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Seedlings Stretched? What To Do About It

Seedlings Stretched? What To Do About It

Depending on your climate, it may be downright necessary to “cheat” out ahead of spring planting season by starting seeds indoors ahead of time. For some seeds like squash, recommendations may range from 2-4 weeks ahead of the season – that’s not a long time, but they’re fast growers! Other varieties like hot peppers or snapdragons are often started from 10-12 weeks in advance of the last frost date. That’s a long time to take care of seedlings indoors, and one common problem is when these seedlings may grow leggy and weak-stemmed during their time inside.

Photot by rudy kleysteuber CC BY 2.0

They’re stretching for the light. Sometimes you’ll even see them take a pronounced “lean” in the direction of a window or other light source. The thing about starting seeds indoors is that they need everything they would in nature, but now you have to control it all:

  • Light
  • Temperature
  • Air movement
  • Humidity
  • Watering
  • Nutrients

The simplest answer for leggy seedling is usually that they lack for light. The more complicated answer is that high temperatures, humidity, and lack of air movement can also contribute to weak, stretchy plants. Before I add more specifics, let me add this hopeful notion: even if you didn’t get it exactly right from the start, you can often coax those plant starts into better health by giving them what they need after the fact. In this video, I show you a tray of tomato seedlings I deliberately deprive of light – and show how I help them to recover from my mistreatment:

While all the environmental conditions are important, it really is the supplemental light that makes the biggest difference between strong, beefy seedling and weaklings. In the above video you would have seen me using a purple LED for artificial light, but I’ve certainly found since then that there are good affordable full spectrum (white) LED panels that will do the job beautifully. Depending on the number of trays you’re starting, the entry level light I can recommend include the SpiderFarmer SF1000 and the Mars TS600. Even an LED fluorescent replacement will do in a pinch for a couple of trays.

As is usually the case when I release a video with high viewership, I find out in the comment where I wasn’t specific enough. What’s the recommended temperature during germination, early development and the hardening off stage? How about humidity, air movement and fertilizer? Here’s a reference chart and video I produced to answer some of these questions:

I hope the above offers enough information to get your seedlings a good start. Following these earliest stages, and once you “graduate” the seedlings from indoors to outdoor growing there are a few additional steps I cover in this video: fertilizing, transplanting, thinning and pinching.

While I’d say it’s totally worth it to get a jump on slow-growing perennials or long-season veggies, it’s also a lot more work than sowing seeds directly into the garden. Direct-sowing is the right call for fast growing cool-season veggies like peas or radishes. It also makes sense for plants that don’t accept transplanting well, like beans or carrots.

For those you do decide are worth the extra time and effort to start early, make sure to set yourself up for success in advance. Supplemental lighting, a fan or two for air movement, and some well-timed adjustments to temperature and humidity can make all the difference to quality of your plants by the time they’re ready for your garden.

What Kind of Lavender Should You Grow?

What Kind of Lavender Should You Grow?

Not everyone wants a Lavender field. Okay, most people could probably be convinced to accept a country estate in Provence if it were part of an inheritance. So I’ll rephrase that: not everyone has the space or desire to grow their own field of lavender. But fit a few plants into their own landscape or containers? Yes, I think just about anyone could manage that. Which variety you should choose depends both on your climate and what qualities you want in the plants: fragrance, size, foliage, hardiness. Let’s look at the choices:

Lavender field in Hitchin England Photo by DeFacto CC BY-SA 4.0

Lavandula angustifolia (English Lavender) – I put this at the top of the list for fragrance. It’s a widely adaptable shrub, hardy down to roughly zone 5. This is widely grown for commercial perfume and stem production. The flower is tidy and well-formed, available colors ranging from white through pink, lavender and purple. There are many popular cultivars, and more introduced each year, but some classic choices are ‘Hidcote’, Munstead’ and ‘Edelweiss’ (white).

Closer view of Lavandula angustifolia

Lavandula x Intermedia (Lavandin) – rated a close second for fragrance. It could probably be said that English Lavender has a finer fragrance, but Lavandin is a bit stronger. Also hardy to zone 5, but maybe a touch more tender than English Lavender. Slightly taller in habit on average, and many varieties are known for distinctively silver foliage. ‘Grosso’, ‘Provence’ and ‘Phenomenal’ are well known and well grown. White through lavender in color. These are sterile hybrids, so they’re all propagated by cuttings.

