Past PRS Events (2016-2020)

How Can I Get One of Those?
Ordering Roses by Mail

Sunday, January 17, 2020
2:00 to 3:30 PM

How many times have you seen beautiful roses in magazines, public gardens, or on the Internet and wondered, how can I get one of those? With tens of thousand of roses in cultivation, only a few of the most popular are available for purchase at local big box stores and garden centers. Luckily, some nurseries specialize in growing and selling roses via mail order. In this presentation, members of the Potomac Rose Society will share information about their favorite sources for purchasing healthy, disease resistant roses via the mail. Learn their tips for researching roses on the Internet, selecting mail order nurseries, timing a rose order, choosing root stock, caring for roses upon arrival, and negotiating shipping errors, plant damage, and other problems.

Free and open to the public!

4th Annual Symposium on Disease Resistant Roses

GROWING LOCAL: THE BEST ROSES FOR THE DMV AND HOW TO GROW THEM!

Potomac Rose Society members and friends revealed their favorite roses and tips for growing roses sustainably in the District, Maryland and Virginia region. Jessica Bonilla, Head Gardener at Hillwood Gardens, shared Hillwood's best practices for getting maximum blooms from minimal effort.

Potomac Rose Society members shared their favorite, disease resistant roses that they grow in their own gardens. Attendees learned about the tried and true roses that we know work well in the DMV climate. Master Gardeners and Consulting Rosarians answered questions.

Rose Testimonials

• Marie Pavie, Polyantha, Shelley Gaskins
• Old Blush, China, Kathryn George
• Ducher, China, Olivia Devereux
• Souvenir de la Malmaison, Bourbon, Reed Abrahamson
• Blush Noisette, Noisette, Reed Abrahamson
• Bordeaux, Floribunda, Lisa Mundy
• Iceberg, Floribunda, Joe Covey
• Plum Perfect, Floribunda, Shelley Gaskins
• Easy Does It, Floribunda, Ray Shipley
• Climbing American Beauty, Hybrid Wichurana, Inez Jackson
• Scarborough Fair, Shrub, Carol Edwards
• Quietness, Shrub, Ray Shipley
• Just Joey, Hybrid Tea, Jay Jensen (not disease resistant)
• Barbra Streisand, Hybrid Tea, Jay Jensen (not disease resistant)
• Wedding Bells, Hybrid Tea, Inez Jackson
• The McCartney Rose, Hybrid Tea, Lou Giacchino
• Savannah, Hybrid Tea, Inez Jackson

3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Symposium on Disease-Resistant Roses

Featuring Paul Zimmerman, an internationally-recognized rose expert

Sunday, May 6, 2018
Brookside Gardens Auditorium, 1800 Glenallan Avenue, Wheaton, Maryland 20902

• 1:00  Opening Remarks
• 1:15 Paul Zimmerman Keynote
• 2:30 Break
• 2:45 Panel: The Right Rose for Your Place
  • Learn about Roses for Shade, Arbors and Pergolas, Hedging, and Cutting for floral arrangements.
  • Panelists: Larry Ichter, Inez Austin Jackson, Connie Hilker and Reed Abrahamson
• 4:00 Refreshments
• 4:30 Brookside Rose Garden Tour

Keynote speaker, Paul Zimmerman, in his presentation, Roses are Plants, Too: A Guide to Sustainable Gardening, discussed about practices that keep your garden roses and companion plants healthy and beautiful, without using synthetic chemicals. Attendees learned how to select, plant, prune, and water roses, how to maintain nourishing garden soil, and how to keep your blooms vigorous and foliage healthy. Paul Zimmerman, a dynamic and humorous speaker, is author of Everyday Roses, How To Grow Knockout And Other Modern Garden Roses, a consulting rosarian, and former judge of international rose trials.

A panel of local rosarians answered questions to help you choose The Right Rose For Your Place. Panelists included: Larry Ichter, Inez Austin Jackson, Connie Hilker and Reed Abrahamson. They discussed which roses perform well in the District-Maryland-Virginia area. Panelists provided recommendations for roses that  grow in challenging places for specific purposes like shade, cutting, arbors and hedges.

About Paul Zimmerman
Paul Zimmerman is owner of Paul Zimmerman Roses and is dedicated to budding the rose grower in all of us.  His approachable method to growing roses in a garden setting is the focus of his book Everyday Roses published by Taunton Press.  Paul is Coordinator of the Biltmore International Rose Trials and exclusive rose consultant to the Estate.  He is the spokesperson for Jackson & Perkins and is Head of Design for their new Jackson and Perkins Landscape & Garden Design Service. His You Tube channel of approachable rose growing videos has had over 2.5 million views.

