Monthly Archives: April 2012

ROSE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD


UK

Gertrude Jekyll

 

DO YOU HAVE A ROSE NOSE ?

Think of the wonderful scents that your nose can bring you; the sweetness of a pie baking in the oven, the savory smell of bacon cooking and the aroma of fresh brewed coffee.

Naturally, there are some scents that are not so wonderful, such as something burning on the stove or the indication a baby’s diaper needs changing. Special training of one’s nose can lead to becoming a wine sommelier, a tea connoisseur or a ‘rose nose’ specialist.

Michael Marriott, the senior rosarian of David Austin Roses in Shropshire, has this very job of deciphering the fragrance of these English roses. His associate is another Austin ‘rose nose’ Robert Calkin, the acclaimed British perfumer and floral fragrance educator.

Together they amble about the nearly two-acre show garden, sniffing roses and debating and fine tuning their thoughts on its signature scent characteristics.

Marriott says the fragrance in roses comes from two different sources. Most commonly it comes from the petals, but sometimes it also emanates from the stamens. This is especially true in varieties with single or semidouble flowers where stamens are abundant.

In the petals, the greater part of any rose scent originates from its mix of just four or five different primary oils. Professionals call these a scent’s ‘base notes’. But rose scents are complex, with as many as 200 to 300 possible other oils present, often in minute quantities. This mix yields the wonderful richness found in rose fragrances.

The oils are formed from precursors, which are produced at the bud stage, three or four days before the flower opens. The warmer it is (within reason) at this stage, the more precursors are produced and the stronger the fragrance. The great variety of resulting oils will combine to produce the old rose, fruity, myrrh and tea fragrances.

The fragrance of the stamens of single and semidouble flowers is often musky in character, and also clove-like. Cloves are a preservative, so it could be that the fragrance does in fact help to prevent decline in the stamens. Some varieties, especially from the Hybrid Musk group of roses, combine the fragrance from both the petals and the stamens.

Marriott advises when smelling a rose, not to just give it a quick sniff. Smell it as you might savour a good wine by rolling it around the nose. Everybody’s nose smells things differently, so don’t be shy about describing the scents you sense or detect.

It is also important to smell several different flowers on any given bush, as some might not readily resonate, while others exuberantly exhibit their fragrance. Sometimes, the fragrance can be very different, according to the age of a particular flower.

A few of the most fragrant English roses are ‘Gerturde Jekyll’ that has an old rose fragrance that is strong, rich and perfectly balanced. ‘Lady Emma Hamilton’ is fruity with hints of pear, grape and citrus, ‘The Generous Gardener’ has an old rose fragrance of musk and myrrh, and ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ has a tea fragrance of lemon and black currant.

Myrrh appeared in David Austin’s first rose, the onceflowering ‘Constance Spry’, as a powerful, spicy top note inherited from one of the parents, ‘Belle Isis’, a strongly perfumed Gallica type.

‘Constance Spry’s’ is considered a quintessential rose fragrance

Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk

ROSE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

HOLLAND

FloraHolland

COOL ROSES !

A trial shipment of Kenyan roses, in a refrigerated container, is currently on the sea and due to arrive in Antwerp on April 26, Christo van der Meer, Operations Manager of Fresh Flower Solutions for FloraHolland told the Cool Logistics conference on Wednesday.

“This is merely the first trial shipment as we look to provide an alternative to air freight, as the costs are about 40% less than air freight. Once the shipment has landed we will check the vase life of the roses and give feedback to the growers,” he said.

FloraHolland is a growers’ co-operative handling 11 billion cut flower stems annually and 1.3 billion potted plants with 20,000 different products and 200,000 distribution points in Europe. As FloraHolland has 125,000 transactions per day it provides a benchmark pricing system for the global flower trade.

Kenya currently exports EUR165 million worth of flowers annually to the Netherlands of which 75% are roses. It is followed by Ethiopia at EUR110 million and competes with other equatorial highland countries such as Colombia and Ecuador.

“We plan to do another 11 shipments this year and expect the last shipment to contain 19 commercial pallets and only one test pallet. Once we have proven that sea freight can compete with air freight, then this would allow Kenya and other African countries to diversify their product offering to other flowers, such as chrysanthemums,” he told I-Net Bridge/BusinessLIVE.