Lavandula × intermedia More: Original public domain image from Smithsonian

Lavandula stoechas (Spanish Lavender or French Lavender, depending on who you ask. Thus I led with the botanical names) This one is well adapted to warmer climates, even growing as weed in Australia. The fragrance isn’t nearly so nice or intense as the previous two listed, but the flowers are faster and larger and come in a wide range of colors including intense pink and nearly red. Great for seasonal containers. Hardy to zone 6.

Lavandula stoechas by Jean-Pol Grandmont CC BY-SA 3.0

Lavandula dentata (Fringed Lavender) is often sold as an annual container herb in my area because it’s fairly tender. The finely divided foliage makes this ornamental even when it’s not in flower. It’s fragrant, but not nearly so nice to my nose as L. angustifolia or L. x intermedia, and the flowers aren’t quite so nice as any of the above either – so the herb garden or annual planters seems about right to me.

L. dentata by Forest and Kim Starr CC BY 2.0

I cover the info on these first four varieties of lavender (with some additional visuals) in this video:

There are a few other lavenders species and hybrids that might be worth trying out if you’re experimenting. One of the parents of the Lavendin varieties is Lavandula latifolia, with an intense camphor fragrance and broad leaves. I’ve also enjoyed L. x chaytorae with extremely silver foliage – very pretty! L. multifida grew easily from seed, and was even more fern-leafed than the fringed lavender listed above.

Perhaps my favorite overall is L. x intermedia ‘Phenomenal’, which combines excellent fragrance, hardiness and vigor in one plant. I do find the Lavendin varieties overwinter even better than the English varieties on my farm, going beautifully dormant and resisting some of the rot I generally see over the cold season.

Since I’ve helped you with your selections, I may as well send you off with a little bit of growing advice with this video:

And if you’ve ever though to try your hand at propagation, lavender is quite an accommodating partner:

Assess Winter Plant Damage

Assess Winter Plant Damage

Perennials, shrubs and trees are meant to be the enduring framework of your landscape through the seasons, so chances are that you chose them with your climate in mind. One particular criteria gardeners often use for their selection is the hardiness zone rating. It’s not a perfect system – and there are several other reasons why your plant could take winter damage – but the cold hardiness zones (and their familiar maps) offer at least some guidance about which plants should survive your winter.

Here’s the problem: not all winters fit predictably within allotted zones. If you’ve ever had a much colder winter than average, especially one with strong winds and not much snow cover, you may come out the other side wondering which of your “permanent” plantings survived. In this quick article, I’ll try to offer some guidance on how to assess the cold damage to your plants – after the ice and snow melts, that is!

Patience…

Some plants are enthusiastic to push flowers (witch hazel, for instance) or leaf buds as soon as temperatures will allow. Others are notoriously slow and cautious – I use the example of hardy hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus) which keeps its winter color and form with no signs of life until weeks later than everything else. Unless you have some pressing timeline (renovations, pending landscaping project, moving) I’d suggest you hold off the stress for a few weeks and give the plants an opportunity to show up for work.

Color

This won’t be as obvious for every plant, but generally the first signs of activity come from changes in the color of buds or stems. Shades of purple, pink, red, orange, yellow and (obviously) green are all hopeful signs that all is well with the plant.

Red dogwood or yellow willow stems are more obvious, but many plants display a color change as they prepare to break dormancy

On the other hand, if the buds and stems seem to be deepening into dull shades of dark brown, grey or (especially) black it can be a warning that there’s been tissue damage in that part of the plant. I wouldn’t use this as a final evaluation of a plant – and I give more details in this video:

Buds

Beyond color, I’m also looking for changes in the size and shape of the buds. Over the winter, the dormant buds are smaller, and usually held relatively tightly to the stem. Here’s an example from a sugar maple tree:

Photo by Plant Image Library CC BY-SA 2.0

When preparing to break into spring growth, in addition to any color changes these buds will begin to enlarge in preparation for developing shoots or flowers:

Photo by Plant Image Library CC BY-SA 2.0

For perennials, you can often look for the same changes, but you’ll have to gently tease away the soil and mulch from around their crown to see if the shoots are elongating or taking on a spring color.

I mention these changes to the color of stems and the size and shape of buds because they’re visual and can set your mind at ease without causing any damage to the plant. However, if you’re eager to get an answer and your plant isn’t showing any outwards signs, it may be time for a more hands-on approach:

Scrape or Snap

This next test is something landscapers are not hesitant to perform if there’s any doubt. A little scratch with a pruning blade (or even thumbnail) will reveal the color and condition of the inner bark. Green – in all it’s variations, including pale greenish yellow and nearly white – is what you’re looking for.

