President’s Desk March 2017

. . . . Diane Wilensky

Hi Everyone!

I guess we can say "Spring has

Sprung"! Several of my rose bush-

es almost seem to be in the midst

of their peak bloom-Spice, Tipsy

Imperial Concubine, Francis

Dubreuil, Duchesse de Brabant, Gilbert Nabonnand, to name a

few! Is winter over? Did we even

have a winter? Does this mean we

are going to have an onslaught of

all kinds of fungus & bugs (& I

mean the 'bad' bugs) bursting

forth with renewed vigor this

spring & summer! How do we

fight them? Remember, keep your

roses healthy & strong by provid-

ing them a healthy growing envi-

ronment. That translates into

good soil, plenty of sunshine &

good air circulation & of course thorough

watering in dry spells. We should all have

had our roses pruned & fed by Valentine's

Day.

I urge you to enjoy your gardens & your

roses & am including a few pictures of some

of the gardens I visited in Australia last No-

vember for inspiration.

-Diane

Wilensky

La Rose d’Orleans 2015

OFFICERS President

Diane Wilensky

Vice President Betsy Henson

Treasurer

Freny Thunthy

Financial Secretary

Margaret DeLord

Recording Secretary

Susan Johannson

Historian Leo Watermeier

Publicity Chair

Adrienne LaCour

Horticulture Chair Melinda Early

Nominating Committee

Peggy Martin Margaret Ganier

Debbie Rothschild

Volume 16 Number 2 A Quarterly Newsletter of the New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society Spring 2017

Zephirine Drouhin

Heritage Roses in Australia Conference, November 2016

Roses and Rose Gardens of NSW Australia—Diane Wilensky

Page 2

Rose Cottage Garden, Burradoo NSW Australia

Red Cow Farm, Sutton Forest NSW Australia Crepuscule

Monsieur Tillier

Madame Gregoire Staechelin

2017 Calendar Page 3 Volume 16 Number 2

March 7 Diane Wilensky 'Rose Gardens of NSW, Australia' March 11 Rose sale at NO Botanical Garden’s Pelican greenhouse (9-2pm) March 17-18 Northshore Garden show Covington (9-4pm, $5) April 1 Herb Society sale (2202 Gen. Pershing, 9-3p) April 4 Jeanette Bell 'Creative uses of Old Garden Roses' April 8-9 N.O. Botanical Spring Garden Show (9-5, 10-4 City Park, $8) April 9 Iris Society Sale in Sculpture Gardens (10-5p) April 27-30 “Texas Bound and Down” Trip to Flower Dango (McKinney, Texas) May 2 Janice Ackers 'Roses in a Natural Environment'- "The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead-John Keats" June 6 Mark Henson 'Backyard Beekeeping in Metairie' July- No meeting Aug- No meeting Sep 5 Melinda Early 'Herbs to Compliment your Roses' Oct 3 Marilyn Wellan, Billie Flynn, Kelly Texada, BJ Abshire 'Panel of Rose Growers: What's Your Passion?' Nov 7 Adrienne LaCour 'Classes of Roses for the New Orleans Area' Dec 14 Paul Haines (from Brisbane, Australia) 'Growing & Hybridizing Roses for Warm Climates' (Note: TBA location, NOT usual day Thursday, ? Holiday party or not)

Volunteers

NOOGRS can use volunteers at the Garden Shows

Northshore Garden show call/email Margaret Ganier

NO Botanical Spring Garden Show—sign up at next meeting.

ALSO need rose bloom samples April 8th.

Leo Watermeier announced plans are being made for a

Rose tour of Southern Italy for late Spring of 2018.

DON’T PRUNE, STYLE Margaret Ganier

The popular notion is that Old Garden Roses should not be pruned. This is not exactly true and

not exactly false either. OGR’s indeed should not be pruned like Hybrid Teas, down to a few stems

a few inches long. Hybrid Tea roses are bred to produce exhibition flowers, very large blooms on

long, straight stems. The bushes themselves are just factories and nobody cares how they look.

Old Garden Roses, however, are bred to be flowering shrubs suitable for garden ornaments.

The idea of OGRs as flowering shrubs is the key to pruning them. Prune with an eye to how you

want the final product to look in the setting you’ve placed it. Of course, all dead or weak, spindly

growth goes. A head’s up here. Many OGR’s, especially the older Chinas and Teas, can have

woody, lichen covered branches near the base that turn out to be very much alive and full of leaves

on the ends, thank you. So before cutting that big woody branch, follow it out to the end to make

sure you’re not lopping off a keeper. Sharpen those shears if you have to, to make a clean cut.

