Temecula Valley Rose Society

Co-Presidents' Message

by Linda Freeman

Dear Rose Society Members and Friends: Many thanks for all the great pictures you have been sending in! Mulching is happening at Rose Haven, and we want to thank Carol and Kathy for coordinating delivery, and we especially want to thank Agriscape (3776 Borel Road, Murrieta) for their kind donation of part of the mulch cost! Please support them!

Kathy and Nancy have been doing a lot of weeding, and getting the mulch settled will help keep those weeds down. Carol and Peter have been coordinating the 'Hall of Fame' and 'Old Roses' garden mulch. Have you mulched your garden yet?!

For those of you interested in floral arrangements the San Diego Museum's "Virtual Art Alive 2020" welcomed the creative "floral" designs from their official designers, using flowers and items from homes with a "Bloom Bash," an online exhibition of works from the museum collection, and then interpreted by designers using items from their homes and exhibited side by side. You can see them here. Another floral interpretation is viewable here.

The Orange County Rose Society has been busy at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, at the Pat Nixon Rose Garden, and you can see the gardens on their Facebook page. A a short narrated tour of the garden is here.

The Chelsea Flower Show has ended, but they still have lots of videos saved on their site, and this short video on flower pressing will take you there: Chelsea Flower Show video.

"I must have flowers, always, and always." – Claude Monet

by Brenda Bjahanbani

It was 5 years ago this month, in June 2015, that Ben and I joined the Temecula Valley Rose Society. In 2015 we were in the fourth year of a record breaking drought. A state of emergency had been declared and we were looking for ways to conserve water at Rose Haven.

Now, five years later, we have new challenges. Regardless of the challenges we are facing, one thing remains the same, and that is the commitment of our members to maintaining our beautiful garden at Rose Haven. Our volunteer members put so much thought, work and care into the garden so that it will be a special place for our community to enjoy.

Before joining the Rose Society, Ben and I thought we knew all we needed to know about roses. After our first meeting we realized there was so much more to learn. We appreciate the opportunity to learn from, and connect with, other members. We have truly enjoyed being part of this community.

Celebrating 30 Years of Joy in the Rose Haven Heritage Garden

by Kathy Trudeau

We officially celebrated the 30th founding anniversary on May 13, 2020. Our Society Members planted nearly 800 roses during the spring of 1991. The Garden, known as 'Temecula's Treasure', now features more than 1,500 roses, trees and succulents spread over 3.4 acres.

The Garden has grown and evolved, just as our city has over the last thirty years. In 2011 we became a member of the American Public Gardens Association and were recog­nized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. The 'Tree of Life' garden was created in 2015 for planting fruits and vegetables, as well as a venue for demon­strations and educa­tional programs, especially for 'Families in the Garden'.

"Help Us Grow Our Garden" – Our Garden's three-year renovation and fund­raising campaign kicks off in 2020. As we restore and renovate the Garden, look for ways to be involved, physically and/or finan­cially. A sneak peak of our projects includes a complete overhaul of the reflec­tion / lily pond, a labyrinth path with engraved donor bricks in the Boos Garden, mainte­nance of all the twenty-four unique garden areas, repairing and improving the irriga­tion system, new signage, and a new hilltop gazebo.

We'll celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Rose Haven Heritage Garden through the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. We are fortunate the founders had a vision they brought to life, and volun­teers who have worked collabor­atively over many years to maintain Rose Haven. Stay tuned and engaged as we continue to provide educa­tion and events promoting healthy living, quiet enjoyment and active learning.

Families in the Garden

by Alicia Cline

Hello, Families in the Garden Families. Lots of weeding, clearing, and clean up is being done in the 'Tree of Life' area. It is looking amazing. The turn around there is amazing.

A big thank you, Kathy and Byron, for all your hard work. It is immensely appreciated! It means so much to me. Not being able to do like I'm used to is hard for me. You both are awesome. Oh, I can not thank you enough. Thank you to Victoria and Cameron, also. They've been putting in some time, too.