Black, pale brown or grey are bad signs. Another variation of this test is where you’d snap off one of the smaller stems on a tree or shrub’s extremities, and examine the color of the inner bark at the point of the break. This “snap test” also can reveal whether the wood of the stem is still somewhat moist and flexible (alive) or dry and brittle (dead). There’s a demonstration in the video I linked earlier in the article. On perennials the above-ground parts will most often have died back over winter, so any poking and prodding will be focused on the crown of the plant – where firmness is a good sign and mushy or moldy definitely are not!

What to do about it?

If you’ve given it a reasonable amount of time and then confirmed that a plant has died over the winter, there’s little you can do except remove the plant and make new gardening plans. In many cases, however, the cold may have damaged only the extremities, leaving the plant to regrow from its healthy roots and crown. I get messages from concerned gardeners every year asking what else they can do to help bring their plants back from the damage. It might be more a matter of what not to do. Don’t throw an unusual amount of fertilizer at the plant, hoping to spur on aggressive new growth. Excess fertilizer can compound the stress of the injury. There’s little evidence that a B1 vitamin product will help. I wouldn’t hit the plant with a preemptive application of pesticide/fungicide either.

It’s really just a matter of pruning to remove the dead, damaged and diseased parts of the plant, and offering good garden conditions just as you aim to do for all your garden plants. I specialize in roses, but the following video where I discuss how and when to prune back winter damage would apply across a wide range of woody plants:

Finally, it’s worth repeating that not all winter damage is due to the cold itself. If you’re looking to adjust your planning for coming years, it may not be a matter of just cheating down on the hardiness zone map (although that’s not a bad idea when growing in a more exposed location or in a container). I linked this video at the top of the article, but if you’ve come this far I may as well offer it again:

How to Prune Roses

How to Prune Roses

Good advice on rose pruning should really begin with a question: why? Why should you bother cutting at all? What would happen if you didn’t prune your roses?

  • The shrub might get taller than you’d like. You want blooms at a height where you’ll enjoy them
  • Left to their own training, they may take on an unattractive or uneven shape. They can also invade the space of another plant or intrude on a pathway
  • Dead, damaged, diseased & crossing stems will persist on the shrub, doing no one any good
  • The shrub may become a bit congested with older stems, preventing proper air movement and sunlight from reaching the center of the shrub

By the way, these are the very same reasons you’d consider pruning any tree or shrub:

Size. Shape. Health. Thinning.

And when you prune for those 4 reasons, you’ll often spur on vigorous new basal growth for stronger stems and flowering.

If your rose is younger, and still needs time to establish – skip it. Likewise, if your established rose is a pleasing size/shape, and overall healthy you can get away with minimal pruning. I usually pick an older stem or two from the base for removal anyway, just to encourage fresh growth, but it’s totally optional. I want to include a video here that shows how I tackle this in real life – first with a rough cut for size and shape, then with the finer work down low on the shrub to thin and remove old and damaged stems:

I could just about end the article right here, but I won’t. There will be questions about when and how, and I don’t mind answering them in full, but I don’t want to give you the impression that it’s a complicated matter. You could pretty much tackle your rose pruning when it’s convenient for you and use a wide range of methods (including a hedge trimmer!) and so long as you’re making progress towards one or more of the above goals, it’s all good.

Irritatingly, some of the specific instructions about rose pruning you’ll have heard passed around as garden folk wisdom is fixated on what I view as irrelevant and maybe even unhelpful: the cutting angle, the position of the cut in relation to the next outward-facing bud, sealing the pruning cuts. As a side-note, this video where I made commentary on these “rules” for pruning roses more or less launched my YouTube channel:

I’ll quickly summarize and review these supposedly rose-specific rules here and also give you my assessment of whether the rule is worthwhile:

1 – Prune when the forsythia is in bloom (late winter): Somewhat agree. It’s a pretty good time to target because you’ll be able to take out any noticeable cold damage in the same step. That said, you can prune later in the season – even after flowering, and that works well too.

Forsythia in bloom, but you could also time with many other late winter blooming plants

2 – Begin with dead, diseased, damaged or crossing stems: Mostly agree. It’s one of the main pruning goals I identified at the top the article. It’s also some of the most productive pruning – you can do a lot of good without any hard decisions. Whether you tackle this before or after shaping/reducing size is your call. In my actual work flow I generally take off some of the extra height and mass first so that I can get a clear look inside the shrub for these finer cuts.

