What’s the Most Useful Thing Dad Ever Taught You? Share His Best Advice for a Chance to Win Everyday Roses

We all know dads are great teachers. So in honor of Fathers Day, we’d like to know: What is the best skill, advice, or tip your dad ever taught you?

Maybe it was teaching you to drive, or how to find the perfect hot spot on the grill. Maybe it was just the right way to cut the grass, or prune your roses. Or maybe it was a piece of advice that has stuck with you throughout the years.

Share your dad’s best advice in a comment below. We will pick our favorites to win a copy of Everyday Roses, the new book by Paul Zimmerman that tells you everything you need to know about roses – with some spectacular photography of your favorite Knock Out®, Drift®, and Star® Roses.

The fine print: You must also like our Facebook page to be eligible to win. Comments must be posted by noon on Friday, June 14, at noon EST to be eligible to win. Winners will be notified no later than Friday, June 21, and will be contacted at the email address provided for blog comment. (Your email address will not appear on your comment, and we will only use email addresses to contact the winner.)

So let’s hear it! What’s the best skill, advice, or tip your dad ever taught you?

The Lady Banks Rose

By Steve Hutton

The first rose to bloom in my garden, the Lady Banks Rose, shouldn’t even be in my garden.  Officially called Rosa banksiae lutea, the plant shouldn’t have survived the first winter here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Good thing I didn’t tell it, as it is now glorious in its fourth spring.

 

In our cool spring of 2013, Lady Banks started blooming around May 10; in last year’s warm spring it was in full bloom at the end of April.  Regardless of the weather, it beats all the other roses in my garden by a full two weeks.  A few days ago a cold rain combined with high winds put an early end to the flowers, which only appear once a year.

Lady Banks is native to central and western China.  It was brought to the West by a plant collecting party sent to China by the eminent botanist Sir Joseph Banks, and named after his wife.  There are a few different forms, ranging from a five-petaled white flower to a many-petaled yellow flower.  The yellow form (lutea) is far the most impressive from an ornamental standpoint.

Although it loses its leaves in my garden, in warmer climates it is evergreen.  In addition to its vigor and substantial size–mine is over 15′ and I expect it to top out at 25′–it is nearly thornless and has a curious light fragrance.

If the USDA Zone Map locates you in Zone 6b or warmer, you should invite The Good Lady into your garden.  You’ll find her full of grace and charm.

Small-Space Gardening

By Sarah Hammons

Like many other twenty-somethings, I’m in that living situation post-parents’ house and pre-mortgage of my own; in other words, an apartment.  At my parents’ house, I had the luxury of a decent sized yard to garden in, but my current apartment only offers a small concrete patio.  With the average size of the American yard shrinking, many of you may be like me – struggling to fit all the plants you love into the small space you have.

For those of you with space restrictions, here are a few suggestions to make the most of your tight quarters:

First of all, think vertical!  A shelving unit and some decorative containers can transform your patio into an extensive herb garden, a wall of continuous blooms, or even a desert or tropical oasis.  No matter your choice in plant material, this wall of vegetation is sure to create a more secluded retreat while expanding your growing space.  For example, in a small portion of our precious patio space my husband and I use just such a shelving unit to grow a selection of our favorite herbs to garnish our latest culinary creations.  This practical planting unit also serves to screen out the side view of the parking lot, which is definitely an added bonus.

Still thinking in the vertical plane, don’t underestimate the uses of hanging baskets; they are mobile and versatile.  Place them anywhere you can put a hook.  Try hanging them over patio containers or existing beds to double your gardening space. Plant them with traditional flowering annuals or mix it up with hanging tomatoes, herbs or ever-bearing strawberries.  The possibilities are endless, so have fun and think outside the basket.

Another easy way to go vertical is to utilize trellises.  These handy tools can help you maximize your space in patio containers, vegetable gardens, or just about anywhere.  On the patio try putting a trellis at the back of a large mixed planter.  For a quick spring veggie planter try growing peas up the trellis with mixed salad greens in the front.  In the summer, switch to pole beans on the trellis and a patio variety of zucchini in front.  For a more permanent ornamental planter, why not try a climbing rose like Cloud 10™ on the trellis with a low growing perennial like Nepeta Junior Walker™ in front?

For those lucky enough to have a vegetable garden, you can get more out of your space by growing intensively.  To do this think outside of the popular summer crops like tomatoes and squash and explore the world of cold weather crops.  Think peas, kale, collards, spinach, and carrots.  Plant these in late winter/early spring for a spring harvest, replace them with your summer crops, and then repeat the cold weather crops again in late summer/early fall for a fall harvest.  Use succession plantings, typically every three weeks, for crops like carrots and beets to help ensure a continuous harvest.  To further extend your season, consider utilizing a cold frame.  In many areas this will allow you to harvest cold weather crops all winter long.

For those of you unable to grow a vegetable garden at home, myself included, try looking for a local community garden to join like my husband and I did.  For a nominal fee we quadrupled our gardening space!  We now have a full blown vegetable garden, a nice looking patio with our favorite herbs on hand, and a smattering of low maintenance houseplants.  So get creative and see how many plants you can fit into your small space!

