Co-President's Message

I regret that I was down with bronchitis this past month, so I'm not very current on the latest opportunities for volunteering and service; in fact, I feel a lot of opportunities have slipped past me! But I know from experience that any garden–and this includes Rose Haven–always needs care. Our faithful cadre of volunteers have been out there each Wednesday and Saturday morning tending to Rose Haven's needs but as with any garden there is always more tending needed than there are tenders!

The garden is such a lovely, peaceful place in the morning and in the late afternoon! Make a promise to yourself and to Rose Haven that you'll visit her for an hour a week to take care of some of her needs. I think that you'll find it very restorative. You'll also feel proud when you see visitors appreciating the beauty you've created. (Rose Haven really is gaining notoriety in the valley as a great accomplishment by our rose society! Take ownership by helping to maintain her!)

So put on your gardening hat and gloves, bring some water and a snack, and come on down. There is mulch to be spread, weeds to eradicate, pathways to clear and level, and dead heading to do. You can join a work party on Wednesday or Saturday mornings or, if prefer, you can work alone on any other morning. Enjoy your snack in the gazebo atop the hill; lean back and appreciate the view.

Of course, you don't have to lift a shovel or a hoe to help the Rose Society. We have many projects which would benefit from a donation of time or dollars. For example, you can join a committee to research funding sources, help write grant requests, or develop other opportunities. In fact, you can help with something as simple as bringing friends out to Rose Haven, showing them the lovely roses, and encouraging them to become Society members. If you have other ideas of ways people can help build the society, please let me or another board member know. We're always interested in new ideas.

Co-President's Message

There is just no way to express how grateful we are to all of you who help the club in so many ways; those who work on the Rose Show, in the Garden, on the Board, opening your homes and gardens, and providing refreshments month after month. Let us thank all of you in a special way. We will have the lunch brought in this time; pasta and chicken and salad. Please let me know if you are coming, or want to bring a guest, so we have enough food. And if you think we need dessert too, let me know when you call 951-693-2814. Maybe cupcakes?

Rose Haven Update

It's June already. The roses have bloomed their heads off so now comes the task of deadheading to keep the profusion of blooms going. The "First Bloom" event Saturday was quite a success with many visitors, and if you missed the member garden tour please come by the garden anytime and see the blooms and new benches donated by a local Eagle Scout. Unfortunately, there were still loads of weeds in May, but we are working diligently to remove them.

Wednesday and Saturday mornings are the member volunteer days, and if you need a refresher on deadheading we will be glad to assist you. We are currently working on cleaning up the picnic area – weeding, deadheading, and spreading mulch. The time we're there during summer is generally from 8 to 10 a.m. The address is 30592 Jedediah Smith Road, Temecula. See you there.

Planning for the Future

As a Society, do we know where we want to go and how we want to get there during the next five years? Do we know what we want to be when we grow up? To be or not to be, is that the question?

Some members of our group were able to attend a Riverside County Arts Council strategic planning training session, where we learned how and why we need to hold a Society strategic planning meeting.

The importance of such an event becomes clear when a successful group like ours finds a way to play on its strengths, identify its weaknesses and find help from the community both within and outside the organization to accomplish its goals.

We have been holding our Grant Writing workshop at our August meeting for many years. This year we will add to that a Strategic Planning Workshop, using that time to plan for our continued success.

It is important for us as a Society to include all members, not just our Board of Directors in this planning. We need to find out what you, our members, like most about the Society, where we can improve, and how to handle the wonderful but sometimes daunting work at Rose Haven.

We invite everyone to participate in this meeting, and we hope that we can make all welcome and part of the decision making process. This August meeting can be an exciting and lively discussion. We are going to count on you for success.

September: Wasco Rose Festival

Remember all of those beautiful rose pictures Tom Carruth of Weeks Roses showed us last fall? Remember his talking about the annual Wasco Rose Festival? The event would begin for us on Friday, September 5 with the 12th Annual 'Evening of Wine and Roses' – music, hors d'oeuvres and wine tasting.

Saturday is packed with a pancake breakfast, a Rose Festival Parade, a pit barbecue luncheon, art show & fair, a rose show, trips to the rose fields and a museum to boot! We would each be responsible for our own transportation (a bus tour would make it cost prohibitive). Phyllis Bettelheim, who has attended the Festival twice over the last ten years, says the Bakersfield Doubletree Inn is within easy distance of Wasco.

Those attending previously went up on Friday, attending the evening event. Saturday is a full day in Wasco. Phyllis says there is a great Basque Restaurant near the hotel in Bakersfield for a Saturday night repast. Sunday we would head home.

