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SAN JOSE HERITAGE ROSE GARDEN Here's What's Going On in the Garden This page will be updated from time to time to let you know what's up in the garden. Mel Hulse, Garden Maintenance Director Garden Report, Fall 2000 Summer has been a lazy time for the roses and our volunteers! The roses rested up from their spring explosion with a moderate amount of bloom. Those volunteers that came out worked hard. It is just that the numbers have been down. We are now at the time when the varieties have differentiated themselves to the point where they flush at separate times giving the garden a constant supply of new blooms. We have been fortunate this summer in that the European, once-blooming Old Garden Roses have had scattered bloom all summer. As September wanes, we can look forward to a great fall flush. Remember that a visit every two weeks is like seeing a new garden each time! The other day several of us visited our climbing rose annex, the Santa Clara University one-half mile fence. In checking the 100 out of the eventual 250 roses, we found a couple had died and many had grown large. The champion is White Belle, the white version of Belle of Portugal. It has already exceeded its allotted 10' width! Our fun this summer has been propagating and planting new varieties. We have planted about 100 varieties. Some are imports and some were reserved to be planted in spots where we had duplicates. And your correspondent grew some. We have made 3-200 mile round trips to Vintage Gardens where Gregg and Phillip support our sticking and tending new roses for the garden. We currently have about 150 varieties getting ready for planting. About 60 of these are for the SCU fence. Most of the rest are Hybrid Perpetuals and the like from cuttings donated by Mike Lowe. We will bring back 20 of the climbers for planting at SCU in October. At home I budded about 35 bushes and 25 standards that will be ready for planting next spring. Irrigation. Signage. If you can, set aside Saturday, April 28th for our "Spring in Guadalupe Gardens" festival. The Virtual Rose Society's "Rose Weekend" was such a success that a number of cyberosarians have expressed interest in doing it again the weekend of May 19th. Initial planning is in progress. Our fifth anniversary, year 2000 catalog continues to be available in the garden on workdays, at the garden center and by mail. E-mail MelHulse@PacBell.Net for details. All of our work in completely pruning the garden paid off with a glorious spring bloom! The Teas and Chinas exploded in early April with few visitors to see them. Mark your calendars to see this next year. Due to cool weather, the Hybrid Teas and Floribundas delayed their bloom until the week of our very successful "Spring in Guadalupe Gardens" festival on April 29th. The most garden visitors ever! Another surprise was the early bloom of many Old Garden Roses and Polyanthas. All of these added up to a real spectacle! Our fifth anniversary, year 2000 catalog is now available in the garden on workdays, at the garden center and by mail. E-mail MelHulse@PacBell.Net for details. Note. I have been getting a number of email requests to buy roses. We neither sell nor custom propagate our roses. Nurseries that do are found on the links page. Mel Hulse, September 15, 2000
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This page was last updated on 02/27/06.
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