Europe’s flower trade is currently worth EUR7 billion of which only a tenth is imported, so there is a large potential for Africa, including SA, to expand its flower exports to Europe.

Once the sea freight is proven to Europe, then it could open a new market for African flower growers in North America, as ships could go to Miami just as easily as they go to Antwerp.

Van der Meer believed sea freight could also provide better temperature control of the entire cold chain as refrigerated containers were not available in air freight.

A total of 15 Kenyan rose growers were involved in the first trial shipment as FloraHolland wanted a representative sample of growers from the different regions of Kenya.

He said it would be unlikely to be used in SA, as SA flower exports were mostly composed of the hardier proteas, which were less delicate than roses or other cut flowers.


Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk

 


ROSE TIPS

MULCHING

Mulching the rose garden can be very beneficial in many ways. A good layer of mulch ensures that the soil is kept moist in a hot spell. Weeds are kept to a minimum. The soil is improved as humus is added to the soil. Some mulches provide extra food for your roses. Black spot and other diseases are greatly reduced, providing the soil is cleared of old leaves and debris before mulching. Many materials can be used for mulching depending what is available to you. Well rotted farm or horse manure are excellent, but do make sure that it is well rotted as fresh manure can burn the roots of plants. Shredded bark, moist peat, garden compost and leaf mould all make suitable mulches, even grass cuttings can be used sparingly providing they have not been treated with weed killer recently. Before applying your chosen mulch make sure the ground is clean and damp and you have fed your roses. Spread a layer of mulch around the roses to a depth of 2-3ins – 5-6cm keeping it away from the stem or crown of the plant. Mulching is traditionally done in the spring, but we have found that mulching spring and autumn has been very beneficial.

Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk

ROSE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

AUSTRALIA

THE WELCOMING ENTERPRISE ROSES

FROM 1970-92, 30,000 migrants from around the world, including Cambodia, Vietnam, East Timor, Chile, China, Iran, Britain and Europe, called the Enterprise Migrant Hostel in Springvale home until they found permanent accommodation.

The most powerful memory for many of them when arriving at the hostel was the beautiful rose garden displaying masses of red blooms. It made them feel safe and secure in the knowledge that something so well cared for meant they, too, would be cherished and protected in their new country. Many were fleeing persecution from war-torn countries in the ’70s and ’80s and seeking refuge in Australia.

As one migrant told a committee formed to establish a permanent memorial for the hostel: ”Roses are symbolic, pruned and cared for just like the people, and they all bloomed. At my place there’s always a red rose. It means a lot.”

Given the symbolism of red roses to so many newcomers to Melbourne, it seems fitting that a new rose has been bred to honour the history of the hostel and the contribution made to the community by migrants and refugees, many of whom later settled in the Springvale area.

The first ‘Enterprise’ rose, bred by Treloar Roses, was planted earlier this month at the Lexington Gardens retirement village, the former site of the hostel, by Jose Alvarez, Victorian state director of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and Simon Crean, the Minister for the Arts and federal member for Hotham.

”Enterprise was the home to many arriving in this country for the first time,” Crean said. ”Those migrants have made an immeasurable contribution to this nation. Their spirit has shaped us and that spirit is reflected in this project. It is recognition of our strengths and our future intrinsically linked to our diverse cultural heritage.”

A bright-red floribunda with double pompon-style blooms produced in clusters of four to five, the ‘Enterprise’ rose’s colourful and bounteous beauty is a beacon of light for the many migrants and refugees who still live in the area, some of them now at the retirement village.

Eventually a bed of 200 roses will form a permanent memorial garden at the retirement village where migrants/refugees and their descendants can visit and reflect on the impact a rose garden had on their lives as newcomers to this country.

Merle Mitchell, project convener and former director of the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau, says the permanent memorial evolved from an exhibition at the Immigration Museum highlighting the contribution by migrants and refugees to Australia.

”People felt a permanent and physical acknowledgment was needed to honour the 30,000 people who had lived and worked at the hostel. It was an open book and lots of ideas came forth,” she says. ”Many said the first thing they saw was the beautiful rose garden at the hostel. Seeing that made them feel that they would be safe and secure in this country.

”So the idea of the ‘Enterprise’ rose was born. It was a wild idea but someone talked to Treloar Roses and they wanted to make a contribution to the asylum/refugee debate.”

