Temecula Valley Rose Society

President's Message

March proved to be a very successful month for the TVRS. First of all, Phyllis and Bonnie have done a super job in getting Rose Haven dressed up and ready for the first bloom. The first phase of the mulch spreading process is complete, thanks to the efforts of Emmett Jones and his Chaparral High School boys. Kathy Katz successfully managed the installation of the Iris Garden, with 50 prize-winning irises donated by Leon and Norma Vogel, and labor by the Temecula Valley Garden Club.

We had a larger than expected turnout for the general member program meeting when Katherine Botts, Master Gardener, provided her presentation on a 'Colorful and Water Wise Rose Garden.' We completed the first phase of the winery survey for the Last Rose of Summer event. Finally, we had a great first-ever New Member Orientation session for new members. Nearly all the new member were present and said their 'customer satisfaction' was greatly enhanced due to the material provided to help them understand the operation of the Society.

Several of the committee chairpersons attended and provided reasons why the new members should join their committees. Many of the participants immediately joined those committees. Also, they were all happy with the receipt of their free roses bushes.

Spring is here and the month of April will be a busy time for the Rose Society. Preparation for the Rose Show will need the support of many member volunteers to help for the opening on the first weekend of May.

Two special excursions are planned for the month; one outing is at Quail Gardens in Encinitas, and the other at the Santa Rosa Plateau Reserve. See the membership article for details.

Rose Haven will be in full bloom this month and then we need to start the dead heading process. There is always more work to be done at Rose Haven.

Look forward to seeing you at one or more of these events.

Trip to the Santa Rosa Plateau
Thursday April 23, 2009

This will be quite an informative and fun trip to the Plateau. Rob Hicks will be our ranger for this two hour private tour. You may remember him for his outstanding Santa Rosa presentation at our February member meeting.

The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve is located at 39400 Clinton Keith Rd. at the southern end of the Santa Ana Mountains in southwest Riverside County.

The Reserve consists of 8,300 acres and protects unique ecosystems like Engelmann oak woodlands, riparian wetlands, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, bunchgrass prairie and vernal pools.

Rob Hicks has reserved two hours for our group so it is important that we all show up by 12:45 PM so he can begin the tour promptly at 1:00 PM. Please remember to wear comfortable walking shoes.

He will need a head count for our tour before April 23. A number of members placed their names on our sign-up sheet during our March meeting. The sheet will be available for more signatures during our April 16, meeting.

If you can't make the April members meeting but want to go send me an e-mail and I'll put your name on the list.

Looking forward to a great tour and hoping that you are, too.

Rose Haven Update

Spring is here and rose buds will soon be bursting. Then the spectacular "first bloom" in mid-April. We encourage you to plan a visit to the garden and enjoy this stunning sight.

There was so much activity at Rose Haven in March – one hardly knows where to begin. A portion of the mulch Frank ordered was delivered by CR&R and we had volunteers hauling, spreading, and raking for three Saturday's in a row. "Thank you" to the Chaparral High students and new Society members Lyse McGonigle, Barb Purdy, and Valorie Nelson for participating in such a "dirty" job. Our friendly neighbor (with the alpacas) used his bobcat to move a huge pile of mulch for easier spreading. Another new member, Jim Marlow, brought his rolling herbicide sprayer and 'shot' all the new weeds that popped up after the recent light rain. We really appreciate everyone's effort to make our community garden a beautiful place to visit.

A whole group of people from the TV Garden Club planned and developed the Iris area dedicated to Leon and Norma Vogel. What a wonderful tribute to them both, and kudos to Kathy Katz for heading up this project. A wonderful article and photos from the "Californian" newspaper can be found on our website under Rose Haven Garden-Projects List.

At our Committee meeting we discussed both large and small projects that will enhance the garden. The Grant Committee has applied for money for two of the large projects – the 'Entry' and 'Outdoor Education' areas. For smaller projects we rely on donations and fund raising activities. You can view all the projects and Wish List items on our website. Thank you one and all. The next Garden Development meeting is Wednesday, April 22nd at 9 a.m. All members are invited to join the discussion at 30500 Jedediah Smith Road.

In Memoriam – Rita Miller

One of our long time members, Rita Miller, passed away on February 15, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. The memorial service was on March 3rd at the Revival Christian Fellowship in Menifee. Rita's husband, children, family members and several past and present Society members attended.

Rita will be well remembered for many years. She was such a beautiful, giving, and happy lady. Her smile lightened the room every time. She worked diligently on her rose garden and at Rose Haven, which she truly loved. Rita will be missed as we give our farewell to her.

Mulch Movers Needed!

Wanted! Volunteers with strong backs to move mulch and spread it around our Rose Haven rose bushes. No experience necessary! Contact Frank Brines if you can help.

