The name of the rose By Susan and Wayne Johnson Photo from Botanica's Roses: A Rose Encyclopedia, by Peter Beales and David Austen. Welcome Rain, 1999. Umberto Eco, a semiotician whose books mirrored his fascination with the symbolism of language, said it’s Utopian to want language to be a transparent tool by which we perfectly understand the nature of the thing being named. However, perhaps because they predated humans, roses were given the same name by every tribe who encountered them. And so, the simple word rose conveys to us all that they are. “When a rose is in bloom,” says Stan Swisher, leaning back in his chair and gazing off into the distance in order to focus on a memory rather than the harbor close at hand, “there’s nothing better than the fragrance and the beauty of its three dimensional spiral. That is the significance of a rose.” Fifteen years ago, Swisher, who moved here from Friendship, New York in order to work on his masters degree in health and education at the University of Buffalo, and who officially works in the City of Buffalo’s engineering department, began planting flowers around the trees at the Erie Basin Marina. Today, those beds are part of his extensive display and test gardens where hundreds of roses are evaluated for inclusion in All America Rose Selections (AARS), a sixty-year old non-profit organization that keeps a scorecard on new introductions. Officially named the Joan and Victor Fuzak Memorial Rose Garden, after its benefactors, it is one of only two AARS Official Test Gardens in New York State (the other is on Long Island), and offers Western New York gardeners the advantage of being able to see, firsthand, new introductions, and the opportunity to judge whether a particular rose is worth investing time, money, and garden space. Visitors can also learn whether or not the rose will survive our famous winters. “The AARS felt they needed test gardens in the Northeast — they already had some in California and the Midwest,” explains Swisher. “And, from May to November, Buffalo has an ideal climate for growing roses. In the summer, we’re near the top percentile for sunlight which, along with our cooler weather — usually in the 70-75 degree range — makes for vibrant colors. Roses also respond well to the land breeze that we get here because they don’t like to swelter nor do they like being in stagnant air.” Our climate from December through April is another matter. To boost winter survival statistics during those months, Swisher surrounds his rose bushes with pine boughs. Breaking the seventy-mile-per-hour winds that the waterfront sometimes experiences, the branches also trap falling snow, thereby insulating the ground from temperature extremes. These preparations ensure that summertime visitors will have something to stop and sniff. Photo from Botanica's Roses: A Rose Encyclopedia, by Peter Beales and David Austen. Welcome Rain, 1999. While scent is important to passersby and to some who are looking for new roses, Swisher has many additional aspects that he must critique during the two year period that the introductions are under his care: novelty, color — both of bud and flower as well as opening and finishing color, form — both of bud and flower, aging quality, flowering effect, stem and cluster, plant habit, vigor, foliage, resistance to diseases — including blackspot and mildew and rust, repeat bloom, height, width, and flower diameter. Of these, color is the most important to Stephen Rubach, a retired engineer who teaches how to grow roses in adult education classes at five local schools. The burly ex-Navy man, who earned degrees from Syracuse in forestry and Michigan in engineering, looks like the last person who would be spending time on his hands and knees tending miniature roses. Students quickly find out otherwise when they get their own hands-on lessons in pruning a few of the 150 minis that share space with the total of nearly 300 floribunda, grandiflora, hybrid tea, and climbing roses in Rubach’s backyard. “I like miniatures because they bloom heavily,” says Rubach who is a Master Gardener and a member of the Western New York Rose Society (WNYRS). “They provide a mass of color and they’re hardy.” When asked for the name of his favorite, Rubach barks at what he calls his pet peeve question number one, “What do you mean my favorite? My favorite deep red? My favorite light red? My favorite pink, white, yellow?” When pressed, his voice softens and he says, “Dublin is the best rose of all. Deep pink. A great rose.” Back in class, he reveals ten more roses that he would recommend for this area: Touch of Class, Elina, Sexy Rexy, Marijke Koopman, Tiffany, Gold Medal, Limelight, Lieberzauber, Silver Jubilee, and Garden Party. “Don’t be fooled by celebrity names,” he warns. “Many of them are no good. John F. Kennedy, for instance, gets rain spots. Chrysler Imperial only blooms once and not very well. Elizabeth Taylor, Dolly Parton, and Bob Hope — none of them are hardy in this area.” Kim Mehnert, a consulting rosarian and rose judge as well as an award-winning rose competitor agrees that Sexy Rexy is good for beginners, adding “I also like Iceberg.” Mehnert began growing roses ten years ago and is a fellow member of Rubach’s in the WNYRS as well as being the Assistant Principal for St. Peter and Paul School in Williamsville. “Tending roses is