An evening with the Masters

We had a very enjoyable time yesterday evening at the Marion Demonstration Garden right here in the center of Salem (on Center street, no less).  As stated by the powers that be, namely the Oregon State University Extension Service, this garden is a project of the Marion County Master Gardener Association.  We are fortunate to have 2 of their master gardeners as members of the Salem Rose Society.  So, thanks Laveryne and Fred for facilitating our private tour of the garden, especially because one of their 20+ demonstration plots is a strikingly beautiful large bed of roses.

We'll set the scene with a photo of some of the beds (below left) which were adjacent to where we first gathered (below right) for an early evening snack enjoyed by a mingling of master gardeners and rose gardeners.  Notice the handsome "Rose Garden" sign in the lower-left of the second photo.

The next photo shows how well positioned the large rose bed is in the overall context of the gardens.

And now for a closer look at the roses themselves, with Laveryne introducing us to the various rose varieties.  There were an awful lot of blooms for late August, so congratulations are due to the master gardeners for their dedication to the roses.

For more information about the Master Gardener program, here's a couple of links to pertinent web-sites:  

OSU Extension Service (Marion County)    and    Marion County Master Gardener Association

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