From the 2018 President’s Desk . . . . . Melinda Early
L’Rose d’Orleans
2018 OFFICERS President
Melinda Early
Vice President Peggy Martin Karen Snyder
Treasurer
Freny Thunthy
Financial Secretary
Margaret DeLord
Recording Secretary
Dr. Donald Ayo
Historian Leo Watermeier
Publicity Chair Maria Lambert
Horticulture Chair Margaret Ganier
Nominating Committee
Peggy Martin Margaret Ganier
Debbie Rothschild
Volume 17 Number 3 A Quarterly Newsletter of the New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society Summer 2018
Greetings NOOGRS Members,
I just re-read my last newsletter message and noted that we were concerned with fluctuations in the weather conditions of early spring including, wind and rain. I know we were all looking forward to a nice spring following a true winter. However, spring was short-lived and we now seem to be in the throes of summer. Summer for me means hibernation; a time to catch up reading, knitting projects, and a time for reflection. My equivalent of a Midwestern winter. One of the things I plan to reflect on is how I can help move the NOOGRS for-ward towards the next twenty-five years.
The purpose of NOOGRS as stated in the By-laws is “[t]o spread the word about old roses, to return old roses to the gardens of the New Orleans area, and to preserve them for generations to come.” One of the ways the members have upheld this pur-pose is to hold sales of old roses obtained primarily from propagating cuttings from members’ gardens and the Armstrong Park collection. The success of the sales has re-sulted in a healthy balance in the bank ac-count. Additionally, the Society leadership has been fiscally conscientious in expendi-tures. The checking account balance as of April 30 was $13,619.66. Our rose sales, however, have fallen off the past few years for a variety of reasons. The principle in-
come is now from dues. A critical question in looking to the future is how can we con-tinue to uphold the purpose of the Society with limited income?
Is there a project we could take on, or valu-able donation we could make with existing funds which would honor the work that has been done over the past twenty-five years while retaining an appropriate operating budget? If we invest some of these funds now, should we embark on some form of fundraising to restore the funds? What would the fundraising be? Or, should we just continue to sit on the accumulated funds spending only what we need for lim-ited operations? These are some of the is-sues I would like to ask you to join me in considering during the heat of the summer. I would, however, like to be proactive and schedule a strategic planning session to explore what you, as NOOGRS members, envision for the future of the Society. I hope you will take a few minutes to reflect on these issues and provide some feedback at the next meeting including, whether you would participate in a strategic planning meeting and, if so, when you would be available to meet during the summer.
I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting, the last before our summer break.
Melinda
The Apothecary Rose
By Margaret Ganier
Page 2
2018 NO BOTANICAL GARDEN SHOW SATURDAY’S CREW
Rear: Sylvia Versowsky, Kathie Graythen, Margaret DeLord, Susan Johanson
Front: Melinda Early, Alice Reese, & Yvette Montz
Rosa gallica offinalis is known as “Apothecary Rose”
because she was for centuries the one-stop pharmacy
for healers in Europe and Asia. The leaves, blooms
and hips were used in poultices, salves, and tinctures
to treat everything from fever to melancholy. In the
twentieth century it was discovered that the medici-
nal properties of roses are quite real: rose hips have a high concentration of Vitamin C. Apothecary Rose
hips are still the favorite for rose hip teas, jellies and
other concoctions.
The flowers of Apothecary Rose are simple, single
or semi-double. Old descriptions call them
“red” (Apothecary Rose is supposedly the “red rose
of York” famous from the War of the Roses of Eng-
lish history), but to modern eyes they are “pink.”
The confusion results from the fact that before the
16th century, the word “pink” was not an adjective;
everything darker than “blush” was called “red.” The
scent is strong and penetratingly sweet. She blooms
only in spring, but the thick, forest green foliage
makes a lovely bush even without flowers. The hips
are huge and ripen to bright red, a remarkable sight
in the winter. The bushes sucker freely, in time
forming good-size thickets. This does have the ad-
vantage of producing a lot of pass-alongs, but, if that is
not what you have in mind, she grows nicely in a large
pot.
Although it does not seem natural for a European
Old Rose like Apothecary Rose to perform well in
our heat and humidity, I’ve seen a really big beautiful
specimen at Ed Moss’s home in Chauvin, practically in
the Gulf of Mexico. Some shade in the summer
seems to be the trick.
