peace and two Tropicana rose bushes since those carry some sentimental value to me. I do not have a Mr. Lincoln as there is no way I can get him to take off for me like those of my mothers. Since my mother’s favorite rose is a red rose, I have Veteran’s Honor, Liebeszauber, Ingrid Bergman, Harm Saville and Lavaglut to be tribute red roses in my rose beds.

My main reason for having roses is the "soul recharging" that they provide for me while I am out tending to them. The rose beds are areas where I can truly find a peace that is just not to be found anywhere else except for Church. I love to see each rose bushes smiling face (blooms) and love to take pictures of their wonderful smiles too. Some of my favorite pictures of them are just after a rain or with an early morning dew upon them. I like to call those droplets of water "Diamonds from Heaven". Thus I have been known to refer to such pictures as my roses "wearing their diamonds".

My favorite source for roses is Gulley Greenhouse in Ft. Collins, Colorado. They have provided me with some dandy roses over the years. I also get mini roses on-line from The Uncommon Rose, Rosemania and Nor East/Greenheart Farms.

I have several different rosebed areas for enjoyment at nearly every turn. Out front of our home I have the Driveway Rose Bed where Liebeszauber, Chicago Peace, Ooo Baby, Fragrant Cloud, White Lightnin’, Winter Magic, Veteran’s Honor, Honey Bouquet and Arcanum reside.

Along the front Split Rail Fence Rosebeds are Outrageous, Ivory Palace, Neptune, Gold Medal and Lavaglut.

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To the west there is our wonderful Western Garden where we have several perennials, some ornamental grass and also the roses Memorial Day, Crystalline, Dancing Flame, Ring of Fire, Bronze Star, Mary Rose, Distant Drums, Ingrid Bergman, Wildfire and Just Joey reside in that area.Last but not least of the front rosebeds is the Entry rose bed. That is where Sexy Rexy, Talisman, Rio Samba, Lavender Delight, Angel Face and Tuscan Sun reside.

The new roses in the front rosebed areas this year are Tuscan Sun, Neptune and Distant Drums.

In the back yard area I have more rosebeds for enjoyment at nearly every turn. I will start with my Circle Garden where Teddy Bear (two of them), Santa Claus, Hot Tamale, Gingerbread Man and Irresistible all reside. This area is rimmed with some moss rock and other stones collected from various mountain outings.

Another garden area is what I call the Triangle Garden where Cheer Up (two of them), Dr. KC Chan, Orange Parfait (three of them), Kiss-N-Tell and Harm Saville reside.

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Along the west and north fence lines I have a beautiful border of sorts where the following roses reside; Super Gold, Fragrant Plum, Gemini, Tropicana, another Bronze Star, another Tropicana, Octoberfest, Oklahoma, Queen Mary2, Ronald Reagan and Fragrant Apricot.

Each rose bed area has some different features to it. In some areas I use pebble or gravel "mulch" all in and around the roses, some other areas have a shredded cedar mulch all in and around the roses. While yet others have rings of shredded cedar mulch around them and nested into the gravel/pebble areas of the gardens and rose beds. I have this mix to see if any one area does better with the "winter test" that all of the roses must take here. Some roses fail the ‘winter test" and do not come back the following spring. So far the pebble/gravel mulched areas seem to perform just a little bit better than the others. Not really enough to go totally that way with all the roses plus I like the different looks each area gives me. While the pebble/gravel type of mulching would not work in many climates, it does work here and works well. My mother’s rose beds are totally pebble/gravel mulched. The unions of the roses are protected with that mulch for the winter and nothing else. Her roses pass the winter test extremely well and to most of her roses the winter is really no test at all and has not been for several years now.

The biggest challenge to growing roses for me is the "winter test" or winter season. Some winters are not only very cold but also extremely dry. When we do get a snow in those dry winters I will shovel extra snow in and around the roses to maintain some moisture for them. Some roses do not do well with their winter test regardless of the mounding protection they are given. I have found that there is a different "will to survive" in each rose bush. Even if the rosebush carries the same name, one rose bush may perform totally differently than another rose bush of the same name. While the rose bushes get the same treatment and are grown in the same soils and other conditions, one may take off and do beautifully while the other seems to lag behind and just not have the same vigor.

This is not true of all rose bushes but it certainly has been true of a few in our family’s rose beds over the years of rose growing.

I do spray my roses every two to three weeks with a fungicide. I rotate using Immunox, Banner Maxx and Funginex/Ortho Rosepride Disease Control spray. If I do get an out break of black spot on my roses I bring out the Mancozeb spray and use that on them a few times. The Mancozeb gets things under control and the regular rotation continues. The only time I get such outbreaks is when I forget to spray for some reason or do not start spraying early enough in the spring. The Mancozeb will leave a light yellow dust on the leaves but works wonders at stopping outbreaks before major damage happens here for me. I have found that a Copper fungicide that I get from Rosemania works very well at getting rid of powdery mildew. My mother’s Mr. Lincoln rose bushes usually get hit pretty hard by powdery mildew at least once a year. The copper fungicide brings it under control in a few sprayings.

I do not use insecticides unless I have a big attack on the rose bushes. Then I will bring out the Sevin and used to use a light dilution of Diazinon. I now use Bug B Gon by Ortho too if needed. We prefer to buy some lady bugs at the local nursery each year and have fun setting them free in various garden areas in the evening. We have purchased a few praying mantis egg sacks and placed them in the garden areas as well.

