july 2010 petal
DESCRIPTION
Wichita Rose Society newsletterTRANSCRIPT
1 July 2010 The Petal
Volume 59, Issue 7
The Petal July 2010
Inside this Issue
From the President’s Desk
A Breed Apart
WRS Shirt Order
Calendar of WRS Events Sunday, July 4
Independence Day
Tuesday, July13
6 PM
WRS Summer Picnic
Botanica
Saturday, July 17
WRS Summer Garden Tour Finale Ice Cream Social
Sunday, July 25
Wichita Area Garden Council Potluck Picnic
6 PM
Botanica
Thursday, July 29
7:00 PM
Executive Board Meeting
Friday—Sunday, Aug 20-22
ARS National Mini Rose Show & Convention
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
ANY MEMBER CAN ATTEND
WRS BOARD MEETINGS!
Contact Joel Weihe for location.
A Monthly Publication by the Wichita Rose Society
Affiliated with the American Rose Society
Last name A-J: Bring a your favorite side dish or salad to share.
Last name K-Z: Bring your favorite dessert or bread to share.
WRS will provide meat, tableware and drinks.
Please contact Mary Lou Klenda 316.721.8587 to sign up for the Table Decorating Contest.
After the meal, Pat Horbelt will hold a discussion on the Show Schedule.
2 July 2010 The Petal
TUESDAY, JULY 13
WRS SUMMER PICNIC
Last name A-J: Bring a your favorite side dish or salad to share.
Last name K-Z: Bring your favorite dessert or bread to share.
WRS will provide meat, tableware and drinks.
Meeting Brief From the President’s Desk
Joel Weihe
J uly starts out with a bang, literally, on the Inde-pendence weekend. It's all about celebrating the birth of America.
This is also when the hottest part of the Summer starts so it's a good time to relax and think about vacation.
Gardens are at the height of their bloom and fresh fruits and vegetables are starting to show up in quan-tity at Farmer’s Markets. We picked the first tomatoes of the season recently and we should have loads more soon to start drying and eating. Our roses are all in full bloom for the second time this year only the flowers are all much smaller. The pros at WRS tell me that's because of the heat. Still, it makes for beautiful ar-rangements around the house.
July also marks the middle of the summer season. From here it's a downhill slide into fall and winter, but don't think that means any relief from the heat here in Kansas. It'll be hot clear through September!
Mark your calendars for the Central District Rose Show, Sept 17, 18 and 19 at the Holiday Inn on South Rock Road; hosted by us, the Wichita Rose Society.
Hope to see you all at the WRS picnic on the 13th!
Articles for the August issue of The Petal must be submitted by August 4th to be published.
Send to: Sally Duncan
P.O. Box 3553, Wichita, Kansas 67201
Or email [email protected]
HONORABLE MENTION
Member Dr. Doug Horbelt was re-
cently voted “Best Doctor in Kansas”
by the Wichita Business Journal.
Mills Magic
Rose Mix Bob Burrill has 4 bags
20 lbs. bags and 4 gal-
lon jugs of Mills left for
sale.
20 lbs Bags $17
Gallon Jugs $23
CLEARANCE
Please call Bob to purchase 316.721.4688
Wichita Area Garden Council Potluck Picnic
The members of the Wichita Rose Society are invited to attend the WAGC Picnic
Sunday, July 25
6 PM at Botanica
WAGC will provide drinks and the main dish. Garden
Club members are asked to bring a
side dish. Come enjoy good food
and get to know other Garden Club
members!
3 July 2010 The Petal
Summer Garden
Tours
Saturday, July 17
6:30—8:30 PM
Finale Ice Cream Social
Pat & Betsy Latta
1124 North Bitting
Consulting Rosarian’s
will be on hand at each
garden to answer
questions!
WRS Summer Garden Tours
WRS Finale Ice Cream Social
The Garden of Pat and Betsy Latta
1124 North Bitting, Wichita KS
WRS will provide tableware and drinks.