Part 4: Florist Roses for the Garden

Jacques Ferare wraps up his series on florist and garden rose similarities and differences.

By Jacques Ferare

While there is a trend for florist arrangements to look more natural, at the other end of the spectrum, a variety developed for the florist trade can make the jump over to the garden. These are rare occasions, as most new florist roses are poor garden performers. It happens usually because of the overwhelming popularity of that particular rose as a cut flower.

The most vivid example is probably Sonia, a fragrant, soft salmon pink Grandiflora from the House of Meilland that at one point in the 1970s was the most planted rose in the world. Sonia was a breakthrough in cut rose breeding because it was extremely productive year-round, even in northern climates under low light, when heat was provided in greenhouses. It can be said that Sonia revolutionized cut rose production by enabling it to become truly industrial. It was also a very elegant flower that opened fully in the vase and a breakthrough in color with a unique fragrance. Sonia was so highly recognizable that soon people began to ask it by name. It was not long after that people wanted that rose in the garden, where it performed extremely well. For more than 30 years, Sonia remained a very popular garden rose. In fact we carried it in the Star® Roses catalog for more than 20 years.

More recently the same thing happened with Leonidas™, the russet brown rose, and with Black Baccara™, the black red rose. It should come as no surprise that all of these were created by the House of Meilland, as they may be the most successful rose company to bridge garden and florist roses. There are other examples, but these are probably the most successful ones.

Does this mean that florist and garden roses are coming together again? Probably not, as the requirements of a flower grower in Ecuador will never be the same as for the home gardener in New York or Chicago, but there will always be instances where they once again cross paths. One of the latest examples is Francis Meilland®, our 2013 All America Rose Selection award winner, the first Hybrid Tea to win without any spraying, which is also a great florist rose under the name Prince Jardinier. Look for these unique roses to remind us about their common heritage.

Part 3: Garden Roses for the Florist

By Jacques Ferare

In my last post, I discussed how today’s florist roses have little in common with garden roses. However, maybe due to this influx of mass produced florist cut roses, there is a growing trend among some of the more sophisticated florists and consumers to come back to a more “natural” look, with fragrant flowers that open to their fullest.

This trend is supported here in California (as well as in some other parts of the United States, Canada and Europe) by some growers who have developed a market by growing traditional garden roses for cut flower production. These modern garden roses, mostly Hybrid Teas, are usually grown outdoors, in conditions very similar to those when the industry started more than 150 years ago.

Paris D’Yves Laurent™ rose

Estelle™ rose

Besides Hybrid teas, Austin® and Romantica® roses are also very popular in that trade. As a matter of fact, one of the most popular varieties for that purpose right now is probably Yves Piaget™, a very popular Romantica® rose, known for its great fragrance. That rose is being grown in the area above San Remo, on the Italian Riviera – the same location where the industry started more than a century and half ago, and where more and more roses are once again being grown outside. It is also grown in very sophisticated, climate controlled greenhouses in California.

In colder climates, local rose growers are also looking at garden roses, trying to find the right variety that will perform well in their greenhouses.

Following that new demand, during the last 10 years rose hybridizers have been developing florist roses specifically with the “garden look.” The distinction between the two when looking at the flower only is shrinking again…

Next: The final installment of this series looks at florist roses for the garden

Mom Always Said … Share Mom’s Best Advice for a Chance to Win Everyday Roses

In honor of Mothers Day, we’d like to know: What is the best advice your mom ever gave you?

Share her words of wisdom in a comment below. We will pick our favorites to win a copy of Everyday Roses, the new book by Paul Zimmerman that tells you everything you need to know about roses – with some spectacular photography of your favorite Knock Out®, Drift®, and Star® Roses.

The fine print: You must also like our Facebook page to be eligible to win. Comments must be posted by noon on Friday, May 10, at noon EST to be eligible to win. Winners will be notified no later than Friday, May 17, and will be contacted at the email address provided for blog comment. (Your email address will not appear on your comment, and we will only use email addresses to contact the winner.)

So let’s hear it! What is the best advice your mom ever gave you?

Part 2: The Paths of Garden and Florist Roses Separate

By Jacques Ferare

Last week, I gave you some history on florist roses and their beginnings in the garden. Today, I’m going to tell you how they ended up going separate ways.

The rose varieties used for cut flower production in greenhouses were initially the same varieties that were being used in gardens. However, very early on, as the industry expanded along the Mediterranean coast and in the greenhouses near the large cities in Northern Europe and North America, flower growers began to search for varieties more suitable for the specificity of cut flower production. This began the separate path taken by the hybridizers to satisfy the very different needs of the commercial cut flower growers.

This separation is even more evident today, as the cut rose industry has become a worldwide, very sophisticated enterprise worth several billion dollars annually. In fact it is estimated that the cut rose industry represents about 30,000 acres worldwide, with 900 million plants producing roughly one hundred billion stems a year.

