Temecula Valley Rose Society

President's Message

I want to reiterate something I've said before: Members are the life of any organization. The society cannot survive without your active involvement. That's why it's so crucial to volunteer both your ideas and your efforts in whatever way is most meaningful to you. We have many committees that can give you opportunities to further the goals of the society and enjoy the social benefits of regular fellowship.

So, you are the Temecula Valley Rose Society. Please take a moment to look over the list of committees and select one to join. Your participation really makes a difference!

Old Garden Roses

This month we will take a look at CHAMPNEY'S PINK CLUSTER. This Noisette Rose is the only OGR bred in the Western Hemisphere. It has pink blooms, tinged with lilac with 35 to 40 petals of 2" on clusters of 5 to 10 per cluster. It is reported to have the sweetest fragrance of any rose! A repeat bloomer that repeats best with frequent watering and fertilizer. CHAMPNER'S is a vigorous climber reaching 15 feet or more with long arching canes and will require some height control measures. Growing to 3 feet wide she prefers a sunny location and will tolerate poor soil.

Bred by Champney in South Carolina in 1811 this rose is sometimes referred to as the "Charleston Rose".  Champney sold the rights for this rose to French breeders who introduced the Noisette variety to Europe. Parents are Old Blush X R. moschata and is rated at 8.5 by the AARS.

"Pleasing People" TVRS Fundraising Dinner

Please come join us and invite a friend or neighbor to Richie's Diner, Thursday, September 18th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm, at 32150 Temecula Parkway (Highway 79 South) in Temecula.

Richie's Diner (a bit east of Home Depot) will donate 20% of your total check (before tax and tip) to the Temecula Valley Rose Society. What a fun way to raise funds for the Rose Haven Heritage Garden and other projects that TVRS is involved in. Peggy Whitney and Kathy Turgeon will be passing out the flyers at the September Meeting. You must present the flyer to your server upon ordering. Please mark your calendar for this fun-d raising event! Its a great opportunity to meet our members outside of our regular meeting. See you there.

Rose Haven Update

What glorious days we've been having lately and with some cooler nights coming in September the roses should pop with color later in the month. We are lucky the garden still looks fantastic even through the heat of summer. And remember all the thunder, lighting and rain in August, not only did the roses love it but the weeds did to. Our work mornings have been focused on just pulling those nasty weeds. Nardo has helped us out tremendously weeding the hillside roses and water-wise areas.

The Society has been fortunate to receive grant money from Riverside County – 3rd District to build at Rose Haven additional safety features including a stairway and handrails leading up to the gazebo area. As the grant only covered half the amount of a quality installation, Rebecca Weersing has donated the balance. Thank you, Rebecca. We look forward to seeing the completed project on or about September 17th.

Our Next garden committee meeting is Wednesday, September 24th at 9:15 am. We are discussing projects for 2014-2015. Other pathways and the driveway are in need of repair, just to name a couple. Members interested are invited to attend. Also, we will meet with a person from UCR who can perhaps help us achieve our goals if he can provide us with grant-writing assistance.

Old gazebo path	Planning meeting

Tree of Life – End of Summer

As summer comes to an end and students go back to school we are now planning our fall planting. Our winter vegetables will be going in soon, but the garden is still producing our summer crops. Our tomatoes had some issues with water, soil and tomato worms (see pictures), but we do have a few plants producing. Our star tomato plant for this year is Umberto (a very old heirloom variety brought back from near extinction). This plant started producing early, is prolific and the taste is robust. If you plant one tomato in your garden next year and you like the small ones for your salads or just popping in your mouth, try this one. We also have a crop of butternut squash that is almost ready for harvest. This is the first time we have tried this variety and I think it is a keeper. Basil has always grown well in the garden and this year is no exception. We have both sweet basil and Thai basil. The watermelon we planted did not make it despite the row covers we used to hide it from the critters. We do have 3 very healthy pumpkin plants (Wee Be Little variety) that should produce just in time to provide our Youth Gardening committee an opportunity to make those cute succulent in a pumpkin creations again this fall. We are looking forward to seeing students returning to the garden and getting to know the new students who will get involved this year. If anyone is interested in working with high school students on any Saturday morning, please let me know. They are a great group of kids who enjoy the opportunity that the garden provides in community service hours, companionship and learning about nature by being involved in it.