Last name A-J: Bring a half gallon of your favorite ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, ge-
lato or frozen yogurt to share.
Last name K-Z: Bring your favorite ice cream toppings, add on’s, desserts or cook-
ies to share.
Pat and Betsy’s garden encompasses the entire backyard of their narrow lot close to
North Riverside Park. They have been gar-
dening at this home for 25 years. Betsy has
been growing roses for 38 years and there
are approximately 100 rose plants in the gar-
den. The roses are mostly David Austin Eng-
lish Roses and other old-fashioned looking
shrubs and a few climbers.
Their garden is mostly organic, although
Betsy does spray for black spot. The garden
features many other plants which are grown
to attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
Pat especially enjoys photographing butter-
flies.
R.S.V.P. Online!
If you plan to attend the cookout!
Deadline for the All-Mini Show is July 16th. After that date the conference fee will go up. Hotel rates are locked until July 22nd. If you haven’t registered and plan to attend, do so now.
More information can be found on: http://www.milwaukeerose.org/All-mini/2010-all-mini-home.html
7 July 2010 The Petal
4 July 2010 The Petal
A Breed Apart
P erhaps more than anyone, David Austin is responsi-ble for restoring old-style roses to worldwide promi-nence. For years, hybridizers focused their efforts on developing perfect long stem roses suited to the florist trade. Disease resis-tance and ease of handling were sought, often at the expense of fragrance and charm.
As the owner of one of Brit-ain’s leading rose nurseries, David Austin Rose Ltd, he took the gardening world by storm in the 1960’s by introducing an entirely new race of roses, now greatly admired for their form, fra-grance, disease resistance and color.
How would you describe the classic English rose?
It is difficult to describe an English rose, since we are very keen on them being a varied group ranging greatly in flower form, from very full flowers with over 100 pet-als to semi-double flowers, and from deeply cupped or shallowly cupped to flat rosettes or even dome-shaped flowers, where the petals recurve down. They also vary greatly in the shape of the bush, from large arching stemmed shrubs 4 or 5 feet tall to short upright bushes only 2-3 feet tall. The foliage may vary from the matte foliage of and Old rose to the highly polished leaves of the modern roses.
I suppose that English roses could be summed up as repeat-flowering forms of the Old roses, but with greater range of color and more variation in the shape of the flower. The overall effect is an attractive branch-ing shrub, producing flowers throughout the summer into autumn.
How well do English roses adapt to American gar-dens?
Generally English roses grow very well in North Ameri-can gardens. Judicious pruning in the winter helps con-trol the height, and it is sometimes worthwhile shorten-ing excessively long shoots in midsummer, which lengthens the flowering season. Some varieties, such as “Graham Thomas”, grow magnificently as Climbers, and other varieties look most attractive when the stems are arched over, resulting in the canes producing flower along their length. Like all repeat-flowering roses, they
By Bonnie Blodgett, article taken from BHG Magazine, Simply Perfect Roses 1999
do require generous feeding and watering for maximum effect.
What challenges you to make improvements?
My goal is always to produce roses of greater beauty. This may sound obvious but, in fact, the majority of breeders do not put this factor first. They are more inter-ested in disease resistance, productivity, vigor and so on. While I regard these as important, there seems to be little point in producing new roses if they do not have some-thing of the essence of the beauty of a rose. This beauty seems to me to be along t he lines of the beauty of the Old roses, and if possible, beyond.
Having said that, there are two specific ideals we strive for: first, to produce roses of greater charm, beauty and fragrance; and second, to create groups of varieties that are different in character from anything yet produced.
Charm is a very important and personal characteristic. What is attractive to one person is not necessarily attrac-tive to another. Luckily, my idea of a charming rose is shared by many people.
We never introduce a rose unless it has good fragrance. And disease resistance is crucial. Striving for the com-pletely disease resistant rose has so far tended to produce rather characterless roses.