Why go? Well, Wasco's Rose Festival website tells us "55% of all roses grown in the United States are grown in and around Wasco. Over 50 million plants are grown in the area by more than 9 major rose companies. The Wasco Festival of Roses is held every year on the first Saturday after Labor Day Weekend in September."

Let's make this a year when we venture beyond our comfort zone to Wasco for a world of roses, a 'Carousel of Colors'!

Member Meeting Program

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

New Members

Community Outreach

Little Rose Show Competition

At the monthly meetings from April through November 2008 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. And at the Holiday Meeting, a grand prize will be awarded to the exhibitor who accumulated the highest number of points during all the preceding Little Rose Shows.

Rose shows are organized into "classes." We will be using these six classes:

Class 1: One hybrid tea or grandiflora shown without side buds.
Class 2: One floribunda without side buds.
Class 3: One miniature without side buds.
Class 4: One floribunda spray.
Class 5: One miniature spray.
Class 6: One stem of any other type or unknown.

• First Place: 5 points.
• Second Place: 3 points.
• Third Place: 1 point.

The first place winners in each section will be judged against each other to determine the Rose of the Day. That entry will be awarded an additional 3 points and displayed separately.

Here are the rules that we will follow:

• All roses must be properly named and entered in the appropriate section. (Don't worry, Rebecca and Frank will do their best to help you identify your nameless varieties!)
• Exhibitors must supply their own containers. (You already have these. 12 oz beverage bottles are ideal for large roses; 4-6oz beverage containers work well for miniature roses.)
• Each exhibitor is limited to six entries per show. You may concentrate your entries in one section or distribute them over all the sections.
• The club will supply entry tags; only the top section needs to be filled out. (We'll show you how.)
• Your specimens will be judged based on the ARS guidelines. (This is a great opportunity to learn by doing!)
• Exhibitors are asked to remove all specimens at the end of the meeting.

May Garden Tour

The variation in climate from garden to garden in our area makes it tough to provide one set of suggestions for everyone this month. Some gardens are approaching or are in a bloom cycle, while others are at the end or are finishing a cycle. If your rose garden is at the end of a bloom cycle, it's time to "dead head." Don't be alarmed by the term! It's just a minor mid-season pruning to remove spent blooms and encourage a new bloom cycle.

First, assess the cane below each withered blossom: Does it have a lot of small canes coming off of it? If so, look for the first outward-facing leaflet below that cluster of canes and prune just above the bud. (If the cane doesn't have a cluster of small canes, find the first outward facing leaflet on an area of the stem that's about as thick as a wooden pencil.) Cutting as directed will ensure a strong new cane because it's on a cane that is nice and thick.

When you make the cut, angle your pruners so the cut is a little higher on the leaflet side than on the backside. The cut on the backside should be above the leaflet. How far above? About the thickness of the cane. The slight angle of the cut will help keep moisture from accumulating on the bud where it could cause problems.

As the weather heats up and the sun gets stronger, your roses are going to become ferocious eaters. Feed regularly – twice a month if you can manage it. First, give them a good watering. Water transports the soil nutrients to the root zone and to all the critters in the soil that assist in making those nutrients available. Besides, roses have a drinking problem: They like a big long gulp, not little sips. In fact, it is better to water generously a couple times per week than to water a little everyday. If you water as recommended here it encourages roots to grow deeper and that helps make your plants more drought tolerant.

When you apply fertilizer I hope you will use organics and avoid any product with the word "systemic" on its label. These contain pesticides or fungicides that can wipe out your soil critters, creating a wasteland all around the roots – and that actually makes your plants more susceptible to pests and diseases in the long run, so you use the product at a higher rate as time passes. Organic fertilizers have the opposite effect: They keep improving the soil structure and the diversity of fungi, bacteria, worms, etc. so the soil can provide a more constant supply of mineral nutrients. Eventually you use less product.

If you haven't ever applied a dressing of mulch, please do it as soon as you can before the weather turns hot and dry. I highly recommend composted mulch applied to a depth of 3" to 4" inches. Be careful to keep the mulch a couple of inches away from each plant's base and wherever canes emerge from the ground. If you've applied composted mulch in the past, an application of one to two inches annually is recommended. The mulch will even out the moisture and temperature of the soil, cushioning your plants from shocks, reduce evaporation, and conserve water. It will provide a bit of nutrients as it breaks down. (Non-composted mulches, such as bark or wood chips, actually steal nitrogen from the soil as they break down.)

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