Rose Requirements

I love my roses.  Something about them has stirred my imagination for far longer than I have raised them.  I am not alone in my passion for these flowering shrubs.  They have been in cultivation for thousands of years, and have been objects of fascination and desire for the entire time.  The Empress Josephine of … Read more

The Life of the Party

Some people are party animals.  They may arrive early or late, but they always stay to close the place down.  I have some roses like that.  Now that the fall garden party is almost over, they are still awake and alive, dancing in the cold wind, putting on an exuberant show of new growth and … Read more

The Rescuer

I have a desperate situation on my hands.  Three roses in my garden stand in dire need of rescue before it is too late.  Each one has a different sad story, but if I don’t intervene, they will all suffer the same tragic fate. The first rose has a romantic name—‘Julio Iglesias’.  ‘Julio’, is, of … Read more

Book Review—The Rose

The rose is the Mona Lisa of the plant world.  For millennia, humans have coveted them, grown them, celebrated them in every art form and sought out new forms and varieties.  Some of us, especially those who have to do hand-to-hand combat with blackspot and other rose diseases, have occasionally cursed them.  But the fascination … Read more

Roses in Winter

I grew up in western New York State, where winters were long, snowy and frigid.  But even under those conditions, gardeners loved their roses and did their best to safeguard them against winter’s worst.  My father, who was a romantic and a rose lover, went through an impressive annual winter rose preparation ritual that required … Read more