Temecula Valley Rose Society

Co-President's Message

Phyllis writes: Rebecca Weersing and I are serving as Co-Presidents this year. Rebecca will chair the Member Meetings and I will handle the Board Meetings.

Finance, Communications and Education/Outreach Committee meetings will be attended by Rebecca. I will attend the Rose Haven, Membership and Programs Committee meetings.

The Rose society is your Club and any suggestions, ideas or questions are most welcome. Please feel free to contact either of us at your convenience.

Rebecca writes: Both Phyllis and I are looking forward to an exciting year. Through our Society's Education/Outreach Committee we will be encouraging the public as well as members to attend our varied events: pruning demonstrations in January and February, our Helping Hands Garden Maintenance Day on the last Saturday in April, our Rose Show in early May, the Summer Solstice in June in collaboration with the City plus expanding our Quilt Gardens Walking Trail in late September/early October, and the Rose Haven Plein Aire for Artists in early November.

Our Youth Gardening Program continues to grow and thrive. Families in the Garden for children under the age of 12 provides hands-on gardening experiences on many Third Saturdays during the year. High school students earn community service planning and planting in the garden, particularly the Tree of Life. This year we hope to develop a Pollinator Garden to be tended by middle school students. HAPPY, HAPPY New Year to us all!

View the 2014 Xmas Party Pictures

Happy New Year!

As your new vice president, I am hoping that it will not only be happy but an inspiring year too!

I am very excited about holding the position of program director and glad to be on the board. Ron Rumbold and I will try to bring you informative and meaningful programs from the Master Gardeners and the American Rose Society.

My interest is the love of roses. The rose world is very large and very rich and I will try to bring some of these riches to the member meetings. I am also open to ideas, suggestions and help from the membership. Phone me at 951-694-8968 or email me at ljblack3@verizon.net. Don't hesitate!

Old Garden Roses

LOUISE ODIER is the eighth rose to be featured in our articles on Old Garden Roses. LOUISE ODIER is one of three climbing OGR's we have at Rose Haven and is the one on the left, facing the climbers. She is a climbing Bourbon with very bright pink fragrant blooms with 40 to 50 petals per flower, with clusters of three blooms. These clusters are very dense making for a magnificent display of color. LOUISE ODIER will tolerate some shade but prefers full sun and well mulched soil. She should be pruned only by removing dead or dying canes each year. Rated at 8.4 by ARS, she was developed by Margotin of France from a seedling of Emile Courtier in 1851.

Rose Haven in the Snow

A freak snow storm hit Temecula morning on December 31 leaving 2-3" of snow in Rose Haven. This may be the first snow storm in Temecula's recorded history as a city.

Entrance arch

The Pond

The gazebo

Snow blooms

Rose Haven Update

Hello and Happy New Year. January starts with an explosion of work in the garden. The roses are waiting for their winter pruning and our volunteers sure could use your help. The pruning, raking, and general clean-up starts now for a spectacular payoff of blooms in April. Wednesday and Saturday mornings are the regular work days, starting at 9:00. Frank will conduct a pruning demonstration January 24th at 9:00 which is always well received as he shares his vast knowledge.

Even though winter is upon us, there is still some lively color in the garden. The Toyon trees with bright red berries in the dry stream area are quite a knockout. Come out and see for yourself. Take a walk up to the gazebo—the view is still amazing.

The garden committee meeting will be Wednesday, January 21st at 9:30. We will be discussing our projects/improvements, and reviewing the new budget. All interested are invited to attend.

Toyon tree

Winter view

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 Script Card will let you spend $100 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. Contact Ann Coakes to order Script Cards. Tel 951 693-5635.

Member Meeting Program

"Espalier is the horticultural and ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit, by pruning and tying branches to a frame, frequently in formal patterns, flat against a structure such as a wall, fence, or trellis, and also plants which have been shaped in this way."

"Espaliers, trained into flat two-dimensional forms, are ideal not only for decorative purposes, but also for gardens in which space is limited. A restricted form of training consists of a central stem and a number of paired horizontal branches all trained in the same plane. The most important advantage is that of being able to increase the growth of a branch by training it vertically. Later, one can decrease growth while increasing fruit production by training it horizontally."

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

January Birthdays & New Members

Families in the Garden

Our Families in the Garden November program featured planting tulip bulbs in the quilt garden, learning to use the shovel and examining the inside of bulbs. We had a great turnout. Please go to our Face book site: Gardening for Kids in Temecula to see all the beautiful photos.

The "Families in the Garden" committee met in December for a bountiful pot luck and to plan for the coming season: planting vegetables in Jan., bird feeders for Feb., bugs and insects in March, Earth Day activities in April, and bouquets in May.

Our next planning meeting will be Jan. 7 at 10:00 A.M. at JoAnn's house. The next program will be Jan. 17th starting at 9 AM in the Tree of Life Garden. For more information call JoAnn at 951-699-6855 or e-mail at jcsummers60@yahoo.com. See our Facebook page Gardening For Kids In Temecula. Happy New Year to all.

Planting flowers

Bug inspector at rest

Planting flowers

Spade work

Families in the Garden

Our busy committee closed out the year with a productive planning meeting and a wonderful pot luck meal. Our plans for the coming season include: planting seedlings (Jan.), making bird feeders (Feb.), bugs and insects (March), Earth Day activities (April), and bouquets (May).

We will meet January 7th at 10:00 AM to finalize plans for our Families in the Garden activity on January 17th in the Tree of Life Garden. The planning meeting will be at JoAnn Summers' house.

