Hello Fellow GRS Members and Friends,
Now that cooler weather is finally here, we should be feeling invigorated. With this new found energy it is a great time to be thinking of all the garden duties needing attention. Cleaning up all the old fallen leaves will go a long way in sanitizing the ground for springs new crop of blooms. Cleaning up now after being shut down from this past summer’s horrendous heat is one of my cooler weather chores on my plate to get done soon.
Disposing of all old roses and their replacements are on my list to take care of this coming spring. The upcoming Mid-Winter Meeting being held in Gainesville January 20-22, 2023 will have two vendors selling roses for all to take home. The Rose Petals Nursery and K & M Nursery will have roses at the meeting, pre-orders are suggested so you can have them brought to you with no delivery or tax charges, plus you have them reserved just for you. Other vendors will also be at this meeting with other garden and rose care products.
This cooler time of year is a good time to go through you water system to make sure it is up and running as expected. Mulching, weeding, and winter feeding is also done in Dec., Jan., and February while it is still cool outside. For winter feedings ask one of GRS- CR’s regarding what this entails.
I want to point out a few things I came to realize regarding this year’s November Rose Show. For starters we need to be starting our show planning much earlier before the November show, perhaps at the June Ice cream social. We just did not allow enough time for everyone to feel comfortable with their duties; we need to work on this if we intend to keep with the fall shows.
Even though we did get started late, the show turned out very nice. The arrangements and photos sections really made it quite a pretty. I am coming to respect these two aspects for the show’s success; we need to get more folks interested in the Hort. classes, and invite the out of towners to come. Our judges made comments to me about how attractive the layout was, and how everything fell into place with zero confusion on their assignments and how to accomplish them successfully. So, a big thanks you from Jean and me for our committees that pulled this first ever GRS fall show together, it should be far easier next time.
One last thing for this President’s message. Make sure to mark your calendar for the 2023 GRS meetings, we have great program lineups, programs you don’t want to miss. Let’s try to increase our membership this coming year.
Our Christmas party will be a nice way to finish out the 2022 calendar year. Bring a friend or guest, there will be plenty to eat for all, plus the Chinese gift exchange is great fun for all. Just bring a wrapped gift of no more than $15 value to participate in this customary holiday game.
Hope to see you all at the holiday party.
Ralph Stream, President
