Rosefest 99 "report" - LONG

**"rosenlund" rosenlund@transport.com>**

The Summer Rose Sales was great, and they kept bringing out more... I bought
22 sale roses and 1 at regular price... folks were everywhere and it was
wonderful to chat with many rose lovers.  NOTE: Sunday the place was all
quite (besides the birds and bees) and still a good amount of sale roses to
choice from.

We had two wonderful meals at Rosefest and was entertained by Bill Grant's
stories.  Louise Clements (owner of HOGR with husband John) was delightfully
gracious as usual and you always feel like close friends with this gal.  She
greeted folks at the dinner tables and introduced speakers.

We had 6 speakers over the two nights, each presenting slides.

The first was Kathy Zuzek, that is nearly "taking over" the Buck roses after
Mr.Buck's death.  These are winter hardy and blackspot resistant roses from
Minnesota, zone 4....(gosh, some folks have Nasty weather conditions to tend
gardens in).  She mentioned that these roses are best NOT to deadhead as you
would most roses, but to snap off Just the head as the new blooms often come
right at the base of your last rose bloom.  She also gave a website to check
out...   http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/cad/rose1.html

Next was Louise Clements, she talked on what's coming up next millennium in
roses... the "talk" (even in the garden tours) was that Repeat Rambling
Roses will be the next "hot" demand.... WAY cool.... She also noted that
ONLY 10% of our species (I beleive that's what she said, as Beales also
commented on such) have been "tapped" for there genetic uses in
hybridizing... Hum...  She showed us some of the English Legend Roses that
they are testing now and will have exclussive rights too... these are
Harkness Roses from Europe.  Also some new introductions of English roses,
Roses from Weeks Roses, and other less know breeders from around the world
along with some of their own new roses.
That should keep us happy for a while... :-)

The 3rd speaker of the night was a professer Dr.Duane Coyier from
Corvallis... he spoke on Rose Diseases, it was very interesting, great
slides of different powdery mildew, there MANY different races and Plant
Pathogens.... a bit over my head at times, but still good stuff to gleam....
Basically, Wash off that powdery mildew with water, control it before it's a
trouble, grow resistant roses, sometimes a newly introduced rose may often
bring in a new race, have good pH, seaweed may help.

I also asked this professor about using baking soda for disease control. He
didn't think it was much help, but that it wouldn't hurt them either, even
using it once a week.... BUT, he didn't like the 1 Tablespoon of liquid
dishsoap in the "recipe" and suggested that I just use a few drops per
gallon of water... he told me of a experiment he did with soap vs. P.Mildew.
So I will "amend" the recipe I use.

Many of the speakers talked of using organic practices and suggested we
have more tolerance of some disease, more resistant roses for your area,
and good clean up practices.  I of course am thrilled to hear this, as I
have
grown my roses organic (thus far).

The second night was started out with Peter Beales, the rose expert from
England, and slides of his Favorite Roses, which he is hard pressed to
say... It was Wonderful, great slides, a wonderful speaker, and that lovely
English accent.... it was a "highlight of the show" all right... (yes, I did
intro myself and have him sign my Classic Roses book.... nice man.)

I also went on a tour (tours of HOGR were all day Sat.and Sun.) with Beales
in the lead on species roses.  HOGR has a long row of them at the farthest
end to the newest gardens that line a dirt road that is gated... you can't
go in there otherwise.  Amazing how many species roses there are and the
lovely hips and foliage they had.

Next was Bunny Skran from Michigan and she spoke on shrub roses in general.
She had some good things to say like:  "Roses don't behave like good
children", mini's are not so hardy and hate herbisides, ARS is talking of
removing the "rambler" classification... much was said about this
through-out the talks, in disappointment.

Last was Rich Baer on Photograhing your Roses... I have a long ways to go
here... I took lots of notes.  He photos mostly the faces of roses (I like
the Full picture also) using a black backdrop, perfecting the rose before
taking the shot...

And much, much more good stuff....
You should have been there...

           ~ Carleen ~
Keeper of Sheep & Old Roses

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