I mix some compost in around all the roses every spring and give them their first feeding of the season at the same time. I used to mix up some of my own rose food but due to the expense of rounding all the items up, I do not make my own rose food any longer. I now give my roses Fertilome Rose Food and add some alfalfa meal to it. I also give the roses a little extra super phosphate and muriate of potash once a year. All the roses get a couple of feedings of Epsom Salts each growing season. The roses love a good feeding of alfalfa tea as well. Usually at least twice a year I will also foliar feed the roses early in the morning or later in the evening with Miracle Gro or Peters water soluble fertilizer.

When I deadhead the roses I go down to the first five leaf cane connection and prune them there. I settled on this approach to deadheading as it does seem to work well for me. One of my grandmothers used to deadhead by walking around and snapping the old blooms off. She only pruned in the early spring when the leaf buds started to swell so that she could easily determine where the best place to prune back the canes was. I tried the snapping off of the blooms method but did not like how it left the overall rose bushes appearance. I too like to prune in the early spring when I see the leaf buds swelling and showing up well. I may prune back some of the taller canes a bit in the early winter so as to prevent the winter winds damage that can occur and thus harm the overall appearance of the rosebush. I have been told that pruning serves as a form of wake up call to the rose bushes and gets them to growing better. Thus the early spring is a better time for the heavy pruning. It works well for me and thus has become my routine for the heavy pruning.

When I water the roses I use a water wand and water them all by hand. I find this also gives me a great opportunity to take a good close look at them. I can check each bush over for any problems that may be starting then as well. If I have a question as to the need for watering the roses, I use my moisture meter to tell me how things are doing down in the ground. I purchased a couple of moisture meters with as long a probe as I could find. I move back the mulch in three locations around each rose bush and stick the probe of the moisture meter in the ground all the way to the base of the meter. This gives me a very good indication of how the moisture level is deep down around each rose. I started doing the soils moisture testing due to the drought that we have had as a water conservation effort. The roses have done very well with this watering method.

A special delight of rose growing is taking pictures of the wonderful smiling blooms of each of them. Capturing them at a beautiful stage of bloom so that one can re-visit such beauty again and again is truly special. The work of God’s paintbrush is not always easy to capture. I like to take pictures early in the morning and later on in the evening. Here are some favorites of those that I have on-line photo sites at the following locations as well. Please feel free to visit these websites, I hope that you will enjoy them.

Along with my passion for roses, I enjoy many different types and forms of gardening. My wife Barbara and I have had a veggie garden each year for several years. What we plant in it varies some each year. We always have some Roma and Grape tomatoes in that garden. We like to eat some of the little tomatoes right off the vine while harvesting them. You just cannot get that wonderful flavor out of any tomato bought at the store! They also add wonderful color to the garden not only when ripe but when the light green fruits are hanging there against the darker green foliage as well. Some years we plant a row or two of carrots, a row or two of edible pod peas, a row of radishes, a row of spinach as well as some cucumbers. Talk about the makings for a nice "fresh from the garden" salad! Yum! We planted some bell pepper plants this year and they did pretty well, Barbara loves those on her salads. They add some wonderful eye catching color to the garden as well as they change from green to a beautiful orangey yellow and then to red. Adding a freshly harvested and sliced cucumber to our salads is also a fantastic treat!

Just before it was time to plant our veggie garden this year, Barbara brought home a cantaloupe from the store. I decided to give raising them a try and saved some seeds from it. I let them dry in the window sill in a cup. When planting time came, into little mounds they went. To my delight we got several of those little melons to enjoy from those seeds. I saved some of their seeds to plant again next season.

We decided not to plant the entire veggie garden with veggies this year. We sectioned off an area for a small herb garden and an area for a fragrant wildflower garden. We selected herbs based on their appearance in the herb garden and nothing else. If the herb had a neat look to it, we bought it and place it in that garden area. They all did very well too and look good and healthy going in to our fall season. We hope they all come back well next spring.

The wildflower garden was planted with a special fragrant wildflower mix we bought at our favorite local greenhouse. We have enjoyed so many beautiful blooms from that garden this year. It has been a delight to see some blooms that we had not seen before and some "old friend" blooms as well. Not to mention the attraction of bees and butterflies to our back yard. Taking pictures, which caught the bees and butterflies enjoying that garden, was oh so special as well. This is another garden that we cannot wait to see come back next spring. Everything in there should reseed nicely.

We have a few container gardens and a raspberry patch as well. The container gardens have mostly annuals planted in them with just a few perennials added in. The raspberry patch has been the only problem child in our gardening efforts. We are not sure if it is over planted or just needs much more water. We get a few very late season raspberries with awesome flavor but way too few for the number of raspberry bushes planted there. I am thinking about taking all of them out and trying some other variety of raspberry in there.Roses are indeed a pleasure to grow. I hope that you have enjoyed this limited tour of my rose gardens. The rose pictures and articles in each issue of the American Rose magazine have been a special bonus of ARS membership for me it is with great pleasure that I submit this little story of my Colorado Rose Heritage for all my fellow rose lovers to enjoy. I am a new member of the Loveland Rose Society here in Loveland, Colorado as well as being a member of the American Rose Society. .

Thank you Stan for sharing your love of the Rose with us..I know when I needs some advice I will be contacting you...Please take the time out and visit Stan's Websites...He has some wonderful pictures...
http://www.bearrose1954.gardenbuddies.com/gallery/albums.php
http://home.earthlink.net/~stabarg73/
Happy Valentines Day ...Jeanne

Produced by Jeanne

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