Temecula Valley Rose Society

President's Message

Ann Coakes is to be commended for coordinating it all, from volunteers who made cookies (and sold them), greeted visitors and took donations, led tours, and donated and sold plants and "treasures." She also contacted vendors and persuaded them to commit and to pay a fee, and found sources for tables, pop-ups, chairs, and music. (Is there anything she CAN'T do?)

With very short notice, Linda Black managed shopping and arranging for the tent to house the Rose Show, tables to display specimens, and chairs to accommodate monitors and people waiting to enter. She also found volunteers to act as clerks for the judges, to help place entries on tables, and provide information on preparing entries to those who needed it. Linda even found the image for the cover of the show schedule AND helped write it.

So many others contributed essential assistance to make the event a success! Jim Moss made sure that the paths were clear and safe for foot traffic prior to Saturday, and monitored all visitors arriving and giving an estimate of attendees. Kathy Katz provided signage at the entrance to the garden. May Olson for buying and dedicating the Show awards to specific classes.

Jeanne Brubaker handled all the vases required by the exhibitors and made the certificates for award winners, and Lenore Vogel and Jocelyn Black personalized the certificates with Calligraphy. Tours of Rose Haven Heritage Garden were provided by Phyllis Bettelheim, Rebecca Weersing, and Wayne Blizzard.

I know there are others who should be recognized individually and I apologize to those I've missed. All members should be very proud of this event. Those who supplied assistance and exhibited especially have my accolades for making the celebration a success. In review it profited the most for any event so far. A huge "thank you" from your Society president! (It can't happen without YOUR help!)

I want to make sure you are aware of these upcoming events:

• June 14,TVRS Board Meeting-members welcome.
• June 21, Membership Meeting- topic: Soils
• Lastly, wish Phyllis Bettelheim, Rebecca Weersing, and Frank Brines well on their trip to Albuquerque May 31 to June 6 for the ARS Pacific Southwest District convention and photography school for judging photos for rose shows. They will be preparing a class for all members on how to take photographs for rose shows.

Grocery Cards Benefit TVRS

Rose Haven Update

The combined First Bloom Celebration and Rose Show in May was a grand success. It was a beautiful spring day and the garden looked splendid. Ann Coakes and her volunteers plus several vendors set up and were ready for action before the opening at 10 a.m. Linda Black had the rose show tent and tables set up early for our members to display their rose entries. And what beauties there were. Visitors came out in droves walking, talking, taking photos and asking all kinds of questions. Sales and donations were much appreciated and all proceeds will go to the maintenance of the garden. Thank you to all our volunteers on this project for their time and energy. Without you these events would not have been a success. Please see our webpage for photos of the Rose Show and First Bloom at first bloom photos.

There was a terrific article in the Californian newspaper regarding the benches near our pond which were built by Christopher Le and his Eagle Scout troop. The article is available for viewing on our website Eagle Scout bench.

Did everyone say "let's relax in June"? We will. Everyone is invited to come out and enjoy the garden at their leisure. We've worked hard to provide a wonderful venue for the community to enjoy. Other projects are on the horizon which will be discussed at our monthly garden committee meeting, Wednesday, June 27th at 9 a.m. All interested are invited to attend. The address is 30592 Jedediah Smith Road, Temecula. Members can keep up-to-date with our garden activities through our weekly email "Garden Chat" by Kathy Katz.

Summer Sunset Celebrations

What:

Enjoy A Picnic Under The Pepper Tree

Where:

Rose Haven Heritage Garden

When:

Friday, June 22; Friday, July 27; Friday, August 24

Time:

5:30 – 7:30 PM

Why:

To Enjoy Our Garden and The Company of Your Fellow Members

How:

Bring Your Own Picnic Supper, Beverage and Tableware and a Desert or Appetizer to Share If You Wish.

Member Meeting Program

A light buffet luncheon will be served around noon. Guests are welcome.

Remember, there is no meeting or newsletter in July.

June Birthdays & New Members

Little Rose Show Competition

At the monthly meetings from April through November (excluding July and August) we will conduct six Little Rose Shows. These will be fun opportunities to learn and polish your skills in exhibiting roses. Each month, you will receive points for any specimen that is awarded first, second, or third place. In addition, you will receive a prize if your rose is judged Rose of the Day. At the Holiday Meeting (December), a grand prize will be awarded to the exhibitor who accumulated the highest number of points during all the preceding Little Rose Shows.

To see the entry and judging criteria go here.

Little Rose Show

This serves as a friendly reminder to bring in your specimens for the Little Rose Show at our next meeting on June 21 as there will not be a Little Rose Show during the months of July and August. All specimens that are awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize receive points and the chosen Rose of the Day receives a prize. At the December meeting a grand prize will be awarded to the exhibitor who has accumulated the most points. The more you exhibit the more you will learn about exhibiting your roses at Rose and Garden shows.