I can't wait until September, when we can hopefully resume our monthly programs. :)

Monthly Program

Date: Thursday, June 18 -  meeting postponed - the Library is "closed until further notice" .

Until then let's all see what you have blooming in your gardens and at Rose Haven, and share tips by emailing to Linda Freeman at lee.linda@verizon.net so we can share and have a virtual garden tour this spring. Also, visit us on Facebook for roses from around the world as well as local rose information.

Many thanks for all the Rosey Sharing input. Everyone's roses look great, as does Rose Haven, which has been busy with 'Tree of Life', 'Hall Of Fame', irrigation and planning projects, and now mulching. Has everyone finished their mulching yet? We are not able to have a meeting again this month as the Ronald H. Roberts Temecula library will be opening around June 19. Our usual event calendar is dark in July so we hope to meet in August. Rosey Sharings will stay in touch as members share their gardens and Rose Haven projects through the summer.

Birthdays and New Members

Rose Haven Flora

by Bonnie Bell

Our rose of the month at the garden is Livin' Easy, the gorgeous deep, peach floribunda that grows along the driveway under the Xylosma trees.

Livin' Easy has a medium rounded growth habit with long stems good for cutting. The foliage is bright glossy green and is very disease resistant with excellent flowers with a wonderful light fragrance. It is an All-American Rose Selection winner, has an ARS rating of 8.2 and grows quite well in the Temecula Valley area.

We hope you can come by the garden this month to view Livin' Easy and all the plants in glorious bloom.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

by Rebecca Weersing

Our garden is in spectacular bloom! Now is the time to get out of the house and take a little tour of Rose Haven while staying safe, maintaining your space and covering your face. Not only will you see roses busy at being beautiful, you will most likely see a wonderful group of volunteers busy helping the garden to be beautiful.

Irrigation, of course, is critical to keeping the garden alive. Over the years (30 next year!) our irrigation system has been on a "fix it when it is broken". With an aging irrigation system, broken can occur at the most inconvenient time. Worse than breaking at an inconvenient time, the system can break and not be noticed until someone says "Why are those roses dead?".

As I have shared on numerous occasions, we have a very active Rose Haven Committee looking into every aspect of growing a beautiful garden. Diane Gonzalez, Roger Fitness, Byron Webb with assistance from Bonnie Bell, Nardo Felipe, Ray Jacques, Ben Jahanbani, Rebecca Michalkiewicz and her husband are in the process of replacing all of the valves and adding pressure regulators.

After this portion of the project is complete, the next phase will be inspecting/ repairing/ replacing the dripline. We all know without water we have no garden! A big thank you to these fantastic volunteers plus the in‑kind purchases of parts by some of the team members, as well as a very generous donation made by Virginia and Roy Boos.

Diane has been awesome with documenting what she has learned about the system and taking photos as work is done. At the end of this project, we will plan a workshop concerning our updated irrigation system for our Rose Haven Committee and all Society members interested in learning about the essential element in our garden: proper irrigation.

"I did not know about this garden!"

by Rebecca Weersing

How many times have we heard this lament about Rose Haven Heritage Garden being an undiscovered treasure in Temecula? If you would like to help change this please contact Rebecca W via this form.

We are establishing a new Communications Committee that will coordinate all of the various ways we can broadcast our message about Rose Haven.

If you have talents in the area of publicity, marketing, public relations, social media we need your assistance. Not only do we want the community visiting our garden, we are also developing outreach materials for our fundraising drive so that we can continue to maintain and improve our garden.

Rose Care FUNda­men­tals

by Frank Brines, Master Consulting Rosarian

The past few years of drought experience has made gardeners aware that we must be watchful and learn how to efficiently manage the amount of water we apply in our gardens. The strategies I will discuss here are:
• Delivering water efficiently,
• Keeping water in the soil using mulch,
• Allowing your roses a summer dormancy period.

