Garden Club Highlights

Figure 4 Murray Park Rose Garden in September

The Utah Rose Society met at the Murray Park Rose Garden on March 24 to prune the roses as a service project. It was a great turnout, so we were able to finish pruning most of the roses. In addition, we had two great demonstrations: digging and moving an established rose bush by Craig England and rose pruning by Cheryl Underwood. Both Craig and Cheryl are horticulturists in the Rose Garden at Red Butte Garden.

Craig showed how to prune back the rose before moving it to facilitate digging and transplanting. It’s important to maintain a decent size root ball to help with reestablishment. If you know a few months ahead that you’ll be digging up a rose bush, you can do root-pruning, which involves using a spade to cut around the edges of the desired size of root ball, then leaving the rose in the ground until it’s ready to move. Root-pruning stimulates new root growth so that the rose has an even better root ball when it is finally transplanted.

Figure 1 Craig transplanting a rose bush

Cheryl demonstrated how to correctly prune a hybrid tea rose. She showed how to reduce the number and height of the canes, removing any crossing or dead canes to open up the center. These same techniques can be used to prune any other type of rose, such as floribunda and shrub roses. The final structure will be a simplified version of the natural form of the rose bush.

Figure 2 Cheryl pruning a hybrid tea rose

Figure 3 Pruning completed

We had a beautiful rose show at the Sugar House Garden Center on June 4 despite the anxiety about whether we would have enough roses to even have a show. We must set the date for the show a year in advance so we just guess what the weather will be like by then. Many rose society members were rightly disappointed that their roses were behind schedule due to the ups and downs of heat and freezing and were not able to enter as much as they would have liked. Despite the weather challenges, though, we had a great show.

We were excited about the number of firsttime entries and hope that even more will enter next year as Novices. There were also many wonderful entries in the rose arrangement and photography categories.

Our wonderful judges, who traveled all the way from Denver, were impressed by the quality of the roses and remarked that this was an exceptional show.

In addition to entering the Rose Show, many rose society members contributed by setting up, helping new exhibitors prepare and classify their entries, clerking for the judges, and cleaning up.

The Rocky Mountain District Convention and Rose Show will be hosted by the Utah Rose Society on June 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City. This is an honor that we have every four years so you can put that date on your 2023 calendars.

Figure 5 A September rose

Figure 6 Novice rose entries

Figure 7 Royalty Award Rosette"Welcome" by Elise Hutchings

Figure 8 Best of Show - 'Doris Day' by Elise Hutchings

Figure 9 Best of Novice - 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles' by Geoff Ellis

Figure 10 Best of Photography - 'Princess Alexandria of Kent' by Cindy Crookston

Photo credit: All photos by Crystal Kim, except photos 4 and 5 by Cindy Crookston Visit us at: www.utahrose.org

Know What’s Below Before You Dig!

Blue Stakes of Utah 811 is issuing a safety reminder to Utah Residence. “Call 811 Before You DIG” this not only applies to the professional contractor but to all homeowners.

Anyone who wants to put a shovel, or any other kind of digging equipment in the ground is required by law to Call 811 or contact bluestakes.org to “Submit a Ticket” to have the underground utility lines located and marked with paint and/or flags. This is for everyone ’s safety. It’s a FREE service and remember, It’s the LAW! Protecting the underground facilities that we all rely on every day is a shared responsibility.

Please do your part and remember to contact Blue Stakes at least two full business days before beginning your digging project. Check out our website for more information https://www.bluestakes.org and to download our APP and Excavators’ Guidebook. Check out our 811 Process Video which will answer many additional questions.

https://youtu.be/H5aWzr_1jH4

Crocus Bulbs