As the former owner of a rose care company in Los Angles and also Ashdown Roses a small boutique mail order rose nursery carrying hundreds of different varieties of roses, Paul has always been focused on rose care and making roses growing more approachable for gardeners who want to use them in a general garden setting. To Paul a rose is nothing more than a flowering shrub and he has spent 25 years spreading the word.

2nd Annual Mid-Atlantic Symposium on Disease Resistant Roses

Featuring Gaye Hammond

Saturday, June 3, 2017, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Silver Spring Library

Gaye Hammond, nationally-recognized rose expert and contributor to The Sustainable Rose Garden—A Reader in Rose Culture. Photo by Carol Edwards.

Have you ever wanted to grow beautiful roses, but thought that they were too difficult? Attendees at this Symposium learned that disease-resistant roses are the answer. These gorgeous, easy care roses will thrive in the DC Metropolitan area. If you can grow weeds, you can grow these roses!

Gaye Hammond is a nationally recognized consulting rosarian and past President of the Houston Rose Society, the largest local rose society in the United States with over 1,000 members. She has served on their Board of Directors for almost 20 years and is a Life Member and Steward of the American Rose Society. She is also a member of the Garden Writers Association and special section editor of American Rose magazine.

Gaye has been the study liaison between the Houston Rose Society and Texas AgriLife Extension in connection with the Earth-Kind Rose Research Program, a scientifically significant research study that was originally designed to identify the most carefree and disease resistant roses that would grow in Southern gardens.

Pat Shanley, ARS President. Photo by Carol Edwards.

This three-part afternoon program featured:

• Gaye Hammond spoke on Easy Care Roses
• American Rose Society President, Pat Shanley, highlighted the importance of the American Garden Rose Selection program and endorsed disease-resistant rose culture
• A panel on Growing Roses Without Chemicals in the DC Metro Area, and Resources for Disease Resistant Roses

Bourbon and Tea

Celmentina Carbonieri, bourbon rose

Souvenir de la Malmaison, tea rose

Connie Hilker of Hartwood Roses shared some of her favorites that grow well in the DMV. Ms. Hilker gave a great presentation and the more than 30 participants enjoyed a discussion with one of our nation’s experts on old garden roses. Many of us were inspired to add one of these beauties to our collections.

Connie Hilker is a lifelong gardener with over 600 varieties of roses in her personal collection. She is the chair of the Heritage and Preservation Committee of the American Rose Society, Old Garden Rose chair for the American Rose Society Colonial District, Historian of the Richmond Rose Society, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Heritage Rose Foundation. Connie manages the documentation, preservation, and restoration of the historic rose collection at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, and is the rose consultant at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. She can often be found collecting roses from cemeteries and old home sites; teaching classes on rose history, care, and propagation; or tending to the roses with her husband Steve in her garden at their historic home in Hartwood, Virginia. Connie’s overall message is that ‘roses are not rocket science’ and she strives to show that anyone with a basic knowledge of gardening can choose appropriate roses and grow them well.

Guided Tour of Tudor Place Historic Garden in Georgetown

This special tour was conducted by Allyson Whalley and her staff. While masked and social distancing, we received a detailed tour of the grounds. The Tudor Place grounds were continuously cultivated and improved upon by six generations of the Peter family from 1805 to 1983. A series of garden rooms connect features over 5.5 acres. The garden includes roses, boxwood, and many other perennials and annuals.

Run for the Roses Pre-Race Happy Hour Rose Talk

Animal Kingdom, ridden by John Velazquez, had never raced on dirt before winning the 2011 Kentucky Derby. The colt won by 2 1/2 lengths and was a 20:1 long shot.