Tomato worms	Tomato worms

Umberto tomatos	Wee Be Little pumpkin plants

Reminder: Calendar and Committees and Other Tidbits

Our Website Calendar has been updated with our activities and committee meetings. Please check out what is planned for the month. During Check-in at our Member Meeting various committees will have displays of their activities. Stop by and talk to a committee member. You just might find a committee that needs your talents and peaks your interest! Remember that with committees: Many hands make light work.

Each month (except December, May, July and August) two committees will be meeting from 1 to 2 pm after refreshments: Communications and Membership. Please feel free to join the committee discussions. We need your input!

Why, you might ask, are four months of the year excluded? December is our Holiday Celebration where we visit, acknowledge outgoing directors & officers, install new directors & officers, visit, eat, visit and eat. May is our month to tour Member Gardens. July is a month when we are dark – no meetings or activities at all. August is our month for strategic planning.

Bring a rose to exhibit in our Little Rose Show. Before refreshments, there will be a short talk about the roses entered and what we can learn from what we see.

Member Meeting Program

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

September Birthdays & New Members

There was NO Little Rose Show this Month. However, we are looking forward to Sept, Oct, Nov. shows. Hopefully the Fall crop will come forth and be presentable. It will be a pleasure to be working with Betty Dixon on the LRS. Hopefully we will be able to do more on-the-spot teaching and give pointers as to best ways to present a rose and what the Judges look for in the perfect rose. Lenore Vogel/Betty Dixon.

'X' Marks the Spot

A number of years ago, along the sandy path between the pond and the road, we began a Children's ABC Garden. Many of the roses are now growing very nicely with virtually no care other than drip watering. We have had a few roses die and the replacements for those roses have been ordered. However, there has been one letter we have never been able to find and 'X' marks that spot. Using our website "Gardening Links – Find My Rose" you will learn that there are a number of named roses that begin with the letter 'X' and are supposed to be commercially available.

Tracking down the nursery that has a rose with this letter has proved elusive. Please, if you are able, would you help me on my search? I would particularly like to find 'Xerius' as it is red and just 2 feet tall – the perfect size for the space. However, at this point, I will take any rose regardless of size and color. Thank you for any assistance that you can provide.

Families in the Garden

Kids and parents are invited to Rose Haven Heritage Garden, September 20th at 9:30 AM to learn fascinating bat facts from Cindy Myers, the Bat Lady, and a Project Wildlife volunteer educator. Ms. Myers will bring a Mexican free-tailed bat as part of her presentation about these mysterious and helpful creatures. Learn about bats found in our area, their importance, and why they should be protected.

Project Wildlife rescues and cares for wild animals. If you would like to help them care for these animals you are encouraged to bring a small donation of a box of Q-tips, a roll of paper towels, a bag of any kind of dry dog food, or a clean soft large towel to cover a cage.The volunteers and animals will thank you. There is no charge for this child-friendly program.

Children will be able to make a bat related craft after the presentation. For more information you may call JoAnn at 951-699-6855.

Bat craft	A bat

Let's Get Serious with Our Photos: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Our 2013 & 2014 Rose Shows included a photography section which was very warmly received. Sometimes that perfect rose won't wait for the Rose Show but it will wait while you run to grab your camera. Below is an article on photographing red roses that I hope you will find useful. We all still have time to practice taking photos of our fall blooms.

From April to November (minus July & August) we enjoy our Little Rose Show at our meetings. The Programs Committee is planning to add a Little Rose Photo Show for January, February and March. Rules will follow but will be similar to the Rose Show rules. Practice makes perfect, so take time to experiment with those shots at different times of day as often as possible. Now, let's get clicking!

The Secret to Photographing Red Roses

This month's newsletter contributor is Rich Baer. He has a Masters Degree in Plant Physiology and started photographing roses and other garden-related items in 1990. He has taken more than 80,000 rose photos, with many of them published in the American Rose Society Magazine, ARS calendars, and other gardening publications. Rich has also won multiple awards.

I have been observing photography ever since I could look at pictures. I always loved pictures of beautiful flowers and I have also grown roses since I was about six years old. During that time, I gained an appreciation for the beauty of roses and have always enjoyed seeing that beauty portrayed in photography. A number of roses in my garden were planted because I saw a beautiful picture of that rose in publication.

Unfortunately, I often see photos that don't accurately capture a rose's true color. This is particularly true for red roses which are quite tricky to shoot. They often turn out as a medium-pink rose. Someone who doesn't know a particular rose will likely believe the picture they see instead of the description that says it's a "beautiful dark red" rose. Why is it that so many opportunities to show us the beauty of a particular rose are squandered?

