2020 Lecture Series

Mike & Angelina’s Rose Garden in June

It’s January, the coldest time of the year. The rose gardens are dormant, the landscape is still and winter’s long post-holiday chill is just beginning. While this is the quiet time, Angelina and I are actively making plans for the upcoming year and preparing our 2020 Lecture Series.

Our entertaining PowerPoint lectures, workshops and seminars are designed to educate and make rose gardening appealing to even the most reluctant gardener. We annually review, revise, and refresh our program list as well as add new ones. New this year is “Rose Gardening Simplified” where we explain in simple, easy-to-understand language how to grow attractive, sustainable roses at home. (See the complete list of 2020 programs, dates, and times on the 2020 Lecture Series page.) For a description of our programs, visit our web site’s Program Page at RoseSolutions.

We open the season on Saturday and Sunday, February 22 and 23 at the 2020 Southeastern Connecticut Home & Garden Show at the Earth Tower Expo & Convention Center at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. We will present our popular “Roses for New England” program at 1pm on Saturday and 11am on Sunday. This home and flower show continues to expand its garden-related programming and we are delighted to be involved. We are looking forward to this mid-winter double header at this fabulous casino venue.

 

On Friday, March 13, we return to the Boston Flower & Garden Showat the Seaport World Trade Center and debut our new “Rose Gardening Simplified” program. Gardeners throughout the region flock here every March looking for an early taste of spring. This flower show is very special to us and we always enjoy our annual visit and the large, enthusiastic Beantown audiences.

 

And on Saturday, March 28, we pack-up for an overnighter to Portland, Maine to speak at the Maine Flower Show, our third year at the this show located at Thompson’s Point along the Portland waterfront. This year’s presentation is an updated “Six Simple Steps to Successful Rose Gardening” program with time for plenty of Q and A. The audience here is an eclectic mix from all over northern New England as well as Quebec and the Canadian Maritimes.

Garden at the 2019 Maine Flower Show

(We will have our two books, Roses for New England: A Guide to Sustainable Rose Gardening as well as Rose Gardening Season by Season: A Journal for Passionate Gardeners, available at all our lectures and workshops.)

On Saturday, May 2 at 10 am, we will be at Wildwood Nursery in East Greenwich, RI giving a lecture on basic rose gardening. This is part of the Rhode Island Rose Society’s annual “Rosefest”, a four-hour workshop on rose horticulture for home gardeners. Here’s an opportunity to learn rose care, including the best way to plant and prune roses from local rosarians. This event is free and open to the public.

 

On Saturday, May 9 at 10am, join Angelina and me at Lincoln-Sudbury Adult Education in Sudbury, MA where we will present an expanded two-hour seminar of our “Six Simple Steps to Successful Rose Gardening” program. We cover all the rose gardening basics including the right way to plant and prune roses plus lots of Q and A– everything necessary to grow beautiful roses at home this spring. (Visit their web site: www.lsrhs.net/community/adult_ed or call 978-443-9961, x3326 for more information or to register).

In between all these events, our lecture series includes programs to garden clubs and presentations to various horticultural organizations. All this, plus time out for a trip to Santa Fe and the American Southwest, makes early 2020 another busy season for us.

Mike & Angelina

We  have been on the lecture circuit presenting lectures, conducting seminars and leading workshops for more than two decades and it never gets old. We are always  available to speak at flower shows, symposiums, conventions, and garden club meetings and will travel to just about anywhere. We can customize programs and even produce one-of-a-kind presentations. We continue to add bookings throughout the year so keep checking in. As always, if your organization needs a program at the last minute, contact mike@rosesolutions– maybe we can help.

So, even as the snow flies and the thermometer plummets, there is no one more optimistic than a gardener in January.

Happy New Year.

Mike and Angelina

Transplanting Roses

Lady Elsie May

Fall is the ideal time to transplant, as well as plant, roses in New England. We wait until the garden roses have gone dormant — when growth, both above and below ground is temporarily suspended. In most of New England this occurs between mid-October through mid-March. Once dormant, roses are safe to move.

Lady Elsie May before being transplanted

While it’s possible to transplant rose bushes any time during the dormancy period, we move them from one place to another in our gardens around Thanksgiving when we’re certain that dormancy has been established and the ground is not yet frozen. We plant new roses around this time, too. Planting and transplanting in the fall gives roses four months to settle in, become established and ready to grow along with the rest of the garden in March.

We recently transplanted Lady Elsie May, a rose we could see from the kitchen window. It had grown so tall and wide, we could no longer see the roses behind it, so we decided to relocate it.