Photo by Bill Haber
Calendar Page 3 Volume 17 Number 3
June 5, 2018 —NOOGRS meeting: Kathleen Currie “Roses Infused oil”
June 8, 2018 — NO Botanical Garden Sale
June 16, 2018—Garden Fest, Burden Garden in Baton Rouge, LA 8-1p
Garden Fest is happening June 16 from 8:00-1:00 at the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens! Join us for a
day of garden fun: waterslides, hayrides, educational sessions, vegetable tastings, and more! June 22, 2018—-Gulf District workshop See page 11—Crystal Springs, MS
July 14, 2018—NO Botanical Garden Sale
August 11, 2018—NO Botanical Garden Sale
September 4, 2018 — NOOGRS meeting: Neil Odenwald, LSU Agriculture
September 8, 2018—NO Botanical Garden Sale
October 2, 2018—NOOGRS meeting: Pam Smith, Farmer’s Branch Garden European Teas
October 6-7, 2018—-NO Botanical Garden Fall Show
November 6, 2018—NOOGRS meeting: Texas Rose Rustlers
December 4, 2018 — NOOGRS Holiday party — pot luck dinner & sharing presents
“Peace” Rose Stamp Unveiled at ARC April 21, 2018 A first day issue ceremony for the Peace Rose took place in the David Austen rose garden at the American Rose Society outside Shreveport, Louisiana. The “Peace” Rose forever stamp will be avail-able for approximately 3 -4 months. Pick up a book of 20 stamps for $10. Get them while they last. Video and photos of events at: https://www.facebook.com/ GulfDistrictAmericanRoseSociety Scroll down to April 21 to find the video and photos.
Page 4 L’Rose d’Orleans
The function of mulch is the prohibition of weed growth and the conservation of ground moisture by providing a physical barrier covering over the ground. Where does it say it has to be pine bark or pine straw or some other inert stuff? From “covering the ground” it is only a short step to “ground cover,” the designation of a low-growing plant. With very few exceptions, the root systems of these plants are only a few inches deep and will not interfere with the health of the rose bushes. The only limitations to your imagination in using living “mulch” around your roses are sun-tolerance and manageable height that won’t grow up into the bushes, unless, of course, that is the effect you want. If you are after the Big Bang and can handle the la-bor intensity, annuals are unbeatable as far as color effect goes. Ground hugging bloomers like dwarf snapdragon, pansies, and petunias for cool weather and dwarf zinnias, marigolds, melampodium, scabiosa, and periwinkles for summer will create a literal floral carpet. A bonus to using annuals: at the end of the season, instead of pulling them up, just cut them off at ground level; the roots will decom-pose and enrich the soil. Even easier is simply to cover over the withered plants with a layer of leaves or grass clippings and create some “in place” compost. Perennials take a little longer to produce the “Wow” effect, but with a little TLC, they will last for years, getting fuller and prettier all the time. Once again, the possibilities are vast. Some I have tried and can highly recommend are daisies, black-eyed susan, coneflower, creeping phlox, iris cristada, cush-ion mums, verbenas, dianthus, ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint, wandering jew, gold crop sedum, lyre-leaf salvia, creeping jenny, Mexican sage, and day lily. Perennials in general don’t have as long a blooming season as annuals, but, once established, the foliage creates a nice green mat that is attractive even without the flowers and complements the rose blossoms beautifully. Head on out to the garden center and get some new car-peting to spruce up your rose garden this spring.
Love That Blooming Mulch
Margaret Ganier, Horticulture Chair
Iris cristada, evergreen spear foliage
Phlox pilosa, “prairie phlox,” a southern wild-flower
Phlox divericata, “Opelousas phlox,” favorite pass-along
Lyreleaf sage forms a dense mat of leaves Melampodium for dependable sum-mer color Walker’s Low catmint
Page 5 Volume 17 Number 3
Regional Report on Armstrong Park in the American Rose Society magazine
Our Past The New Orleans Old Garden
Rose Society grew out of the efforts of rose
gardeners in the New Orleans area to con-
serve Old Garden Roses, the roses popular
in gardens before 1867, and to spread inter-
est in and cultivation of those roses. Word
was put out for a meeting for anyone inter-
ested and, by the end of the evening, the
New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society, with
40 founding members, was in operation. That
was in 1993; this March we celebrate our
25th anniversary
Our Now New Orleans has a long tradition
of elegant outdoor living and beautiful gar-
dens. Even before the introduction of the
‘Knockout’ series and similar landscape
plants, roses and particularly Old Garden
Roses have been used in municipal plantings
as well as in private gardens in the city. Our
typically freeze-free winters permit us to
have huge, lush specimen of the delicate Tea
roses that struggle in more northerly cli-
mates. And we are favored with two bloom-
ing seasons: in March and November, when many people are digging out of, or digging in for, a hard winter, we are harvesting
the best roses of the year. Unfortunately, that same freeze-free winter prevents our enjoying the many lovely European Old
Garden Rose species and hybrids — the gallicas, albas, centifolias, hybrid perpetuals, damasks and others — at their best. That
privilege is reserved for up North. Down South, the stars of our gardens are our teas, chinas, noisettes, and hybrid musks. To
choose just one or even just a dozen favorites is impossible, but some of our beloved stalwarts (and excellent introductions for
the newcomer to the world of Old Garden Roses) are the teas ‘Duchesse de Brabant’, ‘Mrs B.R. Cant’, and ‘Mme Berkeley’;
noisettes ‘Reve d’Or’, ‘Lamarque’, and ‘Blush Noisette’; and chinas “Martha Gonzales”, ‘Cramoisi Superieur’, and ‘Mutabilis’, all
outstanding landscape roses.