Delivering Water Efficiently: Gardeners must learn to use water efficiently. Installing the most efficient delivery system is one method to save (i.e. conserve) water. Learning your garden's soil type will help you make a decision on which systems work best and how much water to deliver at any one time. (Growing in pots is another story!)

Typical mature, full‑size hybrid teas in Southern California require about 6-9 gallons of water a week in moderate temperatures (e.g. 70s). As temperatures rise into the 80s, they require about 9 gallons per week. In the 90s, about 12+ gallons. A rose can stay alive on considerably less, but it may come through the experience debilitated.

Drip systems are the most efficient way to deliver water because they don't produce a spray that can be carried away by the slightest breeze, and deliver water slowly so it soaks deep rather than running off. If you have a drip system, be sure it's in good shape before you go on to the next step and cover it with mulch! Open each irrigation valve, one at a time, and repair leaks. I like Netafim products for their integrated pressure-regulating emitters. Find the information at netafimusa.com.

Lastly, estimate how long to run each system: Multiply the number of emitters by their delivery rate (e.g., 1 gallon/hour), then divide by the number of roses. For example: if you have 40 emitters, each delivering 1 gal/hr, you deliver 40 gallons per hour. If you have 10 roses, that's 4 gallons per rose. To deliver 12 gallons per week, run for one hour three times a week.

This should work well in a typical loam soil. You want the water to soak down at least 12" for optimal rose health. A loam soil doesn't allow water to just run through it, so irrigating for an hour at a time can be fairly efficient. On the other hand, if your soil is particularly sandy (water permeates more quickly) an hour may waste water, so run the system twice as often for half as long.

Mulch: If you have read my past columns, you know that I advocate a 4" layer of mulch. Mulch moderates the soil temperatures, retains moisture and allows it to spread throughout the root zone, discourages weeds, and enriches with nutrients and bio mass. There are many materials you can use, but I recommend composted mulch.

You might experiment with a variety of material, but you'll probably get the best results if you don't mix them in any one garden bed. For example, some gardeners have access to pine needles. They provide a cool airy barrier and break down very slowly to impart a more acidic soil environment which makes mineral nutrients more available to plants.

Another material is any size of wood chip specifically intended as mulch; I recommend the finer cut forms. Possible drawbacks: If not specifically manufactured for garden use, there is the potential for matting due to fungal growth, which can make the mulch impermeable to water—and the need to apply added nitrogen to break down the wood fibers. I'm not an advocate for the dyed wood products.

Whatever material you choose, be careful to NOT apply it up to or over the bud union. Leave an area around the base of the plant of about 12" diameter. (If you can maintain that distance, then as your composted mulch disintegrates it will not raise the soil level around the bud unions.) Also, keep foliage pruned to at least 8" above the mulch layer to reduce infestations from pests like spider mites.

Summer Dor­mancy: Allowing your roses to go dormant during the hot summer months will reduce the stress on your plants. You won't be missing out much because when you allow roses to power through the summer, most blooms are poor quality with burned petals and leaves. To encourage this dormancy, stop feeding established roses near the end of June and be sure to water them deeply.

As blossoms fade, remove only the petals—do not deadhead them—that is, allow hips to form. This discourages new growth and flower formation, thus reducing demand for water. Remove fallen leaves and discard them along with the petals into your green yard waste bin—do not compost them! (It is always a good practice to keep the garden clean in order to reduce fungal diseases and insect pests, particularly in hot dry weather.)

Do not remove sunburned leaves because they provide shade for the cane which can be damaged or killed by sunburn! (See the images of a sun- and heat-damaged leaves and bloom.)

In summary, until at least September:
• Do not feed,
• Make sure your water delivery system is operating efficiently,
• Apply 4" of mulch over the entire bed,
• Remove petals as flowers mature,
• Do not prune or cut back: Allow hips to form,
• Leave burned leaves on the plant.

Potted plants will require more diligent watching, resources and attention to what they are experiencing during this period. Learn to listen to your plants and observe their reaction to the elements.