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.

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

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

Looking out my office window this past February was quite depressing, except for these luscious beauties! The bright flowers that adorned these plants brought some sanity to this golfer who is pining for some sign of spring. The great thing is, gardening existed all winter!

I had the good fortune to do some work the past few years with one of the world’s renowned Hellebore breeders, Josef Heuger. He has brought the Helleborus Gold Collection™ to North America over the past few years. His work has been focused on developing hybrids that can bring color to winter gardens November through March. They have also done good work with oriental hybrids in their Spring Promise® collection.

Other breeders are doing work in hellebore breeding and this is offering the gardening enthusiast winter joy across the country. We have watched hellebore thrive in Massachusetts, the Mid-Atlantic States, Texas, Northern California and Pacific Northwest. Heck, my brother’s plants thrive in Pittsburgh. I love getting flowering pictures of Helleborus niger in December from him.

In Europe, hellebore is a tradition. We are just discovering the genus in North America.

Who says you can’t garden in the winter?

With the recent whipping winds and cold snow we’ve just had, it’s hard to imagine the taste of a perfectly ripe, still-warm-from-the-sun tomato, but somehow that taste never leaves my memory.  A juicy slice of tomato completely defines the feeling of summer for me.  Earthy and fresh, wet and fragrant.  It’s amazing how the smells of a season can completely transport you to a time or a place.

As I’ve been working in the garden these last few weekends, preparing it for spring planting, it’s hard to remember how the warm soil feels because the earth is still crunchy and a bit frozen.  Pulling the last dried tendrils of cucumbers from a trellis makes it hard to envision the bright green plants weaving their way throughout the fencing.  The shriveled, dried peppers that I find sprinkled in one bed are far from the vibrant, crisp fruit that will hang in a few months.

Anytime I spend in the garden, memories come rushing back.  There is something so innocent about little bits of lettuce sprouting up while the air is still cold and it never ceases to amaze me when tiny melons start forming and peas begin to appear — the taste of each so raw and sweet.  I can’t wait to hand my daughter, not yet two years old, the first bean that we determine is ready for picking.  She’ll look at it curiously as if she’s asking, “Momma, can I really eat this?”  I’ll nod back at her with a smile and watch as she experiences her first tastes of our garden.  Crunchy and a bit bitter, but full of texture and memory to her young palette.  What will she think of a warm slice of tomato or a moist piece of cantaloupe?  Sure, she’s had these foods before, but not yet from our garden. These are the memories I look forward to making!

In Wilmington, Delaware, there are a plethora of wonderful gardens to visit all within very close driving distances to one another.  I never tire of visiting them because there is always something new to see as the seasons change and the years go by.

One of the largest and most renowned gardens in the area is Longwood Gardens.  It consists of acres upon acres of lush garden displays, formal and informal gardens, fountains, meadows, and woodlands.  Oh, and there is also a huge conservatory which houses seasonal displays, an orchid room, a children’s garden (really a wonderland…for both the young and old alike), and various temperature controlled climates for Mediterranean plants, tropical plants, and desert-like plants.  In short, they’ve got it all if you are into Horticulture.

I am anxiously awaiting the official arrival of spring and although it is right around the corner, the days have been more like winter recently.  A visit to Longwood Gardens provided the perfect opportunity to get a feel for the anticipated warmth and light of spring.  The conservatory is always filled with wonderful floral displays no matter what season.

The children’s garden is a highlight of trips to Longwood.  It was a riot of pastel, Easter colors.  The planters were filled with huge clusters of blue hydrangea flowers, yellow daffodils, and pink flowering begonias.

The children’s garden satisfies almost all of the senses. The scent of Jasmine wafts through the air from its many locations throughout the garden.  There is an herb wall planted with fragrant herbs of all kinds that little ones can run their hands through.   There are more water features than you can count which fill the garden with calm, relaxing, soothing sounds.  There is no limit to the beautiful visual stimulation, whether it be from the dynamic floral color, the many sculptures of mythical creatures, or the winding, sometimes maze-like pathways.

As nice as it was to get a preview of spring from the inside displays, it was also exciting to explore outside (back to reality).  Winter’s firm grip is slowly loosening and the first harbingers of spring have begun to emerge.  Snowdrops were blooming in many locations throughout the garden.  These are one of the first bulbs to emerge.  They are so tough that many times they will even poke their way through the snow.  They also naturalize readily.  I’ve noticed some of these growing in clumps along roadsides over the past one to two weeks.  I wonder if they were planted deliberately, or transported by some critter?

Witchhazels were alight in the garden outside.  It is amazing the spectrum of colors they come in.  There were many different varieties blooming in colors of yellows to oranges and reds.

It will be another week or two before the daffodils will be blooming outside in our area and a few more weeks still until tulips, hyacinth, and other common bulbs of spring are in bloom.

I’m anticipating the unfurling of spring as the weeks go by and hoping it happens more slowly this year than last year.  I might even discover a new garden to visit along the way!