The planting of the first rose was emotional for many who attended the ceremony.

A Cambodian refugee who arrived in the ’80s (in 1990 the hostel was a detention centre for 118 Cambodian ”boat people” who were not allowed to leave without permission) is now the mayor of Greater Dandenong and at the launch he met the teacher who had taught him English. ”There were lots of emotional reunions that day,” Mitchell says.

There has been a long tradition of naming roses after famous people from diverse backgrounds such as the Empress Josephine to Mary Queen of Scots, Leonardo da Vinci, Snow White, Cinderella, Dolly Parton, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Olivia Newton John.

Naming roses in support of causes is gaining popularity such as the ‘Jane McGrath’ rose to help breast cancer research. Another new cultivar by the breeding house of Treloar is the ‘Thank you’ rose for Transplant Australia as a symbol of gratitude ”when thanks is not enough”. An award-winning mauve floribunda, it produces clusters of fully petalled blooms, has a delicate smell and is a prolific grower.

Gary Matuschka, director of Treloar Roses, said it was a pleasure to support Transplant Australia and be able to highlight the importance of organ and tissue donation in Australia.

The rose will be available late next month. Treloar Roses will donate $1 from the sale of each plant to Transplant Australia’s Journey of Hope campaign to support those awaiting a transplant.

Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk

ROSE TIPS

CHANDOS BEAUTY 

ROSE TIPS

Create bigger roses:

When buds on hybrid tea roses appear, save the lead bud and remove the side buds for larger roses. Remove them early or you’ll get smaller roses. Do the opposite with floribundas; remove the center bud so the side buds can size up for larger bouquets.

Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk

ROSE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

CHINA

Rosa Dadu

NEW ROSE SPECIES DISCOVERED IN CHINA

A new species of multiflora rose bush reaching 30m in length, 5m in width and 5m in height was discovered on Dadu Mountain (??????), Greater Taichung, making it the largest type of multiflora rose bush in the country.

Wu Ching-shu (??????), an ecologist at Dadu Mountain, said earlier this week that he uncovered a new genus of baby rose endemic to Taiwan, during his field studies on the mountain in April last year.

“Following my field studies on the then-largest wild baby rose bush in southern Dadu Mountain, I happened to come across a different genus almost five times larger in size than the one I had observed,” Wu said.

Unlike the other native species of Dadu Mountain, the Rosa luciae, the back of the leaves of the new genus, which Wu has provisionally named “Rosa Dadu,” appears to be villous, Wu said.

Wu said the Rosa luciae are commonly seen in Greater Taichung, Changhua County and Miaoli County, with the flowers blooming around the beginning of April.

Research shows that there are about 30 bushes of Rosa luciae nationwide, with about 20 on Dadu Mountain, Wu said, but added that the number could be higher.

The new species has grown about 100,000 buds, which would gradually blossom into white flowers with five heart-shaped petals. Its shrubs are entwined around trees and among brushwood, with the blossoms emanating the fragrance of roses and attracting bees, Wu said.

Yang Kuoh-cheng (??????), an associate professor at Providence University’s ecology department, said the villous leaves differentiate the new species from the native genus Rosa Luciae, adding that the name “Rosa Dadu” commemorates the location of its discovery.

A NEW BREED OF ROSE

In related news, National Cheng Kung University said a new species of rose whose petals can change color in sunlight has been cultivated at a rose garden in Changhua County and could offer enormous potential business opportunities.

The new species, which is awaiting verification by the school, was bred by experts at the rose garden two years ago.

University officials said that when the bud starts to open, the edge of the petals gradually turn from light pink to neon pink.

When the flower fully opens, the color becomes much deeper as it is exposed to stronger sunlight, university officials said.

After verification is completed, the university will register the new species with the Council of Agriculture.

Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk

ROSE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD


USA

ROSES MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Tom Pinchbeck never dreamed he’d turn his family rose farm into an employment center for people with autism.

In 2008, faced with a sagging U.S. economy and fierce international competition from South American rose growers, Pinchbeck found himself priced out of the market. He had no choice but to do the unthinkable — close the farm started by his great-grandfather.

Shortly afterward, a college friend of Pinchbeck’s, Jim Lyman, approached him with an interesting proposition. Lyman was looking for a way to address the very real problem that many young adults with autism, including his own son, Eli, face: How to transition successfully into adulthood as they grow beyond the cutoff age of built-in state benefits and supports.