The Kentucky Derby has grown into an American cultural event unlike any other since its inaugural running in 1875, and the race’s association with red roses has a history as rich as The Derby itself.  It all started in 1883, when New York socialite Evander Berry Wall presented red roses to ladies at a fashionable Louisville post-Derby party that was attended by Churchill Downs founder and President, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark. The roses were such a sensation that Clark adopted red hybrid tea roses as the official flowers of the Kentucky Derby. Later, Clark began to use red roses to decorate the post-Derby party, and by the 1890’s the red roses were also being used in the post-race presentations, first as a bouquet for the winning jockey, then as a garland for the winning horse.  In 1925, then-sportswriter Bill Curom, who later went on to be President of Churchill Downs, coined the term “Run for the Roses”, and that name is now synonymous with the all-important first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

RED ROSES was the theme for this year’s PRS Happy Hour Rose Talk. Carol Edwards showed 10 disease-resistant roses for our area and we all compared notes on how they do in our gardens. We chatted about the celebratory drinks including the traditional mint julep, a red rose inspired cocktail by Carol and a Pimm by Kathy Jentz. We also shared our hats. Prizes went to Kathy Jentz for best rose, Inez Austin for best hat, and Carol Edwards for best cocktail.  Prizes were some of the best rose books, donated by a former member of PRS.

Floral Design with Roses

A participatory group created gorgeous arrangements to cheer the life of someone who has been especially helpful or gracious to you during the pandemic or for their own enjoyment.

Sachi of Sachi Rose Design led a beginner’s workshop. Sachi walked us through the creation of a lush, garden-style centerpiece. We learned how to “condition” each stem to designing in vases. Download the DIY FLORAL DESIGN GUIDE.

About Sachi: In 2008, Sachi graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in painting and ended up moving back to LA to pursue a career as a starving artist. That didn't work out because Sachi has an awesome appetite, so she decided to get a side job at a sweet little flower shop called Botany. Flowers quickly became her medium of choice as she went on to become the head designer, and finally discovered her calling.

Eventually Sachi moved to Brooklyn and designed for a handful of New York's top florists until 2013, when she decided to venture out on her own. Starting out as a one-woman-show fulfilling small orders soon turned into designing large scale events all over the country.

Pruning Demonstration and Volunteer Opportunity

On two consecutive Sundays in March, PRS members learned rose pruning techniques from experts and helped care for the more than 1000 roses at the Brookside Rose Gardens. Newcomers were paired with experienced pruners for 1-on-1 teaching. Participants had a chance to learn and put into practice best pruning techniques while providing hands-on help to one of the most important rose gardens in the Washington DC area.

Local Public Rose Gardens

Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, took us on a virtual tour of local public gardens at the February 16, 2019 meeting. She shared the insider details of the best local gardens in the District, Maryland and Virginia along with beautiful pictures of the roses and companion plants.

Integrated Management Strategies for Sustaining Rose Health

On January 26, 2020, Jody Fetzer, Plant Health Horticulturist for Montgomery County, MD parks, shared details and data about what has worked for her as a plant health manager to achieve balance between pests, beneficials, nutrients and diseases in the public rose gardens,  including the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (hybrid tea rose garden, shrub rose garden & research rose plots/ also greenhouse roses), New York Botanical Garden (Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden), Hillwood Estate's rose garden and now Brookside Gardens' rose garden. Her presentation focused on the three tenants of of healthy roses-selecting the right rose, planting in the right place, and controlling disease and pests. She discussed the many elements of Integrated Pest Management practices in public rose gardens. Ms. Fetzer discussed rose midge, sawfly, thrips, mites, black spot, virus, powdery mildew, nutrients, mulch, biological controls and chemical control.

Roses, Garlic and More, A Love Story

Theresa Speight shared why this unlikely pair is a match made in heaven! Garlic protects roses from harmful bugs and helps prevent fungal diseases. Attendees learned about the different varieties of garlic and how to grow them in your garden to maximize the benefit to your roses. Ms. Speight also shared the medicinal uses of garlic.

Show Your Garden to Best Effect
with Compelling Hardscaping

On a rainy Sunday in October, a large group came together to learn about landscape design from LAB's Joe Chambers. We learned about the different hardscaping materials to best show off our garden. Joe walked us through the basics of garden planning and hardscape construction for gardens. There were amazing examples of multi-million dollar homes as well as some local projects. Joe brought samples of different materials for a round the table show-and-tell discussion. This was a great opportunity to learn different options from a professional landscape architect.

Joe Chambers of LAB Inc.

The Landscape Architecture Bureau, Inc. has successfully shown off gardens with roses such as New Dawn, Fairy and many of the David Austin roses with well-designed hardscape features.

Private Tour and Reception at the Smithsonian's Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden

The Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden. Courtesy of Smithsonian Gardens.