The problem begins with photographers trusting their equipment. Cameras come equipped with built-in light meters. The light meter suggests what exposure should be selected for any given scene. The majority of cameras are designed to take good pictures of people. As a result, light meters are calibrated to read a 15% reflectance which is the amount of incident light that is reflected from the average Caucasian skin. Anything that reflects a much greater or less percent of light will be incorrectly exposed if you rely on the built-in light meters. Dark red roses reflect much less than 15% of the light impinging upon them, but the camera does not know what it is being pointed at. It reacts to the amount of light it senses and gives you an incorrect exposure, one that grossly overexposes the rose. When you follow the directions given by the camera, your final exposure may be two to three stops overexposed, producing a pink color instead of a beautiful dark red.

The solution to this problem is actually very simple. You have to fool the light meter into giving you the right information so that the picture will come out correct. This can be done by using a gray card. A gray card is usually sold as an 8.5 x 11 piece of material that is designed to reflect light at the 15% reflectance level. (I cut mine into small squares that can be used more easily than the whole piece.) They are available in most photo shops or online for less than $5. To use it, compose your shot as you normally would, but before you make the exposure, place the gray card in front of the flower to be photographed and note what the exposure your camera suggests while reading the light being reflected off the gray card. The card should be positioned so that the light reflects from the light source, off the gray card and into the lens of the cameras. Then you remove the gray card and manually keep the exposure that was suggested when reading the light off the gray card. If your camera suggests an exposure of 1/15 of a second with an f-stop of 20 when looking at the flower directly, the gray card may give you a suggested exposure of 1/30, 1/60 or even 1/120 of a second while using the same f-stop. This is one, two or three stops underexposed according to the original light meter reading, but that turns out to be the necessary exposure to get the color right for dark red roses.

Gray Card

Help Wanted!

Learn, Contribute, Plan! I need volunteers to help me develop the propagation bed at the Tree of Life garden at Rose Haven, and to propagate (mostly roses) there. These roses will be given as welcome gifts to new members, sold at fund raisers, and used to replace plants that have died at Rose Haven. Contact me at (951) 315-9632. I plan to start in mid-September and would like to have the project done by mid-October, so this isn't a long term commitment—you can do this! • Frank Brines.

Grocery Cards Benefit TVRS

Dear Members: I trust that you have made a determined effort to use Stater Bros. Script/Gift Cards for your everyday normal purchases. Even in these financially difficult times we all must eat. Purchasing a $100.00 Script Card will let you spend $100.00 for groceries at Stater Bros. There is no extra expense or donation coming out of your pocket and the Rose Society will get a $6.00 donation for the upkeep of the Garden. Your support is greatly appreciated. See Ann Coakes to order Cards. Tel 951 693-5635.

Rose Care FUNdamentals

When temperatures continue to be in the 90's, it is necessary to ensure plants receive adequate water to stay hydrated. It takes only a few days in these temperatures without sufficient water for a bush to succumb. Assess conditions every mornings. Look for wilted or dry crisping foliage. Sometimes if you discover it soon enough dousing with plenty of water may save the plant. If you wait to inspect until the afternoon or evening it may be too late or you might not get a good assessment of the plant's condition: After a hot day, most plants can appear wilted while still receiving sufficient hydration. Also inspect your irrigation system to make sure it is delivering enough water, isn't clogged, and isn't over watering-all problems that come with age in drip irrigation systems. If an emitter is delivering much more or much less water than others on the line, it can change the system pressure and affect the other emitters. The simple solution: Replace it!

It's not too early to start thinking about which roses you will remove and what you'll replace them with. Go ahead and request catalogs from rose suppliers-they're always available. Estimate the amount of composted mulch you'll need in order to cover your garden beds 3" deep and plan to buy it for this coming winter or spring.

A common problem when hot, dry, dusty conditions prevail is spider mites. This topic was covered in a previous care column which you can find on TemeculaValleyRoseSociety.org newsletter; look for Care for September 2013.

A value bi-monthly magazine which covers rose topics it the American Rose published by the American Rose Society (ARS). Go to www.ARS.org for more information on obtaining it.

When you have a moment to spare, or feel the need to get away, or when the day cools down, take your favorite beverage, a picnic basket, and visit our local one-of-a-kind Rose Haven Heritage Garden.

For more ideas, visit TVRS' Rose Haven garden at 30592 Jedediah Smith Rd.,
Temecula, as well as our web site at TemeculaValleyRoseSociety.org/index.shtml. You might also want to visit our section at Meetup.com to find events of interest to you. Spread the joy of roses!