Make the cuts as close to the branch or to the bud eye as possible; leaving little nubs invites die-

back.

Clearing some of the crossing branches and twiggy growth in the center improves the appearance

and the health of the bush by improving air circulation. This is a very important element even if you

want a “totally natural” look and like the rose to grow full size and as wild as it want. If the rose is

too tall or too wide for the space, trim back some of the long stems to get it down to size. If it is

badly overgrown, better to do this in two bites, one cutting this spring and another in the fall or

next spring. However, OGR’s are amazingly resilient. I have done some bodacious hard pruning on

some old roses with 3 inch diameter stems and got an explosion of new growth.

Cutting back the long branches that many OGRs like to grow produces a neater looking rose,

closer to a bouquet than to a handful of stems. Prune to a bud eye that is facing the direction you

want the new stem to grow. A new shoot will come out at that eye and will grow straight out from

the stem in the direction the bud eye faces. (If you are not comfortable about recognizing the bud

eyes on a rose stem, consult someone in the club). This will insure that the new growth is outward

and not into the center of the bush (where you’ll have to prune it off later) and that the bush has

the size and the shape you want. And don’t be shy about it. Old Garden Roses have not survived

for centuries by being sissies. A “whoops” moment will quickly be covered over. Love your roses

but don’t let them push you around.

Page 4 La Rose d’Orleans

Page 5 Volume 16 Number 2

Horticultural Tips – March 2017 from Melinda Early arranged printing here

A Fertilizer Primer: What’s In that Rose Food?

By: Jill Barnard, jabarnard[@cox.net Roses love to grow. Given minimal care they will survive and produce flowers. With a regular feeding program and a varied diet, roses will thrive and produce armloads of large, beautiful blooms. There are many types of fertilizers, liquid (soluble) or dry (granular), organic or in-organic. Find a program that works for you, but do it on a once-a-month basis during the growing season.

ORGANIC VS. IN-ORGANIC: Organic (or natural) fertilizers are derived from any formerly living plant or animal matter. Most commonly used are blood meal, cottonseed meal, bone meal or superphosphate, alfal-fa meal and fish meal. Manures – chicken, rabbit and steer are also in this category. Organics are generally slower-release, as they require decomposition by soil micro-organisms before being usable by the plant. They supply benefits to the soil in addition to food for the plants, and should therefore be a regular part of your amendment pro-gram.

In-organic (or chemical) plant foods are man-made com-positions, formulated for various speeds of release, but gen-erally provide an immediate food source for our heavy-feeding roses, as compared to organic foods. Brand name manufactured rose foods include Bandini , Fertilome , Mira-cle-Gro , RapidGro , Sterns , Peters , etc. Roses utilize natu-ral and chemical food sources equally, and benefit greatly from use of both, on an alternating basis.

“BALANCED” ROSE FOOD: The term is used frequent-ly, and simply means that a fertilizer has a blend of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (N-P-K), though not necessarily in equal parts, in a formulation beneficial for roses. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are the three major ingredients required by all plant materials, in varying propor-tions, dependent upon the plant s needs. Fertilizers, by law, have a numerical N-P-K ratio printed on the container. A 6-12-6 ratio means that the mixture contains 6% Nitrogen, 12% Phosphorus and 6% Potassium. It contains 24% total nutrients and 76% filler material. 6-12-6 is considered a Balanced Rose Food, as it supplies the basic ingredients in proportions beneficial to roses on a continual basis.

Roses utilize each ingredient at differing times of the growth and blooming cycles. More Nitro-gen is needed for early spring growth of stems and foliage, plus continual moderate supply during the entire growing season. Phosphorus is for roots and blooms; a higher phosphorus food should be supplied from 3 weeks before blooming until blooming. Potassium provides health for the plant, a catalyst for Nitrogen and Phosphorus. It also builds in hardiness to heat, drought and cold, and is therefore a good supplement just prior to the dormant season.

Each of the three ingredients may be purchased separately for addition to specialized feedings.

NITROGEN SOURCES When we add organic matter to our soil, its nitrogen content is not im-mediately available to the plant; it must first be broken down during the decay process. During that process, matter is transformed first into ammonium, then to nitrite, and finally to nitrate nitrogen forms. While the process can take from several days to years, various compounds are formed which are used by soil microorganisms for their own growth. (Continued to next page)

Page 6 La Rose d’Orleans

Fertilizer article continued from page 5... Since the nitrogen required by rose bushes is mainly in the nitrate form, the importance of chemical fertilizers becomes evident: to supply instantly available nitrogen via nitrate forms; plus nitrogen available within a short space of time via ammonium forms (urea and ammonium phosphates, etc.). A fertilizer containing all three sources – nitrate, ammonium and urea is su-perior. Learn to read labels to determine nitrogen sources.