“Lyman approached me with the idea of using the greenhouses as a background for vocational therapy for people on the autism spectrum,” Pinchbeck says. “I was still reeling from having to close the place down, and it seemed like an interesting way of putting together a really unique program from the ashes of Pinchbeck’s Farm.”

Now Pinchbeck is working with the group Ability Beyond Disability to put a dent in a staggering statistic: the group says 88% of American adults with autism are unemployed.

“Our program is really designed for people to come into the program, to learn the skills they need and to help place them in their community, help them find a job, hopefully find a career, and really be a productive member of society,” says Joan Volpe, Ability Beyond Disability’s vice president. “That’s really the goal of Roses for Autism is for folks to be a part of a work life that we really take for granted.”

Helping achieve that goal is Lori Gregan, the farm’s retail manager who’s part cheerleader, part mom and part boss.

“I don’t have the book knowledge on autism,” she says, “But I do have the people knowledge, the instinct.”

She works with employees such as 29-year-old Ethel Bondi, who came into the Roses for Autism program struggling with anything outside her set routine.

“Ethel came, and anytime there was any change, anytime I asked her to do anything at all, it was like, ‘I quit.’ She would get her coat and she was gonna leave,” says Gregan. “I’m like, ‘whoa whoa whoa, why are you quitting?’ She’s like, ‘I can’t do that.’ It was always ‘I can’t.’ Now it’s like, ‘I will. I can. And I am going to.’ “

Bondi possesses a talent for making dried rose wreaths — one of the farm’s best-sellers.

“They were supposed to be for just Valentine’s Day, but then people wanted them afterward, and they are still wanting them,” she says.

How does that make her feel? “Proud,” Bondi says, smiling tentatively. “They are a big hit.”

“If I show Ethel she can make this wreath, she wins,” says Bondi. “She owns that, and now the next girl that comes in next to her, she can show her, and my job is done. She’s a viable employee. There might be a quirk or two, but that’s what makes us who we are, if all the stones in the river were the same, there would be no song.”

Will Swartzell, a 19-year-old Roses employee with autism, thrives on the uniqueness that makes him who he his. And he hopes success stories like his can help shatter misconceptions that might make employers hesitant to hire people on the autism spectrum.

“We all stereotype,” Swartzell says. “But I think it’s so important not to; to keep your mind open. Everybody’s different. Nothing defines a person except themselves.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by his mother, Sandra.

“I think it’s really important for these kids to have a place where they fit in and contribute,” she says. “They have so many great strengths, and I think people are focused more on their challenges more than their strengths. But a place like Roses can really allow them to celebrate who they are and at the same time learn important job skills that are so necessary for them to be productive members of our society. They are so capable of that. There is no doubt about it.”

Working often makes adults with developmental disorders happier and more satisfied with their lives, says Dr. Max Wiznitzer of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland. It gives them a sense of purpose, and they usually do a good job, he says. They’re often very focused.

“They follow the rules,” says Wiznitzer. “Autism is that way — one of the diagnostic criteria is the desire for sameness. They’re going to be punctual. They’re going to show up every day. They have a lot of positive behaviors that employers like. It can be very beneficial both for the employer and the employee.”

But there’s somewhat of a downside, says Wiznitzer. They work several hours a day, and “then they go back to where they’re living, and they’re somewhat isolated from everyone else and — what do they do with their leisure time? We have to make sure they have time for the other stuff, too.”

Looking across the retail center, where her employees are hard at work cutting, pruning, designing and packing, Gregan’s voice fills with optimism.

“To see the change in my employees from day one to day 10, there are no words. I can see this going global. There are people who are autistic all over the world. They just need to know how they fit in and we need to give them those tools. “

With the help of a few charitable grants, Roses for Autism is doing just that — helping young adults with autism fit in, find their strengths and improve their lives.

Pinchbeck’s alliance with Ability Beyond Disability has saved the family farm — turning it into a nonprofit business that produces almost a million flowers per year.

It’s a solution as unique as the workers who helped save the Pinchbeck family legacy, all the while finding their own place to shine.

For more on Roses for Autism, go to www.rosesforautism.com.

Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.

www.countrygardenroses.co.uk