For more information please contact JoAnn at 951-699-6855 or by e-mail at jcsummers60@yahoo.com. You can also check out our Face book page Gardening For Kids In Temecula.

Member Profile: Karen Lilley-Halapoff

Karen is one of our newer members. She has been volunteering with the Youth Gardening committee and we are all agreed we want to know her better. She is so fun to work with.

Karen was born in Yorkshire, England. Her family immigrated to Manhattan Beach when she was four. From the land of 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' to Manhattan Beach was quite a shock. Like so many of us, she still finds herself halfway between her extended family and homeland and a new life in an incredible happening place like Southern California. Her family told stories about their English home. The letters and telegrams kept them all vibrant to each other, they returned to visit when they could. When she met her cousins it is like they had always been together from all the stories told.

Karen had a love for travel, and when she was grown she backpacked around Europe with a Rail Pass and had a brief stint with the airlines as a flight attendant. She found a calling in Glasgow, Scotland, learning the Salon and Spa business, which she transformed into a mobile care business for people who needed or preferred their massages, hair, nails and skin care at home. She did this successfully for many years, but it was physically taxing and as her parents aged and needed more help she reined back.

Karen and her then husband first came to this area on a time share at Sundance Meadows. Her husband was a Longshoreman and loved to fish there. Her son has been raised in the South Bay area and was a top student in High School, he finished his senior year in Hemet and is now studying at MSJC.

Karen has a home on 1/4 of an acre, with 11 roses, in Hemet. She had experienced her father turning their back yard into a paradise, so she looked for help when she got her home. She says she felt she had found her people when she walked in the door at one of our meetings. A lot of us felt the same way when meeting her.

Rose Care FUNdamentals

This just shows how quickly weather can change. It's fortunate that we got seven weeks beyond our average first frost date, although last night's temperature (at or below 28 degrees) have dealt a harsh blow to some of my favorite non-rose plants. We are also fortunate that mature roses can take much more brutal weather than the Temecula Valley can dish out! I'm confident that you did not do your annual spring pruning in December-it's called SPRING pruning for a reason! Even January can be too early to prevent frost damage to tender new growth, so I also recommend being patient and waiting until early- to mid-February. That strikes a balance between potential frost damage and having enough time to get two or three good bloom cycles in before the brutality of summer. (It seems so far off as I write this in the waning light of a cold, cold New Year's Day!)

So, for now, spend some time thinking about the new rose or two that you can add to your garden in spring. First let me counsel you to purchase roses of the highest quality. You will pay more than you would at a big box store, but the cost of the rose is a very small fraction of what you will eventually invest in that plant over the years in water, fertilizer, and effort: Why not start with a higher quality plant? The best places to get such plants are from online retailers who specialize in roses and from nurseries with years of experience carrying them. Our local nurseries will be receiving new stock soon and will have the best selection for early shoppers. If you procrastinate you will likely still find a smaller selection of good quality plants available into February. Roses ordered online are often very fresh because they come directly from the source.

January and February are excellent months for planting roses in the Temecula Valley. (Let's be optimistic that the next few weeks will be drier and warmer, making planting easier when the time comes.) One can even wait until March and still have plenty of time for the root system to establish and form relationships with your soil's beneficial soil fungi and become show stoppers as early as May.

Roses offered for sale are rated by quality. You want only #1 roses-they are the surest guarantee of success, with all horticultural methods employed to provide satisfaction-don't waste your time and money on anything lower.

Roses may come to you as "bare root," potted, or packaged. Bare root plants are just that, usually packed in wood chips to keep the roots damp and viable. They are the slowest to thrive and it is best to get them early and planted immediately so they have the maximum amount of time to become established. Potted roses make the quickest and most successful transition to the garden, but they also tend to be more expensive and not as plentiful in selection, but as I said, the initial cost will pale against what you put into the plant in the years to come.

Lastly, let's talk about those roses you find in small tubular plastic packages at the big box stores. To be blunt, I would caution against purchasing them. They are invariably of low quality. Their roots have been trimmed to fit them into the package, and you have no idea how long the poor plant has been sitting around strangled in plastic, nor what conditions it has endured to reach you as it has been treated like any inventory item rather than like a living creature!

If you have a rose that hasn't performed for you, now is the time to replace it. If it is still viable, you might consider giving it away. I suggest a friend or the Temecula Valley Rose Society. Do your best to include the name. My experience has taught me that some plants that performed poorly for me did much better in someone else's garden. That doesn't mean that you're a failure; it's just that another garden may have just the right combination of environmental variables that the particular rose variety needs for success.

Removing the rose will leave a vacant spot in your garden where you can plant a new rose. However, because the previous rose did poorly, it's a good idea to assess the spot. Does it have good drainage? Many gardens in our area have a very dense layer of clay beneath the topsoil that can prevent drainage. Roses do not like roots standing in water. If you discover this condition you can try digging deeper to see if you can break through that layer and improve percolation. You can also apply a "soil buster" product available at local stores that specialize in soil conditioners. Gypsum powder applied at the bottom of the hole may help loosen the clay. (In any case, it can't hurt!)

One last caution: Do not jump the gun by doing your spring pruning in January! Wait until February at least. I'll provide more guidance on that all-important annual pruning in the February column. Also, on Saturday January 24 on Saturday February 7, at 9 a.m., I will give a pruning class at TVRS' Rose Haven Heritage Garden at 30592 Jedediah Smith Rd., Temecula.

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. Spread the joy of roses!