relaxing,” says Mehnert, “and very therapeutic. My rose garden extends from the backyard to the front where it runs down both sides of the walk. You’d be surprised how many people stop in spontaneously.” Love is an essential ingredient in a rose garden because the flowers require some consistent attention from their admirers, not to mention forbearance in the face of countless prickly stems. Well-prepared soil is a must as is the installation of drip irrigation for any garden of significant size along with regular applications of fertilizer. Spring pruning alone takes days for Rubach who, using a pair of forty-year-old forged steel Corona hand pruners, carefully cuts back dead wood to the creamy white pith of healthy tissue and then paints it with Elmer’s glue to prevent cane borers from gaining access. He used to enter his roses, in particular his gorgeous award-winning shrub rose, Louise Odier, in competition and ribbons and photographs of his flowers are part of his family room decor. But now, he cherishes every bud as a potential flower for his garden and refuses to disbud or to deadhead back to five outward facing leaves because to do so would deny him the pleasure of another blossom. Mehnert has the same spring pruning job to do (and uses the same kind of hand pruners because they’re also available in a smaller size to fit her hands), along with a very strict spraying schedule in order to prevent pests, blackspot, mildew, and rust. “Roses are a high maintenance flower,” she warns. They are NOT geraniums. The reward is that it’s a joy to be in the garden.” Less obsessive gardeners who want the beauty and fragrance of roses without as much work can always choose from among the newest varieties of landscape shrub roses and carpet roses, both of which are advertised as being carefree. Swisher likes the characteristics of the shrub Knock Out while Rubach likes a number of the new David Austin shrubs including Fair Bianca which he says has an exotic licorice scent. However, neither of them wholeheartedly endorse carpet roses. “There’s no such thing as a carpet rose,” says Rubach expounding on his second pet peeve. “The canes lie on the ground but they send up laterals that are eighteen inches tall. You can’t shear these back because this is where the flowers are.” Swisher adds that even if left alone, the so-called carpets don’t sufficiently smother weeds which then grow up through the roses, becoming unsightly and difficult to remove. Both men are also wary of climbers, especially in terms of hardiness. “Recommending a good climbing rose in Western New York is hard,” says Swisher. “They bloom on second year wood and so you have to be very particular about hardiness. There’s one called Fourth of July that’s pretty reliable and that does well here in the gardens.” Rubach has two thick climbers that cover an arbor-covered walkway leading to his backyard. One is a bourbon named Zephyrine Drouhin and the other is Dublin Bay. Both survive in his protected Snyder location. Sorting through all these names and types of roses can be daunting for the beginner; not to mention learning the best cultural habits. Fortunately, there are hundreds of books to help explain everything from the history and genealogy of the rose to the secrets of how to spray if your roses develop blackspot. Of these, both Mehnert and Rubach highly recommend Ortho’s book, Enjoying Roses. They also both like The New Rose Expert by Dr. D.G. Hessayon. For those who are going to plant an extensive rose garden, Rubach likes Taylor’s Guide to Roses because it’s organized by color while Mehnert finds Botanica a great source for color photographs and for cultural information. Visiting local rose gardens with a notebook and a pencil is the best way to learn which roses appeal to your taste in form and color. The Ontario School of Horticulture, Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua, and Ellwanger Garden in Rochester are nearby gardens opened to the public. Be sure to visit the Fuzak garden where Swisher is now testing introductions for 2005 and 2006 and where ten of the 2003 award winners are on display subsequent to their debut in garden centers. Winners for 2004 are now in production at wholesale nurseries and will be on display next year. For those who want to see what a prize-winning rose looks like or who thinks their own roses are worthy of a trophy, there is the New York State District Rose Show in September (which is being held in Rochester this year). Mehnert will enter her roses in this event and says that competition is not quite as relaxing as working in the garden. “Everything depends on what I have in bloom at the time. I leave on a Thursday, transporting the roses in a cooler with dry ice, and then on Saturday I primp and groom them just before they’re put on the platform and judged.” Roses waited a long time to be placed on the venerable pedestals of competition. They inhabited the earth for more than thirty million years before humans were able to stand upright and gaze appreciatively at the flower’s velvet spirals of petals. If today’s rose gardeners are any indication, the flowers won’t be coming down from their lofty perches anytime soon. Susan Johnson is a writer and public relations specialist. Wayne Johnson is the president of Johnson’s Nursery. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top