We are continually developing roses with a wider range of flower form. We also always try to increase the length of the bloom period, but not at the expense of beauty. A short bloom period is not reason enough to keep a rose off the market if the rose is very beautiful.
Do you have any particular prejudice regarding color?
English roses are generally soft pastel shades, but a gar-den full of such shares is enlivened by a splash of some-thing brightly colored, like “L.D. Braithwaite” or “Pat Aus-tin”. What is important is that the color be pure or rich, as in crimson roses, and not harsh or muddy.
The individual flower is central to English roses. One of the most exciting characteristics results from the close association of the many petals, which results in subtle color changes due to reflection and shading of light from one petal to another.
And what about foliage?
If the whole plant is not good enough, then the beauty of the flower will not redeem the plant. We prefer the matte
David Austin
5 July 2010 The Petal
foliage of Old roses to the shiny leaves of modern varie-ties.
What do you think about fragrance?
Recently, we have been more and more aware of the wonderful variety and beauty of the fragrance within the English roses. The scents are split into four basic groups: Old roses, Tea, Myrrh and fruity. Some varieties have a blend of fragrances. For example, “The Pilgrim” has a wonderful blend of the myrrh-type fragrance with a classic tea rose fragrance. “Evelyn” has an Old rose perfume with a sumptuous fruity node reminiscent of fresh peach and apricot.
How many plants ‘make the cut’ and are selected as David Austin introductions?
Eight or 10 years after the initial hybridization, we will have chosen five or six varieties for introduction. We grow about 5,000 plants per variety and distribute them to our licensees around the world.
What sets English roses apart from modern Shrub roses? Will they eventually be recognized as an individual class by the World Federation of Rose Societies?
One of the difficulties is that they are, as I said earlier, such a varied group. The main defining characteristic is that they have full double flower and cupped flowered, in the manner of an Old rose, and are shrubby in growth, rather than bedding plants, like Hybrid Teas and Floribun-
das. This hardly forms a botanical description. The differ-ence is one of character, rather than form.
Quite a few national rose societies around the world have introduced a separate section for English roses. Most modern Shrub roses are characterized by an overall show of color, rather than the beauty of the individual flowers. The growth is often stiff, and the flowers lack perfume. English roses are distinct in that they are beautiful, both overall as a plant and, more particularly, in the individual bloom.
What inspired your first research in this area?
I never like the modern Hybrid Teas. In a book on Old roses, I saw a rose called “Rosa pimp Stanwell Perpetual”, a chance cross between R.pimpinellifolia and a Portland rose. This gave me the idea of crossing the Old and the modern roses to produce a repeat flowering Old rose.
I was also inspired by Allwoods success in developing re-peat-blooming pinks (Dianthus). I grew up close to a fa-mous nursery where they were developing various plants, such as lupines and delphiniums. I was able to see this firsthand.
What are you favorite David Austin roses?
Every rose has its day. According to the season, and so on. I would say, however, possibly “Eglantyne”, “Glamis Castle”, “The Countryman”. Charlotte”, “Pat Austin” and “Windflower”.
6 July 2010 The Petal
Joel Weihe President 316-821-9437
Cindi McMurray 1st Vice President 316-371-6372
Mary Lou Klenda 2nd Vice President 316-721-8587
Cindy Howey Secretary 316-445-2150
Kay Case Treasurer 316.685.1948
Wichita Rose Society
2010 Officers
Consulting
Rosarians
Bob Burrill 316.721.4688
Kay Case 316.685.1948
Pat Horbelt 316.636.4504
Norma Kemp 316.722.0906
Betsy Latta 316.267.8602
Carol Manke 316.729.6363
Suja Mathew 316.729.0740
Mary Scheulen 316.524.3165
Len Suchy 316.722.4403
Cindy Vadakin 316.258.1684
● Bring your potted roses or perennials you need to relocate to a new home for the Plant Exchange in the spring and summer months.
● Be sure to only donate HEALTHY disease free plants, please!
Sally Duncan, Editor
P.O. Box 3553
Wichita, Kansas 67201