Digging New Planting Hole

But before transplanting, there were a few things we had to do. On the day before transplanting, we pruned the rose back by half and watered it well. We also pre-dug and amended the new hole and had a tarp near by.

Root Ball

We dug up the rose by first loosening the soil in a circle at least 12 inches or more from the center of the plant. Once this was done, we inserted the shovel under the root ball and carefully lifted it, keeping as much of the soil around the root ball as possible. We then slid the rose onto the tarp and dragged it to the new hole.

Planting Transplanted Rose

Then we re-planted it.

We watered it well and added winter protection by hilling up the base of the plant 10 inches or so with manure (soil or compost would do just as well).

Transplanted Rose Hilled Up

Done.

The following June Lady Elsie May was in its full, glorious bloom.

Lady Elsie May’s June Bloom

If you need detailed step-by-step instructions on planting and transplanting roses, go to Chapter 9 in our book Roses for New England to read all about planting and transplanting roses. Or visit our website (www.rosesolutions.net) and read Mike’s article “How to Plant Roses.”

Purple Roses

Rhapsody in Blue

We received our first 2020 rose catalogue in the mail and inside was a stunning dark lavender-purple rose. This new introduction, ‘Perfume Factory’, is a hybrid tea and the photo shows it at its most perfect form with petals swirling around a spiral center. What caught my eye was the tantalizing, deep purple color and I knew almost immediately that this new beauty was the creation of Tom Carruth. (To see a photo of ‘Perfume Factory’ go to edmundsroses.com).

 

Blueberry Hill

Carruth, former Director of Research for Week’s Roses, has hybridized a series of mauve roses. Tom’s hybridizing quest for a “true black velvet purple” rose began with his introduction of  ‘Blueberry Hill’ in 1998. We originally bought the rose because its name took us back to the 1950’s and Fats Domino’s rock and roll version of Blueberry Hill as well as to the 1970’s with Richie Cunningham (Happy Days) belting out “I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill.” But the rose ‘Blueberry Hill’ earned its place in our garden with its unique light bluish-lavender ruffled petals that formed large 4” blooms surrounding yellow stamens.

 

Outta the Blue

Next came ‘Outta the Blue’, one of our favorites, when it joined our growing number of Carruth’s mauve roses in 2000. It has the look of an old garden rose with blooms of deep magenta flecked with gold. And the intoxicating clove fragrance of its numerous sprays, together with its disease resistance, makes this a most desirable garden rose. It is also is a good exhibition rose and has won Best Modern Shrub in our rose show.

 

Outta the Blue Spray

In an interview Mike had with Tom Carruth, Tom related that he easily recalls the exact spot on the bench in the research greenhouse where his eye caught sight of the first bloom of what would become ‘Outta the Blue’. He describes the rose as having “a glowing luminescence that no photograph has ever completely captured.”  I agree. I have photographed ‘Outta the Blue’ over and over and while some photos show its luminescence, none show the intensity of its color that can only be caught by the naked eye.

 

Route 66

Mike and I go through different color phases when selecting roses and we became captivated with Carruth’s mauve roses – hence we went through our purple roses period. Carruth introduced numerous mauve roses, including the deep purple ‘Route 66’ (Tom has a knack for naming roses and when we visited New Mexico we made it a point to travel along part of Route 66) and the floribunda ‘Ebb Tide’ (I remember the version of that song by the Righteous Brothers in the 1960’s) that has full, ruffled mauve blooms and a spicy, clove-like scent.

Ebb Tide

We didn’t limit our pursuit of purple roses to Carruth roses. One of our favorite purples is ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (Cowlishaw, 1999), named after George Gershwin’s  iconic composition. While being influenced by the name and the music, it was the combination of the rose’s deep purple petals, streaked with white stripes, surrounding incredibly dramatic golden stamens, that attracted our attention. ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is very photogenic and while I have taken many photographs of this mauve beauty, my favorite is the one below that I framed and now display on our wall of rose photos.

Rhapsody in Blue

We may have outgrown our “purple rose phase,” but a rose as beautiful as ‘Perfume Factory’ is hard to resist and we may just reconsider.

 

Stonehenge

A visit to Stonehenge was high on our itinerary during our trip to England last June. Since this 4500 year-old British cultural icon draws over a million and a half visitors each year, admission is gained through a timed system best accessed through advanced booking online. We arrived a few minutes prior to our 11am admission time slot that we had booked several months earlier and found a short queue at the ticket office in the Visitor’s Center. From there, we had the choice of walking the two miles to the Stones or taking the shuttle which runs continuously all day — very little waiting. We took the shuttle.