PHOSPHORUS AND POTASSIUM Both are supplied as primary nutrients in balanced ferti-lizers. Phosphorus moves very slowly in the soil, so applications are available only to feeder roots within a few inches of the soil surface. Continued use ensures that a supply of phospho-rus will eventually reach the lower root structures, provided the soil Ph is proper. The im-portance of placing bone meal or superphosphate in the bottom of the planting hole becomes clear – newly planted roses need phosphorus supplied at the root zone. Potassium also moves slowly and is not readily leached from the soil. However, it is extremely mobile within the plant system, where it can be leached from the leaves (its primary destination), by rain or irrigation. A continual supply of potassium is good practice.

SECONDARY- AND MICRO-NUTRIENTS In an effort to provide the ultimate balanced ferti-lizer for roses, some formulations include secondary nutrients (calcium, magnesium and sul-phur, etc.). Sulphur is an excellent ingredient to help acidify alkaline soil. Where soils are acid, additions of Lime will adjust the pH. High calcium content in soils can render magnesium una-vailable – another good reason to add Epsom Salts (magnesium sulphate) continually.

Micronutrients (iron, zinc, manganese, copper, cobalt, boron, chlorine and molybdenum) are added in some formulations as well. Percentages are typically small, as roses require only small amounts. Consider a fertilizer with chelated forms of micronutrients as most desirable, as they are the most usable by the plant.

“CHELATED” ELEMENTS (IRON, ZINC, MANGANESE, ETC.) Several trace elements al-ready exist in soils, and are added to fertilizers as an additional supply. If the soil Ph is too high (above 7.0), some elements become unusable (insoluble) by the plant. This is especially true of iron and manganese, and to a lesser degree, copper, zinc and boron.

Chemical reactions in the soil slowly convert the elements into insoluble forms. First, soil Ph must be adjusted to the 6.0 – 7.0 range, then usable forms of the elements must be added. “Chelates”, without getting scientific, are simply forms of each element that remain soluble in the soil, and are readily available to the plant. However, since this solubility allows them to readily move out of the root zone with irrigation, repeated applications are needed.

Hence, the value of a fertilizer with chelated forms of the trace elements included.

This new knowledge of fertilizers is only a basic beginning to understanding the needs of roses. An excellent program to continually acquire new techniques to grow roses is available through a membership in the American Rose Society. The monthly American Rose Magazine is alone worth the low membership fee, and can save you equal amounts in reduced costs through better understanding of how to grow roses!

Volume 16 Number 2 Page 7

“If you want to be happy for a lifetime, be a gardener.”

Spring is in the air!! It’s time to spruce up our rose gardens. Teresa Byington, our February

guest speaker, had some wonderful stories and pictures to inspire me to get outside – the next

day I cut a few of my rose bushes back! Check out some of these websites for your spring gar-

den and get going!!

1. www.thegardendiary.com - The Garden Diary is written by Teresa Byington and it is so

charming. Look at “Here’s What I’ve Been Talking About Lately” and read “An Immediate

Connection” and “On the Road…New Orleans”. The articles are about her visit to Louisi-

ana and cute photos are included. You can also follow her on Instagram under teresabying-

ton. She also has Rose Chat on her podcast. Check it out for great information and inspira-

tion!! 2. www.rosesofyesterday.com – Roses of Yesterday was mentioned by Teresa Byington at

our meeting so I had to check it out. The garden center has been in business since the

1930s. They have over 230 rose varieties, and they are located about 30 minutes south of

San Francisco. The website has photos of each beautiful rose and an informative description.

Check it out! 3. www.karensgardentips.com - I found a great article – “Six Best White Old Garden Ros-

es”. This is a great article especially if you want a moonlight garden (all white flowers!). Ka-

ren has been gardening since she was 5! She has gardened all over the country. Her blog has

lots of practical gardening tips and lots of details. 4. www.waysidegardens.com - Wayside Gardens is located in Hodges, S.C. It was founded

in 1920 in Mentor, OH so it almost 100 years old. The website is beautiful and easy to use.

There are 44 roses to choose from. When you click on the individual rose, cursor down to

find out about its history and description. Wayside Gardens sells all sorts of plants, trees and

bulbs. Take a look!!

“Gardeners learn by trowel and error.”

