In addition to loving roses, I also love our rose family. There are many facets to our rose-growing hobby, and different folks grow their roses for different reasons.

My BARF (best-always-rose-friend), John Mattia, used to grow roses solely for exhibition. He has won every rose prize there is for his perfect hybrid tea roses and it was only a matter of time before his interests in other areas of our hobby captured his attention. His photography of roses is absolute perfection and he spends a lot of time every summer lost behind his camera. Hours pass quickly with photography. He has thousands of rose pictures! His is a higher form of rose art and he knows how to capture his roses at their moment of perfection.

Best Hybrids

John’s multiple interests also led him to hybridizing. I’d be willing to wager he started making new rose creations 15-20 years ago. His most well-known rose is ‘Elizabeth Park Centennial’ which he introduced as a celebration of Elizabeth Park Rose Garden’s 100th birthday in 2004. Over the past few years, he has ramped up his hybridizing and turned down his rose exhibiting. His entire month of June is taken up by collecting pollen and making crosses of potential new roses in his garden. If the crosses take (which most do) the rosebush will form hips which harbor seeds to grow in the wintertime. It takes three months for the seeds to ripen. When the hips turn red, John harvests them (of course, everything is labeled), processes them, and puts them in damp paper towels in a ziplock bag, and into the veggie drawer in the fridge they go for stratification.

Rose seeds don’t germinate unless you fool them into thinking they’ve been through a mild winter. In early January, he plants them and generally gets to see the first blooms in six weeks or so. Then comes the hard task of deciding who to keep. I am always happy to accept some of John’s babies into my gardens.

Alternative Ways

My friend, Mirjana Toyn, also likes to grow roses from seeds, but she lets the bees do all the work! Mirjana grew up in Europe and favors the antique, or Old Garden roses. She loves the form and colors of the OGRs and because a lot of them only bloom once, she can fill shadier spots in her garden with these old treasures.

Those of us who grow the old roses don’t deadhead them because the hips are attractive in the fall and winter and provide food for the birds. But, Mirjana is enchanted with the idea of possible new creations from her antique roses because the bees carry in pollen from other roses and do the same job as John does, but the crosses are random. I love to hear John and Mirjana talk about their seeds as they start to sprout…Mirjana always says her babies are hatching! A couple of years ago, she entered one of her ‘babies’ in our rose show. Mirjana’s OGR baby was voted best seedling! My friend, Mirjana, was fairly bubbling with delight that day!

New Roses!

Last fall, Mirjana and her family thought they might be moving out of state, so she came over and brought some roses from her garden that she had potted up. (When rosarians move, they are always bound to bring some roses with them from their old home!) She asked me to keep them through the winter for her, which I was delighted to do.

One of the roses she brought was in a pint-sized pot and was one of her babies. I knew the bigger roses would be fine outside, but mid-winter I brought the little one in and it broke dormancy and started to grow. Yesterday, the first bloom began to open, and today I took her picture for Mirjana and for you! She is a brand-new Old Garden Rose! She is sitting on my desk as I write this and for such a little baby, her perfume is mighty! I am loving breathing in her heavy rose scent. So, thanks for planting that seed, Mirjana! It’s going to be hard to give her back to you!