Tall roses, and some short ones too

We were at Mike C's (yours truly) garden for a visit yesterday evening.  Most of the roses there have been grown from seed, and some have risen to great heights over the years.  For example, the first photo below shows Craig (who is 6' 2" tall) standing behind an unnamed rose seedling that is 8 feet tall and whose "seed parent" is the pink-flowered 'Queen Elizabeth' rose seen at the extreme left of the photo.  The unnamed seedling is in its 6th growing season.

Maryann      Martha     Craig

Martha  Mike H   Craig  Maryann  Emily

The photo below shows you what a typical rose looks like in its first growing season -- I'm pointing at one that is just about ready to open its very first bloom.  This is a 4 month old seedling whose "seed parent" is the 'Red Galaxy' rose.  In the photo on the right I am showing Emily a rose-gall on a species rose named Rosa glauca (more photos are on Google Images  -- search for: robin's pincushion).  You can look back at a couple of previous posts in this blog for more photos and information:  December 12, 2011  (I hope they're friendly wasps)  and  May 11, 2012  (Garden visitors).

Emily   Martha   Mike C

Emily         Mike C

St. Timothy's revisited

We were fortunate yesterday in more ways than one.  Not only did the rose garden at St. Timothy's Church put on a fabulous display, but some rather heavy rain held off until we were finished with our tour.

Congratulations are due to Mike G for making this garden a very special place, as you will see in the photos below.  First, let me remind you that our previous visits here are described in GARDEN TOURS & PHOTOS (our visit in 2013 -- click on the tab at the top of this blog) and also in the post of August 15, 2012 titled An Afternoon at St. Timothy's (our visit in 2012).  

It was difficult to select the best photos from yesterday's visit, but this means that the ones shown below survived some very vigorous judging:

The rose garden at St. Timothy's Church
June 25, 2014

The photo to the left below may be a bit staged, but we do that to get the 3 Mikes in a row.  From left to right are John, Mike H, Mike C, Gene, and Mike G.  In the photo to the right are Maryann, Gene, and Mike G.

 And now for some pretty roses.  The photo to the left shows a rose bush that Mike G grew from seed and which he named 'Miss C' (for his wife).  The parent of this rose is a rose grown from seed by Mike C, which he named 'Red Galaxy' (for all the red galaxies out there).  The rose shown on the right hardly needs an introduction -- it is the great 'Double Delight'.

"May" meeting

We had our "May" meeting yesterday, which would be on June 8th -- you can't fault us for not being flexible in our scheduling.  Our hosts were Shanthi and Pilane, who treated us with a walk-through of their beautiful rose garden.  The first two photos below show a view of the garden from the deck, and then a look back at the deck from the end of the garden.  The rose blooms were spectacular, so much so that it's been adopted by a friendly cat.  Click the first photo to enlarge it and you will see the kitty at the bottom of the stairs.

The third photo shows Shanthi and Pilane right in the middle of the beautiful garden, together with society friends Mike and Bernie.  Then, in the fourth photo we have . . . . hey, wait a minute, there's that cat again!

A good start to the new ROSE YEAR

We're trying something new this year, namely being flexibile in scheduling our monthly meetings.  We'll choose a good-weather day toward the end of each month and meet outside in people's gardens in the late afternoon to early evening.  There should be a good variety of rose related activities to keep us interested and busy -- yesterday being a good case in point.

We met over at Maryann's garden for a mid-Spring pruning demonstration, catching up with some rose canes that didn't quite reveal that they were dying off until now.  That's Maryann in the first photo sharing the nuances of identifying what and where to prune.  Her garden has a LOT of different roses and rose types, and in the second photo we "rambled" to her front yard to see how the rambling rose named 'Perennial Blue' is doing.  That's it climbing up the pillar on the front porch.

