Temecula Valley Rose Society

Co-President's Message

When you are at the garden, standing under the arch that was handcrafted by David Granlund, look straight out to the far side and just to the right. See the yellow river of flowers flowing down from the Upper Garden? Just a few years ago that erosion path was a gaping brown gorge slicing the hillside. Thanks to Kathy Katz and her vision we placed swales across the gorge to slow the rain runoff down that gorge. With the help of high school students over a couple of years Kathy had succulent clippings from the Succulent Garden planted in the area. And now we have a lovely river of plants providing erosion control as well as a lovely sight to enjoy.

Please come out and enjoy the garden! Rose Haven performs for us every day and we should take time to applaud that performance.

Upcoming Event: Propagation Workshop

Saturday March 21 at Rose Haven Heritage Garden, 30500 Jedediah Smith Road, Temecula, CA. A propagation workshop will be held from 11 am to noon. Come learn how to propagate roses! Each registrant will prepare and take away their own rose cutting in a one-gallon pot. All materials will be provided. Class size is limited, first come, first served. Preregistration required. Deadline for registering is March 20th. Materials fee of $5 due at time of registration. To register, contact Frank Brines at Roseguy2000@aol.com.

Propagation class

Frank Brines

Old Garden Roses

The tenth rose for our series on Old Garden Roses features a Hybrid Perpetual, MARCHESSA BOCCELLA, a ruffled pink, very fragrant rose. The blooms grow in clusters of three and will approach 3 inches each on a four foot plant. With this habit she makes an excellent border or hedge rose . She is also very disease resistant but has lots of thorns. Sometimes called "Jacque Cartier", but if grown for exhibition, she should always be referred to as MARCHESSA BOCCELLA. She is yet another OGR bred by the French breeder Desprez but the exact parentage is unknown at this time. She was introduced in 1842 and is rated by AARS at 8.8. In our garden this rose may be found immediately behind the Cramoisi Superieur near the east end of the OGR section.

February Families in the Garden – Birds

Twenty eight children and their parents came to the garden for our February Third Saturday Program about birds. It was a beautiful day in the garden and we had a large group of very enthusiastic children who wanted to learn about and look for birds, and the garden did not disappoint.

The program started with an informative question and answer discussion about birds. The children learned "what makes a bird a bird" before they headed out for their "Stop, Look and Listen" hike. The first stop at the pond made the children aware that even though birds aren't visible we know they frequent this location by the feathers and footprints they leave behind.

Other locations in the garden gave us many opportunities to see and hear birds. The highlight was actually seeing a barn owl in the trees (who resides in our Rose Haven owl box). What a special treat for all of us! As I learned from our TVRS owl presentation, there was also evidence of the owl as children were excited to find pellets below the box.

The program concluded with a choice of making one of three bird feeders. Their small hands actually made some very impressive feeders to take home and attract birds to their own back yards. We hope they use this as a tool to keep them interested in looking for and studying birds. Our Youth Gardening Committee put together a great program that we all should be proud of.

Looking for birds

Making bird feeders

Grocery Cards Benefit TVRS

Dear Members: I trust that you have made a determined effort to use Stater Bros. Scrip/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 Scrip Cards. Tel 951 693-5635.

Member Meeting Program

Cindy Peterson has been volunteering as a UCCE Master Gardener Volunteer since 2005 and has provided over 4,500 hours to a variety of Master Gardener projects and activities in Riverside County. As the current Coordinator for School, Youth and Community Gardens, Cindy provides web-based resource information to those interested in organizing, starting and sustaining youth and community gardens and offers or arranges for additional mentoring and support when possible, upon request. She enjoys helping people learn more about sustainable gardening and how to make their garden related tasks as easy, painless and as safe as possible.

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

March Birthdays & New Members

Photography Class

Our first photography seminar, at the February meeting, was very well attended and enthusiastic. I was so happy to have so many attendees who came full of questions. Our second seminar will follow lunch at the March meeting. We will be discussing how to get perfect focus and composition, as well as equipment choices.

Starting at the March meeting, we will have a photography display of roses and places where roses are grown. Please bring 8x10 photos to display on the board. Please put a tag on the back of all photos with your name and info on the rose shown or location of the garden.

Youth Gardening: Tree of Life in March

The High School students were busy in the month of February so the onion bed was planted by just three of us: Alexis, Asia and I. We planted 4 rows of Texas Super Sweet and 2 rows of Yellow Grannix (about 50 onions). If all goes well we should have a great crop of sweet onions in the spring.

The broccoli and Kale that were planted in January continue to thrive and we harvested a small bunch of kale that was very tasty. Our beets also look very healthy and they should be ready to harvest soon. Tomato seeds have been planted in anticipation of planting them in the garden in a couple of months. Don't forget to start your seeds now if you want an interesting variety for our tomato tasting event in the garden this summer.

March in the garden will consist of keeping the weeds out of the vegetables so they can grow and harvesting them when they are ready. It will also be a month to discuss changes for the Tree of Life Garden. We will be evaluating what is working and what is not and put together a plan to make the garden more efficient. We will keep you updated on our progress.

Planting onions

Broccoli plant

Our barn owl!