Tree of Life Bounty

Enthusiasm, excitement, delight, wonder, and sheer enjoyment are words that can barely describe the experience of having this troop of Girl Scouts at Rose Haven. After racing up the hill to the Tree of Life ("We went on the most spectacular hike!") one of the girls exclaimed "We're on top of the world!" and another "Where did the pond come from? We walked right by and didn't even see it!". Pretty soon they were busy pulling up the onions both by hand and using little red shovels we provided. As they piled the harvest in my arms they exclaimed "These really smell like onions!"

With all of the onions harvested it was time to plant watermelons. The little red shovels came in handy not only for planting ("Is this hole the right size for my watermelon?") but for learning how to remove unexpected obstacles ("We hit a rock! What do we do?") and to discover other opportunities ("We can dig weeds too!"). The girls took onions home for their families, Barb took a bag to a local food pantry, and I took some home to make a Rose Haven Tree of Life Onion Soup, which was absolutely delicious because it did both smell and taste like onions! To enhance the experience I reread Marcia Brown's story "Stone Soup", an especially favorite book from my childhood. This summer promises to be a year that we can all look forward to, reaping the benefits of our efforts to create the Tree of Life. – Rebecca.

Youth Gardening in May

May in the garden this year means a lot of beautiful flowers blooming and we have enjoyed them already in many ways. We had our TVRS First Bloom Celebration on May 12th. Youth Gardening was there and had activities available for the children as well as face painting and a tomato plant fund raiser. It was a fun day for the family and with the garden in full bloom, a great place to be. If you missed this event be sure and attend our last rose of summer in the fall.

The following weekend we had our 3rd Saturday Families in the Garden program. This was our last program until we start up again in the fall. We had a great turn out. The activities were: planting pumpkins and summer and winter squash (which the children were encouraged to come and check on throughout the summer) and flower arranging. The children were so creative and with all the beautiful flowers to choose from we had some amazing creations. Below (left): Margaret Meyncke.

   

On Wednesday, May 23 we had a Girl Scout troop visit the garden to help us harvest onions. They did a great job and we had a bountiful harvest. The harvest left room to plant watermelon and the girls dug right in. Hopefully we will harvest watermelon in a few months and they can come back to the garden and help us harvest again and enjoy the fruit of their labor. Every Saturday we continue to have community service hours available for high school students in our vegetable garden. We are currently planting tomatoes and we have a student building trellises to help them grow strong.

Rose Care FUNdamentals

At this time of year in the Temecula Valley roses are setting another flush of buds for blooms in June and July. Enjoy those June/July blooms but give your roses the signal to go dormant for the summer by not deadheading: Simply let the flowers fade and remove only the petals - leave the "hips." This will not only tell the plants to take a summer rest and gather their energies, but it will relieve them of some of the stress that our typical summer heat puts on them. Continue with this approach this even if you get another cycle of blooms between July and September.

If you like, you can either continue feeding every other week but cut the volume or concentration in half, or you can feed the same amount just once a month. Also, switch to a fertilizer that has lower Nitrogen and higher Phosphate. Remember that Nitrogen encourages foliage and Phosphate encourages roots: We want to strengthen the root systems for the summer, which will then support a burst of blooms in the fall. An example of a good NPK balance for summer is 4-8-8, but the important thing is that the first number (Nitrogen) be lower than the other two.

Summer temperature is usually pretty intense in our valley, so continue a good watering program. This is not the time to scrimp on that! If you've laid down a 3" layer of mulch every drop of water will be used efficiently. (If you haven't laid down that mulch yet, do it as soon as possible-it'll conserve water, distribute the moisture more evenly in the soil, keep the root zone cool and keep down those nasty weeds too-and you know you don't want to be out there in the summer heat digging those up!) Keep in mind that slow, deep irrigation is more effective than frequent, shallow irrigation. And remember: Water the day before you fertilize!

You'll recall from my May FUNdamentals column that typically in the Temecula Valley, when temperatures are between 70-80 degrees, a mature, full-sized hybrid tea requires about 5-10 gallons (approximately 2"-3") of water a week. Refer back to that column for detailed information on how to assess the amount of water you are delivering to your roses. In a nutshell:

And because you'll be taking it easy this summer, letting your roses go into dormancy, you'll have more time to take a little inspiration or go on a relaxing picnic at the Temecula Valley Rose Society's Rose Haven Heritage Garden located at 30592 Jedediah Smith Road (the cross street is Cabrillo Avenue) in Temecula. Or visit their website TemeculaValleyRoseSociety.org. If you're feeling industrious or want to learn more about caring for roses, we're always looking for volunteers at Rose Haven: Show up any Wednesday or Saturday morning around 9 a.m. and ask how you can help out! Spread the word and spread the joy of roses!

For more ideas, visit TVRS' Rose Haven garden at 30500 Jedediah Smith Road, Temecula, as well as our web site: TemeculaValleyRosesociety.org/index.shtml.