The Potomac Rose Society had a private garden tour and reception at the Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden with Smithsonian Garden's Horticulturalist Shelley Gaskins. Completely renovated in 2016 to incorporate disease resistant rose varieties along with companion plantings designed to attract beneficial insects, the Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden is an outstanding model for sustainable rose culture.  We saw how the new plantings have matured and to learned about complementary perennials, in time to incorporate them into our own gardens this Fall.

Companion Plants with Pizzazz:
A Few Garden Plants to Add BLING to your Garden Roses!

On April 14, 2019, Teresa Speight wowed PRS members with a plethora of examples for how to select the best companion plants to enhance the beauty of your garden roses.  She included a few of the tried and true rose companions, including clematis, and introduced us to surprising combinations.  Teri gave us a novel perspective on rose companion plants and new ideas to refresh our garden design.

Master Gardener Teresa J. Speight is an experienced writer, visionary, and estate garden designer.   Through her web blog, Cottage In The Court, Teresa shares garden information emphasizing earth-friendly practices with her many followers.  She is the former Head Gardener for the City of Fredericksburg and one of the Founding Farmers of the Eitt CSA, Stafford County’s first Transitional Organic CSA Farm.  Teresa is passionate about sharing her love of gardening while finding time to enjoy writing, traveling, and living.  A native Washingtonian with ancestral roots in the Carolinas, she believes that connecting with the earth honors her heritage profoundly. Teresa invites us all to sit awhile with her at her Cottage In The Court, as we find and create beauty naturally.

The ARS Great Garden Restoration Project + Get the Rose Garden Ready For Spring!

On March 17, 2019, PRS member and ARS Regional Director, Ray Shipley brought us up-to-date on the American Rose Society’s Great Garden Restoration Project. This is an 118 acre ARS rose garden at the Shreveport, Louisiana headquarters.  Ray also reviewed all of the steps necessary to prepare our own roses for Spring to ensure our best blooms ever!

Rice 'n Roses:  PRS Rose Social Hour at The Hotel Monaco’s "Dirty Habit"

The results of our January Feedback Sessions made it clear:   PRS members wanted to get social!  More than 12 people got together on Friday February 22 for a special PRS Rose Social Hour at Dirty Habit, the centerpiece restaurant of DC’s Hotel Monaco. We talked about roses with new and old friends and experienced the rose-based cocktail that has the whole city talking!

Photos are available at: https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine/

Notable English Gardens from Recent Travels

On February 17, 2019, a large group of garden lovers met for another fantastic program in our Rose Tourism series with Holly Shimizu. Ms. Shimizu showed some of her favorite English gardens visited in 2018. Roses and their companion plants were highlighted including clematis and perennials.

Holly H. Shimizu is a nationally recognized horticulturist, consultant, and educator.   With a rich background in all aspects of public gardens, extensive experience leading garden tours and workshops, and a proven commitment to plant conservation and sustainability, she has been making plants and gardens more accessible and exciting to both professionals and amateurs for over four decades.

Start the New Year with Roses

Rose Society members and friends met on January 20, 2019 to engage in an interactive interactive program with a round robin discussion of key rose-related issues. The results of the discussions will be summarized and shared with members. This session was followed by our special speaker, Mary Lou Winder, Chairperson of the Rose Bead Group with the Potomac Unit of the Herb Society of America. Ms. Winder showed us the magic of using roses in bead making.

We learned how to craft beautiful and fragrant jewelry using our own rose blooms and learned the rich history of rose beads with a hands-on  demonstration, followed by an Exhibition and SALE of The Potomac Unit’s beautiful rose bead necklaces and earrings.

Mary Lou has been making rose beads for nearly 20 years, and became Chairperson of the Potomac Unit’s Rose Bead Group in 2007. Members of the Potomac Unit ­started making rose beads in 1967, and they continue to hold rose-bead workshops throughout the year, and to sell the necklaces and earrings at herb festivals, annual plant sales, and meetings.

Propagating Roses

Larry Ichter discusses rose propagation techniques

A large group of PRS members turned out to learn how to successfully propagate roses. Potomac Rose Society members Larry Ichter, Christiane Rosamont, and Reed Abrahamson shared their techniques in a hands-on workshop. Attendees took home a new rose. The educational presentation is available for download.

Christiane Rosamont (front right), Reed Abrahamson (middle right) and others work on propagating roses at this hands-on workshop.

Josephine - The Empress Gardener

Empress Josephine “Portrait de l'impératrice Joséphine” by Jean-Baptiste REGNAULT

Her legendary love of roses stopped a war, cost a fortune, set explorers to sail, and started a floral industry that endures today.  The Potomac Rose Society met on Sunday, October 21 tolearn about the remarkable life and work of Empress Josephine.