Bird feeder craft

Rose Haven Garden

The garden committee wants to thank everyone who participated in the winter rose pruning. Whew! We worked and worked in the wonderful 72 degree temperatures. However, all the roses did not get pruned and guess what—the unpruned ones are blooming just like it's springtime. A photo of "About Face" along the driveway shows off its brilliant apricot color. The other photo is "Gooseberry" with red and green leaves in our Southwest area. There are over 150 varieties and this one is thriving in our garden.

About Face

Gooseberry

Two projects for our garden have begun to accumulate donations from our members. The non-slip walkways and Tree of Life raised beds have received monies that will be held in our savings account until enough is accumulated. We will request bids for each project. If anyone has some expertise or recommendations of contacts, we would welcome your input. Check out our website under Rose Haven Heritage Garden Wish List to view all our projects. Any donations will be greatly appreciated.

The next garden committee meeting will be Wednesday, March 25th at 9:30. We will be discussing our projects/improvements, and maintenance. All interested are invited to attend.

Rose Care FUNdamentals

Depending upon when you pruned your roses (you did prune last month, right?) I noticed that this year the new growth began very early and, if you recently pruned even some of this new growth, was likely left. Unseasonal rains contributed to this early growth. Be sure to remove all old leaves off the bushes and debris from around and underneath, apply lime sulfur dormant spray according to the package direction, and then thoroughly wet all canes and the surrounding soil. For roses that have sprouted, be more careful in your application and be sure to follow the "growing season instructions" on the label.

Given that your roses are about as bare as they're going to be for the rest of the year, take time now to inspect and make any necessary repairs to the irrigation system. Drip systems are the most efficient and they avoid problems of above-ground sprayer and sprinklers which waste water (especially important during our serious drought) and can foster molds (mildews and rust). Make sure your irrigation system is in good working order; for example, make sure all the emitters are delivering the expected amount of water and that there are no leaks.

Seeing tender new red-coppery growth is a pleasing sight for rose aficionados. Now would be the time to sprinkle 1/2 cup to 1 cup of Epson Salts widely around the base of each plant. (Use half as much for minis and mini-floras.) There is some indication that this helps in producing new cane growth known as "basal breaks." If your feeding program is organic you can apply fertilizer immediately after pruning; if you use inorganic fertilizers wait until this new growth is 2-3 inches long. I suggest the initial feeding be higher in nitrogen to encourage new stem and leaf growth. When new growth is 4-6 inches long apply a fertilizer higher in phosphate to give roots a boost at start of season. Another method used by some is to sprinkle superposphate (available at home stores and nurseries) on the soil surface at rate of 1 pound for every 10 square feet. Lightly water it into the soil.

Top your rose bed with a minimum 3" to 4" layer of organic composted mulch. If you've read this column for more than a month or so, you know that I'm a big believer in composted mulch! It's best if it covers the entire rose bed. It will help supply nutrients for beneficial soil organisms that transport these nutrients into the plant root zone. It will also insulate the upper 8" to 12" where most rose roots feed, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Mulch also helps prevent water loss and evens out the soil moisture.

I am often asked how much water a rose needs. This is another of those "It depends." Much depends on a lot of factors: weather, the size of the plant, the composition of the soil, the cycle of growth, the variety of the plant, etc. A typical mature, full-size hybrid tea in Southern California soil requires about 6-9 gallons of water a week when the high temperatures are in the 70s. As temperatures rise into the 80s the rose will require about 9 gallons of water per week. In the 90s, the rose will require about 12 gallons per week and even more. A miniature rose, depending on size, requires about one-third to one-half as much. These figures are rough and based on the amount of water needed to maintain the highest level of show quality; the rose will stay alive on considerably less.

For your regular feeding program, I recommend that you avoid products that describe themselves as "systemic." These contain insecticide and/or fungicide (mold killer) that enter the plant through the leaves and roots, and circulate within it. I avoid such products for two reasons. First, because much of the product ends up washing into the soil, you are laying waste to a wide range of soil organisms, including beneficial ones, thus making your soil less diverse and dynamic—this can only be bad in the long run for your plants. Secondly, because these poisons circulate within the plant, there's a chance that they are implicated in the widespread collapse of honey bee populations. Also, "bad" bugs will feed on the poisons and in turn poison the beneficial insects, birds, the praying mantis, and lady bugs that eat them. Because these predators are further up the food chain, they concentrate the poisons and can be killed by them too. Finally, if you plan to use blossoms or petals for any household purpose (potpourri, recipes), be aware that these poisons are in all plant parts, also in the blooms and thus petals.

Also, I use and emphatically recommend organic types of fertilizer, as vs. inorganic or "chemical" ones, because organics are less concentrated (thus less likely to burn plant tissues) and their nutrients are released more slowly. This fosters better soil development, making for a richer, livelier, and more viable community of soil organisms that is able to break the elements into an easily absorbed form and releases them slowly to the plants. As your soil develops, you'll be able to use less and less product and save money in the process.

Lastly, as I am writing this light rain is predicted and if you were fortunate enough to have fertilized before the rains how lucky you are that this rain will soak it into the root systems sooner.

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!