We also need volunteers for our other committees. Look here for a list of committees. If you see something that interests you contact me for the name and phone number of the committee chairperson.

Everything is Coming Up Roses!

Our community will enjoy a 2-in-1 garden extravaganza this year with the combining of the Temecula Valley Garden Club Flower Show and our own Rose and Arts Festival the first weekend in May. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help in so many ways. Many hands make light work and also will make for lots of enjoyment.

We will have entertainment provided by the Musicians Workshop on both Saturday and Sunday. Seminars will be held both days. There will be wonderful horticultural displays and artistic arrangements. The artists from the Temecula Valley Art League and the Gem of the Valley Art League have provided really great original art painted to our theme. Now if Mother Nature will cooperate so that all of the roses bloom the weekend of our show and NOT the week before or after!

The Garden Club invites our members to enter our non-rose blooms and plants in their show and we invite all garden club members to enter their roses in our show. On Tuesday, April 14 Frank Brines will speak at the Garden Club meeting about how to enter roses. On Thursday, April 16 Susan Puma will speak to us about entering in the Flower Show. Frank will also give provide tips for entering our show as well.

There is a volunteer job for everyone. We will have tables delivered and set up on Friday, May 1 at noon. Once the tables are in place we will begin covering the tables with cloths, setting up the awards table, placing chairs on the stage for the entertainment.

On Saturday, we will need people for registration, placement and clerks. Roberta Costa is chairwoman of registration and placement. Carol Hudson is chairwoman of clerks. Sign-up sheets will be available at our meeting on April 16 or give Roberta and Carol a call - they would be glad to know of your interest in helping.

Welcoming the public and sharing our love of roses will be the most fun for all of us! So plan on mingling with the crowds on Saturday or Sunday or both days. Bring a smile and enjoy a wonderful spring weekend among our roses.

Member Meeting Program

Susan Puma has always been interested in growing things. The daughter of an agronomist and graduate of University of California Davis with a BS in Environmental Science, her career centered on building and landscape design. After retiring and moving to the Temecula Valley, Susan's knowledge and experience was really be put to the test on the ten acres of barren airport property she and her husband Sam called home. She quickly joined the Temecula Valley Garden Club (TVGC) and the Temecula Valley Rose Society (TVRS) in order to learn from the experiences of local gardeners.

Now, eight years later she and Sam enjoy a diversified garden that includes over 100 varieties of roses (mostly hybrid teas and Old Garden roses), 200 varieties of iris, a mediterranean garden with many California native plants, a fruit and nut orchard, and an 1,800 sq. ft. vegetable garden where she grows produce for her family and local food pantries.

Susan has served on the boards of both the TVGC and TVRS, and is completing her forth and final year as President of the TVGC. She has been chairman of the TVGC Flower Show for three years. She has actively participated in many community service projects, including landscape design for the Wolf's Monument, Habitat for Humanity Homes, and presently the Musician's Workshop. According to Susan, "I feel like I am accomplishing more now and having much more fun than ever before. Retirement is great!".

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

April Birthdays

New Members

Little Rose Show Competition

At the monthly meetings from April through November 2009 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.

Reminder: Excursion to Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas

The gardens contain one of the most diverse and botanically important plant collections. There are scenic walks and trails along deep canyons and sunny hillsides which allow visitors glimpses of many different horticultural habitats.

This will be a self guided tour, so you can enjoy taking the tour at your own pace. Lunch is not included, but there are a number of restaurants nearby. Please remember to wear comfortable shoes. Carpooling is recommended.

Awards Committee

We were so gratified to finally see the Americn Rose Society Bronze Medals awarded to Phyllis Bettelheim and Bonnie Bell. It took a while to figure out how we could give two yearly awards at the same time, but we could not present one without the other. Their committment to Rose Haven remains inspiring to the rest of us. I offered to learn how to help with a small part of the watering and, really, it is impossible.

Others who were especially busy this month included Betty Dixon, who applies a lot of insight into her work, and Frank Brines with his teaching. Carol Hudson was out there often, along with Jeanine Ali and May Olson, and these dedicated members seemed to attend all the Rose Show meetings, too. Lyse McGonigle is a fresh presence and fun to work with, and President Ron and Sochie Rumbold are, as always, stalwarts, and their leadership is so appreciated.

A special word of thanks to Ann Coakes and Bernice Wendt who have organized the lovely luncheons. We hope to have a new chairperson soon, as Ann is going to have so much work to do for us now that she is retired that she will have no time left to cook.

Last and very appreciatively, Charlie and Jane Brodbeck for the great raffle table. Do we get great stuff, or what?

A Thank You

From the bottom of our hearts we thank our Society for awarding us the American Rose Society Bronze Metal. It was such a delightful surprise and we are truly honored to accept the award. We have received so much enjoyment being part of TVRS and believe all our members deserve to be commended, as it is the group as a whole that makes our Society so special. Thank you again.