Lesley Parness has been a public garden professional for the past four decades, working with botanic gardens and museums here and in Europe.  Recently retired as Superintendent of Horticultural Education at the Morris County Park Commission (NJ), she lectures widely on garden history and gardening in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and can be visited at lesleyparness.com.

Private Garden Tour and Reception at the Smithsonian Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden

The Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden. Courtesy of Smithsonian Gardens.

On September 9, 2018 a group of rose enthusiasts braved the rain for a tour of the recently renovated Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden. Smithsonian horticulturist Shelley Gaskins conducted this tour as a follow-up to her standing-room only presentation in November 2016 on the renovation of the garden and the decision to include disease resistant rose varieties along with companion plantings to attract beneficial insects. Many of the new plantings are now in their second year, so this was an excellent opportunity to view a wide selection of healthy varieties and get new ideas to incorporate into your own gardens. The Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden is located on the National Mall at 900 Jefferson Drive, SW, Washington, DC, in front of the Arts & Industries Building and East of the Smithsonian Castle.

Making Beautiful Container Plantings with Roses

Pat Austin rose by David Austin Roses

You can grow beautiful roses even if you don’t have a big garden and perfect soil! Roses are ideal for growing in containers, creating a fragrant, floral spectacle on decks and balconies or alongside paths and entrances.  The Potomac Rose Society welcomed Eva Monheim - Horticultural and Environmental Consultant and Educator, who helped us learn all about Growing Roses in Containers.  Eva Monheim has studied horticulture at Penn State University and at The University of Reading in England and is former Assistant Professor of Horticulture at Temple University.  She has taught at the Philadelphia Flower Show, New York Botanical Garden, The Barnes Foundation, and the Morris Arboretum. She is currently an instructor in the Professional Gardening Program at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

Eva Monheim

Rose Rosette Disease: An Update

We have all seen the unsightly stands of Knockout Roses planted in median strips and occasionally, our home gardens, that have strange, deformed stem and leaf configurations.  This anomaly, known as Rose Rosette Disease, attacks our hybrid teas, climbers, shrubs and all other types of roses.  Dr. Mark Windham spoke at the U.S. National Arboretum. He is a leading researcher on Rose Rosette and provided an update on this disease that is a threat to the gardens of all rose lovers.

DR. MARK WINDHAM discussed current research being conducted on Rose Rosette Disease (RRD), as well as the latest research identifying disease resistant varieties. The American Rose Society Research Endowment Trust identifies Rose Rosette Disease as the greatest threat to the future of commercial and recreational growth, and the enjoyment of roses. In 2012, ARS selected Dr. Windham to head a three-year study about the management of RRD. The objectives were to determine how rosarians manage RRD in their gardens and identify best practices
for RRD, besides eliminating plants with symptoms. Dr. Windham also believes that roses have lost popularity due to growing public aversion to the regular use of pesticides in home gardens and has therefore been developing a list of roses that homeowners can successfully grow without reliance on chemical control tactics. Rose Rosette will continue to be a threat to our home gardens for years to come. In a grant fully funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Research Initiative, Dr. Windham is included in a group of 18 scientists concerned with Rose Rosette research (housed at Texas A & M), that continues to lead research on Rose Rosette Disease.

Please Show Us Your Garden

Using visuals, Tina Hochberg, Joe Covey, and Reed Abrahamson, all  members of the Potomac Rose Society, discussed the evolution of their home gardens, featuring their experiences in adding and maintaining roses. Presenters included examples of personal successes and challenges, as well as plans for the future. In this popular annual presentation, participants picked up tips for successfully beautifying their DMV area garden.

Rose Tourism Part I: Great Gardens of North America

American Rose Society Colonial District Vice Director Ray Shipley provided a wonderful travelogue of gardens worth visiting. Ray and his wife Marie have traveled to nearly every state in the country, as well as four Canadian provinces, to visit some of the finest gardens on the continent. In addition to growing 220 roses in his own garden, Ray is Chair of the Colonial District Consulting Rosarians, Ray is also a member of the Potomac Rose Society, the Arlington Rose Foundation, The Maryland Rose Society and the Shenandoah Rose Society; and was recently awarded the American Rose Society's 2017 Silver Medal in recognition of his activities with the Colonial District. At the conclusion of his presentation, Ray presented Lou Giacchino a District Consulting Rosarian of the Year Award. Lou is Vice President of PRS.