Florist roses today are hybridized for maximum productivity, vase life, and the capacity to be shipped over long distances. These roses are grown in sophisticated structures in Holland or here in California, as well as in acres and acres of plastic covered structures in Kenya, Ethiopia, Ecuador or Colombia, and now India and China. They usually have little in common with the roses you can buy for your garden at a garden retailer near you.

Next: Garden Roses for the Florist

Part 1: From Your Garden to Your Florist and Back

The first in a four part series from Jacques Ferare about how trends and markets affect the roses you grow in the garden and the ones you can find at the florist. Are they ever the same?

By Jacques Ferare

Ever since rose production became an industry, the worlds of florist roses and garden roses have followed very different paths. As a result, today’s florist roses have very little in common with the large majority of the roses we enjoy in the garden. But once in a while, a special variety comes along that bridges the gap and brings them together again.

Part One: A Brief History of Florist Roses

By most accounts, the tradition of enjoying roses as cut flowers goes all the way back to the Antiquity, but it really became an industry in the mid 1800s, when the development of railroads in Europe made it possible to ship flowers from the Mediterranean area to the markets in Paris and other capitals of Northern Europe. In fact, according to some growers in the San Remo area of the Italian Riviera, who have been growing roses for generations, it was the variety General Schablikine, a Tea rose which flowered very early in late February to early March in the Mediterranean, which made it all possible. The fully double, quartered coppery pink, fragrant variety was developed by the Nabonnand family on the French side of the Riviera. The roses were sent by train all the way to Moscow where it was unheard of to have roses in bloom in February, when the ground was still frozen and covered with several inches of snow. (For the record, General Schablikine was a war hero from Crimea).

The ensuing popularity of that rose and others created by the same family, created such a strong demand that soon an industry was born. The Nabonnand family created a dynasty of roses at their French Riviera nursery from 1872 to 1924, and the flower industry stayed very strong there until the 1970s when the oil crisis and the real estate boom made it all but impossible to grow flowers economically there.

Next week: The paths of garden and florist roses separate.

Fascinated by Fasciation

By John Whipple

In the display gardens just outside the corporate offices at Star® Roses and Plants/Conard-Pyle, we have a number of exciting and unusual plants.  However, we also have a few tried and true varieties with an unusual twist.  You will see some of our Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ and if you look closely, you will notice the stems are flattened in some cases, or spiral and curl in odd, random patterns in others.

Examples of fasciation

This distortion is called fasciation.  An occurrence more common than you may expect, fasciation is reported to occur in more than 100 plant species. It can take place in the stems, leaves, flowers, and even fruit (think of a ripe beefsteak tomato) of a plant.  There are a number of plants prized for their fasciation, including fantail willow, which is used in floral arrangements, Cockscomb Celosia, the popular bedding annual, and the Saguaro cactus, which, while it isn’t bought and sold, has one of the most bizarre manifestations of the condition.

Saguaro cactus

The exact cause of fasciation is still not certain and research has shown a large number of variables that are believed to cause the deformity.  It is often thought to be a hormonal change in the plant, brought on by bacteria, fungi, or viruses.  Another option is simply that the bacteria or viruses’ manifestation in the plant results in the contorted display.  Environmental conditions, insect attacks or herbicide damage can also cause similar irregularities in plant tissues.  Finally, it has been shown in species of peas and beans to be a genetic trait.  From a breeding prospective, this means that fasciation could be bred into a plant line (such as the Celosia).  One only has to pause to imagine the intriguing new cultivars that could be possible once we learn more about the fascinating condition.

Examples of fasciation from the Star® Roses & Plants/Conard-Pyle display gardens.

Examples of fasciation from the Star® Roses & Plants/Conard-Pyle display gardens.

Examples of fasciation from the Star® Roses & Plants/Conard-Pyle display gardens.

They Should Have Called it Yellow

By Steve Hutton

The second season of the year, the one between winter and summer, is for some strange reason called Spring.  Looking at the landscape over the past five days I have decided they should have called it Yellow.  After an easy winter that stayed way past the March equinox – the beginning of spring – we finally got warm, then hot, weather the first of this week.  Half the plants in the area’s yards immediately showed their gratitude by erupting in yellow flowers.

Of course, all these plants are exotics, which is to say that they are native to other parts of the world.  Except for skunk cabbage and red maples and a few other early-flowering plants, our natives are just beginning to wake up.  So, we have come to rely on daffodils, forsythia, winterhazel, Cornus mas and officinalis, and other foreigners to say (actually, shout – there’s nothing subtle about these shades of yellow) that’s its spring.

Me, I’m glad.  Subtlety, after a winter that’s lingered way too long, is not what I’m looking for.  This will come in due time, when the woods turns its hundred shades of green, with shadblow, redbud and native dogwood lighting up the edges.  When the forest floor is begins to quake as ferns emerge, spring ephemerals quickly bloom and fade, when bloodroot and trout lily cover road banks–this is true botanical spring and my favorite time of the year.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy Yellow.  It’s like having dessert before dinner, which is something we should all do from time-to-time.