The setting around Stonehenge has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years. While it is owned by the Crown, it’s managed by English Heritage and the surrounding lands are owned by the National Trust. In recent years, a nearby highway has been removed, leaving no remaining distractions around the stone circle. Shortly after we left the Visitor’s Center, Stonehenge dramatically appeared in the distance, standing solitary on a rise amid vast grasslands. The vista was incredible.

When the shuttle arrived at the stones, we joined the throng heading to the pathway that encircles the ruins. The site is roped off and there is no longer any access directly into the stone circle. Instead, there is a path around the stones which allows visitors a good look at the entire monument. Stonehenge consists of both small stones and some really big ones. The big ones are arranged in a circle and joined by lintels laid across the tops creating Stonehenge’s instantly recognizable profile.

Stonehenge Lintels

We circled around several times and found the sight lines that the sun’s rays blaze through at dawn on the summer and winter solstices. After staying for an hour and taking lots of photos, we caught the next shuttle back to the Visitor’s Center where we had lunch in the café. (I had a decent gluten-free lunch that included a slice of  GF Victoria’s Sponge Cake, a classic English dessert that we saw everywhere in England but GF only at Stonehenge.)

 

We spent some time after lunch viewing a very good exhibition that explained Stonehenge through a series of displays and ended our visit in the gift shop where we brought a few souvenirs.

Looking back, we understand the reason for limiting access to the inner stones, but we were disappointed that we could not inspect Stonehenge more closely. We saw more of inner Stonehenge from the Rick Steve’s Stonehenge episode.

Regardless, the Stonehenge experience was more than worth the effort and we encourage travelers to visit this British archeological treasure and enjoy the experience as we did.

Queen Mary’s Rose Garden

Entrance to Queen Mary’s Rose Garden

Our visit to England this past June was timed so we could enjoy the rose gardens, none of which were in bloom on our previous trip when we traveled to London to see the Chelsea Flower Show in May. This time our timing was perfect — the 3rd and 4th week in June.

Map of Regent’s Park

One of the gardens we planned to see was Queen Mary’s Rose Garden in Regent’s Park, located in northwest London near Baker St. and the Sherlock Holmes Museum. The 410 acre park is also home to the London Zoo, numerous playgrounds, a boating lake and Open Air Theatre. But our primary destination was the Rose Garden, created in the 1930’s, which is located in the Inner Circle of the park.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, surprisingly one of many rainless days we enjoyed while in England, when we arrived by taxi which dropped us off at one of the gated entrances to the Rose Garden. Our entrance through the gates led us to a circular path through the rose garden. While we had anticipated an impressive June Bloom, the garden exceeded our expectations.

Ingrid Bergman

The winding paths led us from rose bed to rose bed and with approximately 12,000 roses on display, the numerous (85) single varieties planted within the garden was overwhelming. Each rose bed had mass plantings of one variety and the effect was stunning. I find that photographs don’t always capture the impact that can be seen only in person. Such was the case with not only Queen Mary’s Rose Garden as a whole, but with the massive bed of Ingrid Bergman, a dark red hybrid tea in full flush, that created an eye-catching display.

Double Delight

We saw some familiar roses like ‘Double Delight’ that was at its perfect stage of bloom and showed off its lipstick-edged petals perfectly. There was a large bed of roses that we recognized as ‘Hot Cocoa’, which we grow in our garden, but labeled as ‘Hot Chocolate’ in Queen Mary’s Garden. ‘Hot Cocoa’ was hybridized by Tom Carruth when he worked for Weeks Roses in California and we were pleased to see an American bred rose among those on display in Queen Mary’s Garden.

Hot Chocolate aka Hot Cocoa

 

The rose bed that attracted the most attention — everyone wanted to have their photo taken in front of — was the bed of ‘You’re Beautiful’. We had to wait and wait until people finished posing in front of these roses before we could have a clear view. Mike finally got the photo below. The bed had close to 50 rose bushes of ‘You’re Beautiful’ and each was in bloom!

You’re Beautiful

 

I was attracted to the colorful bed of ‘Tintinana’, a rose I had never seen, but if we grew hybrid tea roses, I wouldn’t mind having in our garden.

Tintinana

Another unfamiliar rose I photographed is ‘Jam and Jerusalem’, displaying such a beautiful spray of roses too perfect to ignore.

Jam and Jerusalem

There was a large bed of assorted David Austin Roses that contained many familiar DA varieties and I was able to capture this beautiful bloom of Lady Emma Hamilton.

Lady Emma Hamilton

 

Some roses on display, like ‘Gorgeous’, a Poulsen rose, are not available in the United States. From information I gathered on-line, it is available for sale on web sites in the UK. This rose has amazing, multi-colored (orange, pink and yellow), very large blooms with dark green foliage. My research said that ‘Gorgeous’ needed no pesticides because of its disease resistance. We can hope that some day it will be introduced in the US, although it may be under a different name.