Legacy Iris Garden – A Special Tribute

It is with great personal thanks and gratitude to everyone who participated in or gave support to the Iris planting at Rose Haven, either with your hands or your heart. Pulling together a tribute to the Vogel's Iris passion and expertise took a lot of planning and work, rocks and determination.

While the Vogel Iris Bed is a joint venture of the Temecula Valley Garden Club and the Rose Society, the whole project hung on the talents of Norma and Leon Vogel. The moment Norma told me we would try for planting on Saturday, March 14th, I called our publicity chair Kathy Turgeon. It is hard to believe that Kathy had both the Valley News and The Californian, with photographers and reporters on such short notice!

The articles were published, one on the front page of the B section of the Californian the next day with gorgeous photos and wonderful words, and the other the next week on page 12 of the Valley News – again with color pictures. This is the kind of publicity we usually just dream about and certainly the kind of tribute to our Temecula Treasures Norma and Leon Vogel that we hoped for.

It was great fun for me to take Norma to pick out rocks, one by one; for us to buy just the right kind of peat moss and gypsum to create the perfect iris bed; to watch the mulch spread by those wonderful young men from Chaparral High School; to till and water and build rock borders in which to plant those great iris donated from the garden of Norma and Leon.

Our planting day at Rose Haven was a perfect sunshiny day and we are so happy that Leon was able to join us in the garden on Saturday, March 14. His health continued to decline and we were sad to learn that he passed away March 24. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Norma.

We are so thankful to have our Legacy Iris Garden at Rose Haven, planned by Leon and Norma, as a lasting tribute to their love of this wonderful companion plant to roses.

If you have pruned and mulched and watered and fed you should be seeing the promise of future rose blooms by now!

With summer coming up on us fast, I'd like to suggest that you assess the efficiency of your irrigation system. We are in the umpteenth year of drought in Southern California, and our supply of imported water may be cut drastically this year, while many regional water districts are about to implement "tiered pricing" that could take a big bite out of our wallets.

So, it's time for those of us who love roses to assess and adjust our practices so we can continue to enjoy (and afford) the roses we love!

First off, how much water do roses need? According to Robert B. Martin, writing at larosesociety.com, water is the most important of factor (out of 16) when growing roses for exhibition. Mr. Martin goes on to explain that the amount of water a rose needs depends on many factors, including the weather, size of the plant, its variety, cycle of growth, and composition of the soil. He cites studies that show a rose bush will transpire (or give off) from 40 to 100 gallons of water over the course of a summer. Typically in Temecula, 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. (A rose can survive on considerably less, but it will perform very poorly.) As the temperature goes up, the rose's water needs increase.

Next, let's consider your system for delivering water to your roses. Ideally, you are using a drip system. (If not, please start considering installing one!) Go out and inspect your system: Turn it on and look for leaking, clogged, and broken lines and emitters. Fix the problems as soon as possible.

Now, figure out how much water your system delivers per hour. Typically, drip emitters are color-coded and in a rose garden you're likely to have pressure-compensating emitters that deliver a consistent amount-usually 2-, 4-, or 8-liters per hour. (Not comfortable with liters? A liter is about half a gallon—so those emitters deliver 1-, 2-, and 4-gallon per hour.)

1. Go around the garden and tally how many of each capacity emitter you have. Calculate the number of gallons delivered per hour.
2. Check your irrigation controller and find out how many hours you are running it per week.
3. Use both those figures to calculate the number of gallons you are delivering each week.
4. Adjust the length of irrigation to approximate the amounts the experts recommend.

Of course, applying a 2 to 3" layer of organic mulch will help conserve the water you deliver to the roses, even out the moisture distribution in the soil, and keep the root zone cool. All of these effects stimulate the growth of feeder roots and help your plants gather water more efficiently and consistently so they are less likely to "hit the wall" by depleting their water supply. Mulch also encourages the production of earth worms and other soil organisms that help make nutrients available to your plants in easily-absorbed form. Mulch also inhibits the growth of weeds, so your roses don't have to compete for minerals and water.

You might not realize it, but using an organic fertilizer also helps you use water more efficiently. Your program should include two applications each month beginning in March. Alternate between an organic granular product and a water soluble form. I use Dr. Earth applied 1/2- to 3/4-cup per standard rose, and 1/4- to 1/2-cup for miniatures. For my soluble treatment, I use fish emulsion diluted as directed on the container and pour about 2 gallons over each mature standard rose and 1 gallon for minis. For potted plants, dilute to half strength.

Enjoy fruits (blooms) of your labors and I'll see you at the Temecula Valley Rose Show on May 2, at 30875 Rancho Vista Rd., Temecula !