Attractions One of the attractions of Old Garden Ros-
es is their ease of cultivation. Before the current swing to
chemical-free rose gardening, OGRs offered the most
satisfactory means of enjoying the beauty of roses with-
out danger to the environment or to the gardener. From
the beginning of NOOGRS, we have been committed to
chemical-free rose growing and the spectacular gardens
of members, like ‘Peggy Martin’, a dedicated organic gar-
dener, is proof of the utility of it.
The Antique Rose Garden at Armstrong Park The
jewel of New Orleans rose culture is the Antique Rose
Garden at Louis Armstrong Park, just across Rampart
Street from the French Quarter. The rose garden is
home to one of the largest collection of tea, china, poly-
antha, hybrid musk and noisette roses in the United
States, many of them rare and found only in a few other
gardens worldwide, all under the loving curatorship of
Leo Watermeier, one of the New Orleans Old Garden
Rose Society founding members. The best time to view
the garden is early spring or late fall, when the weather is perfect for strolling. There is no charge for admission. If you are there
on Sunday morning, you will probably run into Leo, pruning, weeding or watering.
Margaret Ganier submitted the photos and Peggy Martin provided the information.
Page 6 L’Rose d’Orleans
Volume 17 Number 3 Page 7
Page 8 L’Rose d’Orleans
“Roses are the ultimate juxtaposition of beauty and evil.
They’re so delicate, yet their thorns can draw blood.”
Fallon Shea Anderson
1. Fallon Shea Anderson has accomplished so much in the rose world and is a true rose worship-
per. At age 19, she was offered a chance to work on a wholesale rose farm in California Sonoma
County. With passion but no experience, she ended up overseeing 5 acres of roses with at least
5,000 roses. Today she’s a rose star and consultants on rose cultivation and floral design in South-
ern California. Her roses are used in wedding bouquets and she is setting the standard. Follow her on Facebook, twitter, or if you are like me, purchase the May 2018 issue of Sunset magazine. As
Fallon says, “roses aren’t the fussy divas they used to be. They’re actually totally functional features of the
landscape. Just be careful. It’s an addiction.” (Amen!) 2. Add The Garden Primer: Second Edition Revised by Barbara Damrosch to your must-read-book-
list. Her book has been described as “the only book on perennial gardening that you’ll ever need”. Bar-
bara was the garden writer for The Washington Post. She is a fabulous writer and she thinks like a
plant! Originally written in 1988, and she teamed up with her husband, Eliot Coleman, to update the
book in 2018 with more information including gardening in the south and west. She has now gone
completely organic. A great book! They own an experimental market garden in Harborside, Maine
so also check out fourseasonfarm.com for more information - a beautiful website, too! 3. The Peace Rose stamp is now available and it is a beauty! The French horticulturist Francis Meiland
in Germany developed the Peace Rose during WWII. Meiland was able to smuggle rose cuttings out
to 3 known sources. It was known by different names. After WWII the rose was renamed Peace
because it was the greatest hope of the world. If only peace could be that easy. Pick up some
Peace Rose stamps to use on your travels this summer and mail peace to the world!! 4. Be sure to practice “safe gardening” this summer. Wear a hat, sunscreen, and sunglasses to pro-
tect you from the sun. Wear gloves to protect your hands (and manicure!). 5. After a hard day in your rose garden, relax on your patio surrounded by your roses with a glass of
wine from Thorny Rose! 6. For your hair spritz on Diptyque’s Eau Rose Hair Mist. This scented hair mist will give you a
boost. Order it from Diptyqueparis.com! 7. I recently read Younger Next Year for Women by Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, M.D.