Rose Websites, Spring 2017 by Margaret Delord

Page 8 La Rose d’Orleans

“Gardeners spend the day in bed!”

1) I found a few new books to read for the new year. Seasons in My Garden: Meditations from a Hermitage by Sr. Elizabeth Wagner is about her own contemplation as she tends her garden through the 4 different seasons. The book chronicles her own spiritu-al growth as she works through tending her beautiful garden. I found this other book at the Jefferson Parish Library, The Quest for the Black Rose, by Sophie Rondeau and Ingrid Verdegem. People have been searching for the black rose for centuries and this book is full of beautiful pictures of roses and, of course the black rose!

2) Serve your own apple rose pastry for dessert. You will be a star! Please visit puffpas-try.com, then search for apple puff pastry for the recipe. It is by Manuela in her cookbook, Cooking with Manuela. It is only five ingredients and you end up with a pastry rose filled with apple and petals tinged with red. You will be a star!

3) All right purse lovers and rose lovers! Vera Bradley has the perfect rose patterned bags, etc. for spring. There are three rose patterns to choose from – or choose one of each! - Havana Rose, Havana Hothouse, and Imperial Rose. Vera Bradley makes handbags, lug-gage, scarves, computer and I pad cases, phone covers, blankets, etc., etc.!! Kate Spade has a beautiful spring collection of rose everything! – Handbags, clothes, heels and sneakers, wallets, jewelry, watches, scarves and phone cases – all with beautiful roses!

4) The Gulf District of the American Rose Society has named Mrs. B. R. Cant the 2017 Gulf District Rose of the Year. It is a tea rose that dates to 19 41 and doesn ’t need much care. The dark pink roses have cabbage-like petals with a silvery tinge and a tea fra-grance. This is an easy-to-grow beautiful rose!!

“Everything’s coming up roses – for me!!” Ethel Merman

Across the Fence, Spring 2017 by Laura Querens

Page 9

Roses from Afar—ordering online

9 of 10

A couple of weeks ago, our regional horticultural expert, Dan Gill (February 4, 2017) used his newspaper article to discuss or-

dering plants. He addressed the global issues of ordering any plants after viewing glossy photographs in catalogs. The topic of

ordering roses by mail has been one of the most requested for a newsletter article; however, I have been unable to get much

traction on the issue because most of the rosarians to whom I spoke had given up on ordering roses due to frequent failures. I

agree with Dr. Gill that I would prefer locally grown roses (see calendar for rose sales) as the purchase supports local enterprise

and the roses are more likely to be able to adjust to my garden conditions. In addition, it would benefit to try to measure how

to succeed with mail-order roses.

Doing the research to make good choices when ordering roses. Again and again, I have heard experts report that Hybrid Tea and other modern roses need to be grafted on rosa Fortuni-

ana root stock to survive in the South. Read the information provided in the catalogue carefully to determine how well

your chosen roses are likely to perform in our climate and longevity of the ordered purchase. The Garden Watchdog,

listed below, does provide an in-depth review of growing bare root roses sent from nurseries. The advice is wait and

more waiting for bare-root plants to show life. It is important to know what you order.

We have attempted several times to generate a list of roses grown by NOOGRS members, but usually only one or two

members submit a list. Ask at meetings if members are growing your selected rose and what is their opinion of its per-

formance. Peggy Martin has a very large collection and she shares her experiences and garden frequently. Find out if

the rose(s) are grown in Armstrong Park or go look; most of the roses are labeled and the garden open most days/

evenings. Roses that you know are grown successfully locally are good candidates for you to try.

Review material at www.lsuagcenter.com site. Currently, there is a lead article on award winning roses in the 2016 trials.

Dr. Allen Owings wrote Researching Roses in the Bayou State (7/2016) which notes roses varieties for Louisiana. I keep

an old copy of LSU Ag Center Pub 2613 Rose Diseases for reference; you can download a pdf copy to your computer

too. A Check out Dr. Gill’s recommended website for comments about ordering success: Dave's Garden's "The Garden Watch-

dog” (http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/). This website has invaluable information on customers’ view of their

nursery orders; not filtered by experts. Pages connect to company reviews to growing information and ordering results.

It is a site that built on two previous successful websites that answered questions about ordering plants. Certainly if a

diseased rose (rose rosette) is shipped, customers should report back to the nursery and post a warning to other cus-

tomers in The Garden Watchdog site. The LSU Ag Center has several articles on Rose Rosette.

Internet or reference books are resources for more information.