Photo #1
April 29, 2014

Photo #2
April 29, 2014

Two more items of interest are shown below.  The third photo shows what's left of the the floribunda rose named 'Irish Hope'.  Look closely and you will see several new canes starting to emerge, so 'Irish Hope' does indeed have hope.   This rose, by the way, was budded onto a rootstock rose, and is yet behaving as if it's on its own roots.  Maryann always gives her roses one last chance, cutting dead canes down to the crown and hoping for the best; in this case it paid off.  The fourth photo shows a couple of rose canes that really caught our eyes in the early evening sun.  As it turns out, these were suckering canes from a rootstock rose, very likely from one of the varieties of Rosa canina.

Photo #3
April 29, 2014

Photo #4
April 29, 2014

* SUMMER MEETINGS *

Our summer meetings will be more in the line of get-togethers in members' gardens, so we'll be seeing a lot of really nice roses.  The dates could be set on relatively short notice, because we have to keep a close eye on weather conditions.  So, be sure that you are on our mailing list (our address is above), and check your email regularly.

Update of August 14, 2013:  Photos from FIVE of our open gardens of 2013 may now be viewed by clicking on the tab above -- GARDEN TOURS & PHOTOS.

Update of July 25, 2013:  Looks like all the photos of our roses at the Marion County Fair are now present and accounted for. You may view them by clicking on the tab -- AT THE COUNTY FAIR.

May meeting and rose shows

Late May and early June are busy times for members of the SRS, and this year a stretch of warm May weather resulted in an abundance of beautiful rose blooms.  The the first two photos below are from our meeting held in late May, with Mechelle our newest member and Ed our most tenured member surrounded by some gorgeous blooms.

 The third photo (Mary and Bernie's garden) shows the precautions that sometimes have to be taken to prepare blooms for rose shows, the umbrellas serving as protection from the ever threatening rain.  The fourth photo shows Char's award winning rose arrangement at the Portland Rose Society's rose show held in early June.

This Blog is getting seedier

Today Maryann and I had an enjoyable time at the Grange Hall over in Silverton at the Third Annual Silverton Seedy Saturday Seed Exchange.  We handed out rose hips to some really brave people who were interested in growing roses from seed.  Good luck to ALL -- we enjoyed meeting you and hearing your concerns (we learned a lot from you, too).

We were fortunate enough to meet Gus today -- he is the mastermind behind the digital time-lapse videos of these events.  Two have already been posted to YouTube (for 2011 and 2012), and we now eagerly await the latest one that was "filmed" today.  Links to the YouTube videos are provided below, but first let's meet our new friend Gus --

Gus and Maryann

See the camera mounted at the top of the ladder between Maryann and Gus?   That's the one.

For your viewing pleasure, here are the links to YouTube; just click on the links for some real live action (you'll see!) --

Seedy Saturday -- 2011

Seedy Saturday -- 2012

Update of March 10, 2013:    Gus works FAST.  Here's the link to yesterday's seedy extravaganza --
Seedy Saturday -- 2013

September meeting / rose display

The annual September rose display was held at our meeting on the evening of the 26th.  There was a good crowd of members as well as roses in the informal and intramural rose show, complete with experienced judges and prizes / awards.  Here's some of the growers in attendance and their beautiful roses:

Wes      Nadine    Laveryne

Bill        Bernie          Fred

Joyce    Bill    Laveryne    Bernie   Fred

Mike G.     Nadine    Laveryne    Bernie
 Joyce    Bill    Fred 

Shanthi      Pilane

Maryann       Wes

Jurassic Garden !

Some new photos of our time at the Marion County Fair just came in.  I added two of them to the posting of July 12th under the title "County Fair", so don't forget to check them out.  Two other photos, however, warrant some closer and immediate inspection.  First, let's state some facts about the president of our Rose Society:

• Maryann has a HUGE back yard
• She is a beekeeper
• She grows a lot of roses

Now, let's inspect the photos:

Maryann with one of
her bees ?

