On our recent trip to Costa Rica, we noticed that in spite of the great biodiversity of plants and animals (In a country the size of West Virginia, there are over fifty species of hummingbirds alone!), and the many gorgeous tropical flowers, people were growing roses. We saw roses in gardens and on road cuts, both modern and “old fashioned.” The photos below were taken at about 8,000 feet in elevation. Also, Costa Rica is an important exporter of cut flowers. It seems that people all over the world love roses.
Rose pruning workshop Feb. 9, 2 p.m.
Shirley Mullins has graciously invited us the Mullins garden for our GRS pruning workshop. The address is 8011 SW 36th Ave., Gainesville. 36th Ave. is off Tower Rd. Dr. Tom Mullins was an avid rose gardener and this is a chance to see an interesting private garden which features a large variety of roses.
Consulting Rosarian Dan Mills and Master Rosarian Ralph Stream will give us tips on rose pruning and then we can try out what we have learned under their expert guidance. And it is time to prune our own roses. We used to say the time was around Valentine’s Day, but as warm as it has been, roses are leafing out, and early February pruning is good for most roses.
For a deeper view of rose pruning check out: https://deepsouthdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Pruning-ROses-Safely.pdf for an article on “Pruning Roses Safely” by Dr. Satish Prabhu which emphasizes avoiding thorn injuries and resultant serious infections.
Yours in Roses,
Jean Giesel, President
