It’s early January, cold and quiet but not as cold as it used to be. As a kid I played hockey on safe pond ice at Christmastime but those ponds hardly freeze at all by late December. Anyway, Angelina and I are getting ready to post our 2022 Lecture Series. While this season had promised a return to in-person programs, it is starting out just like last year with virtual Zoom presentations due to the persistent pandemic. Zooms are not as satisfying as in-person visits but they had an unexpected bonus by allowing us to present programs in Manhattan, New Jersey, Toronto, and Houston without leaving home.
Our 2022 Lecture Series includes some re-bookings that were cancelled last year as well as new ones. Our entertaining PowerPoint lectures, workshops and seminars are designed to educate and make rose gardening appealing to even the most reluctant gardener. For a description of our programs, visit our web site’s Program Page at RoseSolutions.
Some highlights for 2022:
- We are currently developing a new program on Brownell Roses utilizing an extensive trove of source material gathered over two decades. Walter Brownell was an early pioneer, hybridizing winter hardy varieties in Little Compton, RI that were later sold throughout the United States. We plan on rolling out this PowerPoint presentation this spring.
- Interest in our À La Carte Travel programs continues to grow. Last year gardeners stuck at home enjoyed our International Virtual Garden Tour, visiting five of our favorite overseas rose gardens. We escorted several groups to our favorite city outside of the United States with Paris! The City of Lights and more are scheduled this year.
- While there are fewer New England area flower and garden shows than just a few years ago, the Southeastern Connecticut Home and Garden Show is scheduled for February 18 to 20 at the Earth Tower Expo & Convention Center at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. We’re scheduled to present our popular “Six Simple Steps to Successful Rose Gardening.” This program covers all the rose gardening basics plus lots of Q and A – – everything necessary to grow beautiful roses in home gardens this spring.
- On Saturday morning, April 16, Angelina and I will demonstrate the best way to prune roses in the rose garden at Blithewold in Bristol, RI.
- A week later, on April 30, we will present our lecture “Six Simple Steps to Successful Rose Gardening” at the Rhode Island Rose Society’s 2022 Rosefest at Wildwood Nursery in East Greenwich, RI. This is free and open to the public.
- In-between these events, we have scheduled lectures with garden clubs and other horticultural organizations.
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.
We have been on the lecture circuit presenting lectures, conducting seminars and leading workshops for more than twenty-five years. We are always available to speak at flower shows, symposiums, conventions, and garden club meetings and with Zoom we can travel anywhere on the planet. 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 speaker at the last minute, even if you meet in some far-away place, contact Mike at Rosesolutions – maybe we can help.
Meanwhile, we are working on the February issue of our quarterly e-newsletter, The Northeast Rose Gardener, which is available to anyone who wants to learn more about rose gardening in the northeastern United States. It’s written for New England gardeners by New England gardeners with each issue drilling down into some aspect of rose horticulture specific to the northeastern climate. To sign up for the e-newsletter, send us an email. The Northeast Rose Gardener is free and we do not share email addresses with anyone.
Finally, there is no greater optimist than a gardener in January. Nothing ignites the passions in the soul of a rose gardener more than the promise of next year’s garden.
The Rose Journal 
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