Maryann with a SINGLE
stem of roses

Draw your own conclusions, but there could be something "Jurassic" going on in her back yard  -- you know, where things grow LARGE.  But then, I recall that there's a rose bush named 'Sally Holmes' growing back there.  Maybe a quick search of Google Images for the "Sally Holmes rose" might allay some of our suspicions.

Update of June 27, 2013:  Maryann had an open garden yesterday, and we were able to get a photo of her with 'Sally Holmes'.  Mike H is keeping a safe distance from this all-devouring rose bush.

June 26, 2013

An afternoon at St. Timothy's

Our second open garden of the season was at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church here in Salem, where SRS member Mike G is the volunteer caretaker of a very handsome collection of roses.  We were invited over to bask in the company of the roses as well as to attempt to identify some of the unknowns, which would account for the studious expressions in a couple of the photos.  Our hosts for the day were Mike G and his wife Joyce, who are seen in the first photo.  Joyce is holding the seedling rose named 'Miss C' (named for her), and grown from seed by Mike.  From here we go outdoors to see the beautiful roses, starting with the second photo -- Joyce (there were 2 Joyces and 3 Mikes here today!) and her husband Wes are in the background.

Photo #1

Photo #2

The third photo has Susan and her husband Bill to the left and Maryann to the right in the process of identifying roses and naming names!  In the next photo are Maryann and Mike G, with Mike reaching down to one of the roses that he planted and is now caring for -- the rose is a dark red floribunda named 'Oh My !' (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the rose's name).

Photo #3

Photo #4

At long last, the fifth photo shows the 3 Mikes, namely, left to right:  Mike C, Mike G, Mike H.  There's also a Fred, and he's in the background.  The sixth photo shows John and Mike G to the left.  John takes care of all plantings at St. Timothy's except for the roses, which are maintained beautifully by Mike.  To the right are Fred and Maryann.

Photo #5

Photo #6

It's open garden season

I'm a little late in posting photos of the first open garden of this growing season.  It was very late Spring, June 10 to be exact, and the roses over at Mike C's place were looking good:

Mary and Bernie

Neighbors Craig and Martha
with Mike H

What's this ?

It's a growth of some kind, but what exactly is it ?  Maybe just a shameless attempt by Mike to get some traffic over at his blog.  Click on the following highlighted link to transfer over to his blog, and then read the post of August 2, 2012 titled "A garden surprise !" -- there will be more photos.  When you're finished over there, do come back and finish reading THIS blog.  Here's the link:  Mike's Blog

County Fair

The Salem Rose Society had a grand presence today at the Marion County Fair here in Salem.  Our home-grown roses really brightened up the Fair's floral display, as you will see in the photos below.  The Fair continues through Sunday, July 15, so the roses will have a lengthy exposure.  As a result, we might be able to impress and recruit some new members.  Remember, you may click on the photos to enlarge them.

The floral display area

Pilane and Fred at
the SRS tables

Pilane checking a rose ID

Most impressive bouquet !

Update of July 20, 2012:    Thank you, Joyce, for sending along the photos that you took on the 15th -- they show that the roses were still looking GREAT !

Wes "talking roses" with
Fair attendees

Maryann wins 2 awards.
Congratulations Maryann !

Update of August 25, 2012:   Some more photos just got delivered to me via internet snail mail.  Below are some of our very finest Rose Society members tending our rose display at the Fair.  We really have a nice banner, don't we?  And some very nice roses!

Bill and Susan

Joyce and Wes

Overnight garden visitor

A really impressive dragonfly perched itself on one of my rose bushes yesterday evening.    I didn't think to take a photograph of it at the time, but when it was in the same spot this morning I couldn't resist.  Any insect that eats mosquitos is very appreciated in the garden, so here is my photographic salute to this welcome visitor.  After taking the first photo, I used a ruler to get a rough measurement of it, and the ruler's proximity caused the dragonfly to scoot up the rose bloom about half an inch.  So, this beautiful insect measures in at a wingspan of three inches.