Check out American Rose Society resources too. The ARS publishes lists of roses and growing patterns; I mark the roses

mentioned in presentations on those lists. Rosarians are asked to indicate annually which roses are growing in their

gardens and the condition or growing qualities. At least, you start out with basic support to success.

I have not been to a rose workshop that did not recommend doing a soil analysis. Give the new rose plant the best environ-

ment for growing.

Check out the packaging for shipping! At the Gulf District Mid-Winter Workshop, I learned valuable information on packaging. The Garden Watchdog discusses bare-

root and in pot shipping of plants. The site does not recommend any preferred shipping style; however, it is noted that the cost

of shipping with any soil or extra packaging is more expensive. Jim Mills of K & M nursery (http://www.kandmroses.com/

about_us.htm) at my lunch table read us a positive customer email. He described in detail that he uses custom made box inside a

second custom made box to ship plants. He designed the packaging for protection and found shipping damage minimal; you can

see a photo exhibit of the shipping containers at his website (http://www.kandmroses.com/shipping.htm).

Individually boxed Hot glued into place

Customers are willing to pay the increased shipping costs for the better product. Margaret Ganier also recommended a Florida

nursery (Rose Petals Nursery http://rosepetalsnursery.com/contact-us.php) because of the quality of the plant due to the

more expensive shipping container and process. Not to be outdone, Gay Lehr ordered so many roses from K & M that Mr. Mills

delivered them to her home on the Westbank.

Ordering roses should be consistent with your general gardening knowledge too. For example, I might buy roses in the summer

but not plant them in the heat right away. My success with roses has increased if I leave them in a pot and move them around

the garden for several seasons to find their best growing place (sunlight, moisture, and companion plants). Our NOOGRS Face-

book is a place you can share your experiences and ask questions. We have always wanted it to be an interactive forum.

+++ Ann Byerly & Margaret Ganier

P. O. Box 7704

Metairie, LA

70009-7704

Newsletter

submissions:

NOroses2013@

gmail.com

THE NEW ORLEANS OLD GARDEN ROSE SOCIETY

MEETS AT JOHN CALVIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FELLOWSHIP HALL

4201 TRANSCONTINENTAL

METAIRIE, LA 70006

The New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving

and fostering Old Garden Roses. Our mission is to spread the word about old roses, to return

old roses to the gardens of the New Orleans area and to preserve them for generations to

come. Membership is open to anyone interested in old garden roses. Annual dues are $21.00.

We meet on the first Tuesday of the month except July & August at 7 p.m. The church is 2

blocks from West Esplanade between Fairfield and Glendale. Turn onto Glendale to get to the

parking lot. The Fellowship Hall is located toward the back. For more information visit our

website:

www.neworleans-oldroses.com.

Newsletter Committee: Ann Byerly, Co-Editor; Margaret Granier, Co-Editor;

Margaret Delord, Laura Querens, Melinda Early, Leo Watermeier, and Diane Wilensky.

Next newsletter deadline May 15, 2017

NEW ORLEANS OLD

GARDEN ROSE

SOCIETY

www.neworleans-oldroses.com

New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society

P.O. Box 7704

Metairie, Louisiana

70009-7704 www.neworleans-oldroses.com

Page 10

Armstrong Park

Old Roses

Garden We gave money

to grow the

roses. Your help

in weeding,

pruning, and

cleaning up are

welcome.

Sundays

8-11 am are usual work

days. Leo may

be there to

direct work.

Photos are

FREE!

Gulf District of the American Rose Society presents “Texas Bound and Down” Trip to Flower-Dango (formerly Rose-Dango)

Thursday April 27 – Sunday

April 30

Thursday April 27 Lunch at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (Exit 556 on I-20, Tyler) – 1 pm

Chamblee’s Rose Nursery Visit, Tyler – 2:30 pm

Friday April 28 Tour of Farmer’s Branch Rose Garden with Pam Smith – 9 am

Lunch TBD Earth Kind Landscape Trials at Myers Park, McKinney, Texas

with Greg Church and Steve George – 1:30 pm Dinner with Dallas Rose Society and Collin County Rose Society, McKinney – 6:30 pm

Saturday April 29

Attend Flower Dango (formerly Rose Dango) at Chambersville Tree Farm www.rosedango.com

Sunday April 30 Return to Louisiana

Hotel Information: Holiday Inn Express (Craig Ranch), 6601 Henneman Way, McKinney, Texas

1-800-HOLIDAY or 214-495-0029; Group Rate - $101.99; Group Code - GDA

Additional Information / Questions: Allen Owings (aowings@agcenter.lsu.edu: 985/543-4125 office or 225/603-8096 cell)