Gorgeous

 

The park was filled with families and couples lounging on chairs, ready to spend the day. Benches were available, too, but many people had brought blankets to spread on the grass as well as picnic lunches. There are several cafes and kiosks available within the park and Mike and I stopped at the Boat House Cafe to get a cold drink (and ice cream) before we made another tour of the rose garden.

Hot Cocoa, Easy Going and Me

As we strolled through the park, we were impressed, given the size of the crowd, with the cleanliness and order in the park — no litter nor stomping through flower beds — Londoners and tourists just enjoying a Saturday in the park.

The vast collection of roses and the obvious upkeep to keep them looking their best made Queen Mary’s Rose Garden in Regent’s park one of the most impressive rose gardens we have seen and definitely one of the highlights of our time in London.

Gathering Seaweed

Mike Gathering Seaweed

Seaweed, fresh from the ocean, is a great amendment for garden soil as well as an addition to compost. Here in Rhode Island, known as the “Ocean State” with over 400 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline, seaweed is easily found along the shoreline.

Once or twice a year, Mike and I pack the SUV with muck buckets and a rake and drive to our favorite seaweed gathering site – First Beach in Newport, RI (also known as Easton’s Beach). Growing up in Newport, I spent many days here with friends, lounging on the sand. We seldom swam because chances were that the water would be thick with seaweed, a daily plague of this particular beach.

Imagine my surprise, then, when we drove to the beach a few weeks ago and saw nothing but pristine sand. Not a slimy piece of seaweed to be found anywhere. It’s an hour’s drive from where we now live and we didn’t want to go home with empty buckets. I thought of the many areas we might find seaweed and remembered a place that might have enough seaweed to fill our buckets.

View of Newport Bridge from King’s Park

So we headed down to Newport’s 5th Ward, where I grew up, and drove to King’s Park which indeed had the seaweed we were looking for. The beach at King’s Park looks out over Newport Harbor and has a great view of the Newport Bridge as well as the shoreline along lower Thames Street. However, it’s not the kind of beach that attracts tourists. If you didn’t know it was there, right on Wellington Ave. next to the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, you would drive right by it on your way to the Ocean Drive which meanders around the coast and up to Bellevue Avenue and its many mansions.

Ida Lewis Yacht Club

We had the small strip of beach completely to ourselves and as Mike gathered the seaweed that had washed ashore, I admired the yachts moored in the harbor. I also had a view of Goat Island that once was home to the Navy Torpedo Station before it was transformed into a tourist destination with a hotel and condominiums.  Pointing out to the harbor stood the statue of General Rochambeau who, in 1780, landed in Newport with his troops after the British had withdrawn.

View of Goat Island in the Distance

Statue of General Rochambeau

Being at King’s Park brought back childhood memories when I used to walk to the Park from home on hot summer days. I realized that I hadn’t been back since I was 9 or 10 years old, but what a perfect place, I thought, to gather seaweed and recall times past. If you travel to Newport, you might want to discover this out-of-the-way spot with its great scenic views and free parking.

Seaweed Ready for the Compost Bin

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris

Recently, Mike and I went to the exhibit “Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and it didn’t disappoint. The posters of Toulouse-Lautrec, legendary for their depiction of the nightlife, cafes, cabarets  and celebrities of 19th century Paris, illustrated life in Paris and Montmartre during its bohemian heyday. Also included in the exhibit were other notable artists of the time, such as Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas and John Singer Sargent. The exhibit’s astoundingly vivid visual world of Paris’ social scene transported me back in time.

Through Toulouse-Lautrec’s art, I learned about can-can dancer Jane Avril, who was a lifelong friend of Toulouse-Lautrec and commissioned the poster above to advertise her cabaret show at the Jardin de Paris. I especially like “Divan Japonaise,” (pictured below) which shows Jane Avril enjoying herself at the club.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s depiction of May Belfort, an Irish singer who performed in Parisian nightclubs with her ever-present black cat, can be seen in this promotional poster.

Mary Belfort

The exhibit also included several images of Aristide Bruant, French singer and nightclub owner, in his famous red scarf and black cape.

I loved Le Chat Noir (“The Black Cat”), poster by Théophile Steinlen which advertised the cabaret located in the Montmatre section of Paris in the early 1880’s. It reminded me of our last trip to Paris, when we had purchased a group of souvenir posters from one of the many bouquinistas lining the Seine.

The “Toulouse-Lautrec and the Stars of Paris” will be at the MFA until August 4, 2019. If you have a chance to see it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.