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April Meeting
Thursday, April 17, 7 p.m.
Gary Ritchie, Phd.
Master Rosarian
The Rose Doctor:
Diagnose and Manage Rose Problems
TRS Board Meeting
Monday, April 28, 7 p.m.
Pt. Defiance Rose Garden
Thank you for all your great support
for this wonderful fundraiser for the rose garden!
Annual Rose Show
July 12, 2014
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THE MAGIC OF MULCH!
Mulch is a versatile tool for a
gardener. Mulch applied in the asring can diminish
the presence of weeds (weeds being weeds, we just
can’t quite say eliminate the weeds), can help us
conserve water, and can also give our beds a
pleasing dark color as contrast to the brighter
colors present in our rose plants.
Mulch applied in the fall will also
help to control the weeds (the darn things grow all
year long!) and also provide an insulating layer to
protect the vital graft area of our rose plants. If
you live in a particularly cold area you will want
to make sure your mulch layer extends 8” to 12”
above the ground level.
A good mulch should ‘breathe’ and
drain well so our roses do not end up spending the
winter with wet feet. The shredded leaves used at
Pt. Defiance Park seem to work well. Well composted
cow manure and professionally composted plant
material are also widely used and very effective.
Ask a Consulting Rosarian for a recommendation if
you will be new to using mulch.
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TACOMA ROSE SOCIETY
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TRS News
Our April 17 Meeting
The Rose Doctor:
Diagnose and Manage Rose Problems
by Gary Ritchie, Phd., Master Rosarian
Dr. Gary Ritchie resides in
Olympia, Washington and has grown roses for over 30
years. He is a Master Rosarian and a retired plant
physiologist. At 7:30 Dr. Ritchie will present us
with his program: “The Rose Doctor”. He will
teach us how to diagnose and manage several rose
problems with a system that can be applied to many
problems that we could experience with our beloved
plants. It is going to be a fun and informative
evening and your presence will help make it so.
Soil Testing at the April
Meeting
TRS member Mike Peterson will be
bringing pH testing equipment to our April meeting
so we can have our soil tested. The pH of the
soil must be between 6.0 and 6.5 in order for your
roses to be able to absorb the chemicals they need.
You can see that if your soil is too acidic (below
6.0), as it often is in the PNW, some chemicals will
not be available to your roses.
Please take advantage of this
opportunity to have your soil tested. Take samples
of each bed that you have. When taking your soil
samples, take a sample at each corner of your rose
bed 6 – 8 inches deep. Take two samples in the
center of your beds. Mix all the samples together
and bring about 1/4 of a baggie of the total soil
mix to our April meeting. Please label the baggie
with your name. Thanks so much to Mike and the
Puyallup Rose Society for offering this service.
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Regular Meetings - 2014
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February 20
March 20
April 17
May 15
June 19
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September 18
October 16
and
November
(TBA)
(Rose Auction)
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TRS Meetings are at
GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH
6202 S. Tyler Street, Tacoma, Washington
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ASK THE CONSULTING ROSARIAN
by
John Moe, Master Rosarian
Pruning tip for March
Q –
Last month you wrote about really getting carried away with
spring pruning in that you mentioned cutting off all that
new growth. I am having a difficult time convincing my wife,
even though she read your article a couple of times, that we
really need to do this. What can I say to make it a tad more
palatable?
A – If you can get her to realize that any
plant that has spent the winter outdoors, in temperatures
that for some came near the single digits, would have some
winter kill or at least some winter damage.
As the rose grows, the nutrients must move
upwards thru the cane to feed the buds and get them to grow
and eventually flower. The new growth starts at the top
(apical dominance) of the bush so, even though it might look
nice, that new growth does have some winter damage! The cane
just below most likely has been damaged by the cold as well.
If you take your pruners and cut off the top
few inches of a couple of canes and show her, you should be
able to see that the pith is not all the nice apple green
that we want, but has a shade of gray and maybe some brown.
If she is still not convinced, maybe you can make a deal
with her for this year.
She must have a favorite bush or two,
and can remember how well they had bloomed last year. Tell
her that you will timidly prune those bushes, getting rid of
the dead or cankerous canes, etc., but that you will prune
the rest as I wrote last month. If she will go for this
deal, I believe that she will see come June and July that
you were right, and you will not have to suffer thru this
next year. Let me know how it worked out.
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