Don’t worry men, their first book, Younger Next Year was written for you! Both books discuss
the importance of exercise and how you can live strong, fit and sexy, until your 80s and beyond!
Gardening is great exercise for both mental and physical benefits. It is a great mind-expanding hob-
by and can help you de-stress and feel “grounded”. So stay involved with gardening – even if by re-
mote control! “Simply sticking our fingers into the soil or sniffing a flower brings a mental benefit that may
be difficult to define but is certainly real.” Family Circle, May 2018.
So spritz on some Eau Rose Hair Mist, do safe gardening and wear a hat, relax with a glass of wine from
Thorny Rose, read The Garden Primer and Sunset, write a letter and mail Peace, and stop and smell the
ROSES!!
Across the Fence,
Summer 2018
by Laura Querens
Page 9 ROSE RAMBLINGS ON THE WEB, Summer 2018
By Margaret Delord
9 of 10
You can’t buy Happiness but you can buy Plants
& that’s pretty much the same thing!!
What happened to our beautiful spring weather??? It’s so hot now so I think I should garden inside,
on the sofa, and with my ipad! I love to cruise the Internet looking at gardens and of course, roses. It’s a
great escape and an easy way to learn about rose gardening.
1. Carolyneroehm.com – Carolyne Roehm is a fashion trendsetter, author, artist and rose lover. Click
on Topics and go to The Glorious Roses this Summer.” She has beautiful garden books and drawings availa-
ble for purchase. Check out her website for ideas. Her floral arrangements are beautiful. As she says,
“It’s too big to describe” is my answer when asked why the rose and peony are my favorite flower. Beautiful
photographs, great ideas. 2. Susanrushton.net – Susan Rushton “celebrates gardens, nature, photography and a creative life” all in
one. She has a beautiful website and a blog that you can follow. The pictures are GORGEOUS!! Scroll
down and find the article, “Roses are the Most Graceful Flowers.” The pictures are so colorful. My other
favorite article is “Recipe for a Traditional English Cottage Garden.” Her inspirational posts make me want
to plant more flowers – and roses!! 3. Rockrose.blogspot – The blog’s author just attended the 10th Annual Garden Bloggers Fling in Austin,
TX. The author is from Austin, too. She has lots of tips and lots of other websites you can link to in-
cluding My European Tour and More English Gardens. So many gardens to see!! 4. I recently went to Bantings Nursery across the river, and they have old garden roses from The An-
tique Rose Emporium! Who knew!!! I treated myself to a Mother’s Day gift - a Marie Pavie rose – it
has a beautiful scent with pale pink buds that unfold to creamy white flowers. The cost was the same as
the on-line price – And no shipping charges. Check out Bantings Nursery (across the river & across the
lake) – it is beautiful and they have many roses – both modern and old garden. Buy local!!
The Dainty Rose The dainty rose stood
By Caren Krutsinger Proud of her tight thorns
Fragrance in garden
Thanks to Ed and Sue Sanchez for
sharing their rose garden with us!
The pink rose sprawling behind
Sue and Eddie is Abraham
Darby.
P. O. Box 7704
Metairie, LA
70009-7704
Newsletter
submissions:
NOroses2013@
gmail.com
THE NEW ORLEANS OLD GARDEN ROSE SOCIETY
MEETS AT JOHN CALVIN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FELLOWSHIP HALL
4201 TRANSCONTINENTAL
METAIRIE, LA 70006
The New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society is a non-profit organization dedicat-ed to preserving and fostering Old Garden Roses. Our mission is to spread the word about old roses, to return old roses to the gardens of the New Orleans ar-ea and to preserve them for generations to come. Membership is open to any-one interested in old garden roses. Annual dues are $25.00. We meet on the first Tuesday of the month except July & August at 7 p.m. The church is 2 blocks from West Esplanade between Fairfield and Glendale. Turn onto Glendale to get to the parking lot. The Fellowship Hall is located toward the back. For more information visit our website: www.neworleans-oldroses.com or our Face-book page:
https://www.facebook.com/neworleansoldrose/info/
Newsletter Committee: Ann Byerly, Co-Editor; Margaret Granier, Co-Editor; Margaret Delord, Laura Querens, Melinda Early, and Leo Watermeier.
NEW ORLEANS OLD
GARDEN ROSE
SOCIETY
www.neworleans-oldroses.com
New Orleans Old Garden Rose Society
P.O. Box 7704
Metairie, Louisiana
70009-7704 www.neworleans-oldroses.com
Page 10
Rouge Royal rose
in the
Sanchez’s
garden