Great Gardens of North America

with American Rose Society Colonial District Bice Director Ray Shipley

Hershey Gardens Rose Garden

On Sunday January 21, 2018, The Potomac Rose Society welcomed ARS Colonial District Vice Director Ray Shipley, and we learned all about the Great Gardens of North America.  With fabulous photos of some of the most beautiful gardens on the continent, Ray gave us great ideas for our own backyard rose gardens as well as our next vacation destinations!

Ray and his wife Marie have traveled to nearly every state in the country, as well as 4 Canadian provinces, to visit some of the finest gardens on the continent.  In addition to growing 220 roses in his own garden, Ray is Chairman of the Colonial District Consulting Rosarians.  Ray is also a member of the Potomac Rose Society, the Arlington Rose Foundation, The Maryland Rose Society and the Shenandoah Rose Society; and was recently awarded the American Rose Society's 2017 Silver Medal in recognition of his activities with the Colonial District.

Winter doldrums got you down?  Are you ready to take your rose garden to the next level but don't know where to start?  Join The Potomac Rose Society and get ready to BLOOM in 2018!

The War on the Roses: Beneficial Insects are your Allies in the Garden

With Michael J. Raupp, Ph.D.

PRS was delighted to welcome University of Maryland Professor Mike Raupp—”The Bug Guy”—a nationally-recognized expert who is frequently called upon by CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and other networks, as well as being a guest on late night TV for the April 2017 program. Professor Raupp presented a fascinating advocacy for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the rose garden… and the very next day, he was interviewed on WTOP!

From Petal to Perfume: An Olfactory Introduction to the Fascinating World of Roses

Arielle Weinberg, Founder of arielle shoshana, Washington, DC’s first niche fragrance boutique.

Did you know that 1.6 million roses are required to produce a single kilo of rose oil? How about the fact that 4 ounces of rose absolute from France will set you back over $1000? On October 15, PRS welcomed fragrance expert Arielle Weinberg, and we learned all about the fascinating role of roses in the fragrance industry. In addition to watching video of rose processing facilities in Europe and Asia, we had an opportunity to sample several different fragrances and received two wonderful rose note fragrance samples from Arielle.

Now is the time to begin planning your fragrant rose garden!  The Potomac Rose Society can help.  Join us at one of our monthly programs, and you’ll be cutting fragrant beauties for the vase in no time!

PRS Meets the Flower Whisperer!

Jeff King and Jeffery Serafini from Potomac Floral Wholesale

by Lisa Mundy

Jeffery Serafini presents his beautiful cut roses.

When was the last time you had an opportunity to learn from a true expert about any and everything relating to roses and other flowers? PRS members were fortunate enough to do just that on January 22, 2017, when Jeff King and Jeffery Serafini from Potomac Floral Wholesale presented to our group. They brought with them hundreds of stems of their most beautiful rose varieties for us to examine and enjoy, a sight for sore eyes for rose lovers in the middle of winter!

With over 30 years in the flower business, Mr. Serafini, Purchasing Manager at Potomac Floral, is a veritable encyclopedia when it comes to roses. He patiently answered all of our questions, incorporating many interesting anecdotes gained from his vast experience.

Jeff King, Public Relations and Sales Manager, invited us to visit their warehouse in Silver Spring to see all of the many rose varieties they have to offer. Everyone enjoyed Mr. Serafini's outstanding presentation, and we look forward to putting all of his excellent tips to use this season, to better enjoy the beauty of roses in our homes and in our gardens.

Thank you, Potomac Floral!

Jeffery Serafini and Jeff King.

In Good Company: The Roses and Companion Plantings of the Smithsonian’s Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden

Speaker: Shelley Gaskins, Smithsonian Gardens Horticulturist

The Katherine Dulin Folger Rose Garden. Courtesy of Smithsonian Gardens.

On November 20, 2016, Ms. Gaskins discussed the newly reopened Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden. The exciting, year-long expansion and renovation project, was presented to a standing-room-only crowd at the Behnke Nursery. The new Kathrine Dulin Folger Rose Garden will incorporate healthy rose varieties along with companion plantings to attract beneficial insects. It is designed to be a healthier garden, providing four seasons of interest with less reliance on pesticides.

Please visit the Smithsonian Gardens blog and search the keyword "Folger" to learn more.

 

Top photo of Rose de Rescht by Rich Baer