3 – Prune to an outward-facing bud: Mostly disagree. This advice goes on the mistaken assumption that your rose will only shoot from the bud just below your cut, and that choosing an outward-facing bud will promote a more open shape after pruning. In practice, your rose will likely shoot from multiple buds below the cut, and will fill in with stems and foliage wherever there’s sunlight available to fuel the growth. Choosing a bud to be outward is unnecessarily fussy in my view, and this advice just serves to confuse new rose growers.

4 – Prune low and to just a few stems: I somewhat disagree with any one-size-fits-all guidelines around number of stems and standard height after pruning. I suppose it’s meant to reassure new growers that if they follow the recommended height for a hybrid tea or floribunda, that they won’t mess it up. The pruning height and shape shown in the video (open, and down to 18 inches) is pretty typical of the advice given. It’s probably fine for a healthy, vigorous shrub rose like a Knock Out. Many of my roses would resent such a severe cut, and I know many gardeners who prefer a larger shrub in the garden.

Photo by Malcolm Manners CC BY 2.0

5 – Use clean, sharp tools and disinfect between roses: Agree. This isn’t so much a rose-specific tip as just a generally good gardening technique. Cleaner cuts are less prone to die-back, and disinfected tools reduce the risk of spreading pathogens between plants.

6 – Cut on an angle and seal your cuts with glue: Mostly disagree. I couldn’t find anything before (or even since) the video to back up the notion that cutting on an angle is helpful, and what I did find in the research seems to indicate the opposite: the larger the surface area of the cut, the more it’s associated with poor outcomes.

This next bit gets me into hard feelings with some gardeners. If you think it’s worthwhile to seal your canes, I won’t stop you – and you can even skip to the next paragraph if you’re happy to keep doing so. Sealing the cut with glue (or nail polish or pruning sealer) isn’t something that’s likely to protect your roses from serious cane borer damage. The most damaging of cane borers on roses don’t enter through the cut stems, and they’re not flying around in the late winter (if that’s your timing) waiting for you to prune. Your best defense against the worst of the cane borers is careful observation during their active season (generally mid-spring to early summer) to quickly identify and remove infested stems.

Do I really mind you if cut on an angle or put nail polish on your cut stems? Of course not. You do you. My only point is that when these nitpicky practices are listed as the “right way” to prune roses, it adds complexity to an already intimidating task.

7 – Prune to a pleasing, balanced shape and a more open center. Yes. Let’s not overcomplicate the issue. A rose is just like any other shrub, and usually only needs a bit of thinning and shaping for best garden performance.

Common Questions

When I’m presenting this topic at pubic events (garden clubs, etc.) this is the point where the audience begins asking more specific questions. For convenience, I’ve answered most of these in video format at one point or another, so I’ll add those video and some commentary below.

Timing: As mentioned above, you can get away with pruning your roses over a wide stretch of the season. It does bear saying that once-blooming roses (species and some old garden roses) depend on their established stems for flowering, so an ill-timed severe pruning will result in a much less impressive display. Here’s a video (and flowchart, for those inclined) to help you work through the best time for puning:

What about climbers? You’ll improve flowering by keeping some longer stems in place and trying to train those stems horizontally. I’ve made two videos with examples, but here’s the one where I talk about it more generally:

On a similar topic, some viewers look for a little guidance for dealing with standard or tree roses. They’re top-grafted, so care should be taken to avoid damaging the graft union at the center. Here’s my video:

Finally, I hear a lot of questions about roses that have been neglected, and over the years have become overgrown. If they’re overall healthy, they can accept quite a severe pruning to bring them back down to size. I’ll include one final example video here just to embolden you to take up the loppers:

A few final thoughts:

If you’re in a temperate climate and you’ve chosen to take on your pruning at the traditional time of year, late winter, it would also be a decent time to do a bit of clean up. You could remove any persistent old leaves that haven’t dropped. You can also remove dropped leaves from the base of the plant, so that they don’t carry over the foliar disease from one season to the next. A refreshing or replacement of the mulch would be helpful in this regard too. I personally make my first application of bulk organic amendments at this time – I use alfalfa pellets a lot, but I’d be just as satisfied to apply a shovel scoop of compost or manure.

Should You Spray Your Rose Garden?

Should You Spray Your Rose Garden?

“Spray” is not a four-letter-word. It’s just a method of application, equally useful for liquid kelp extract as for certain biological controls like nematodes or beneficial bacteria – but that’s not the kind of spraying we’re really talking about here, is it? The kind of sprays that quickly divide the opinions of neighbors and gardeners are the synthetic pesticides.

As a very quick aside, it’s often said that one should avoid the topics of politics, religion and money if you want to keep conversation polite in general company. When it comes to gardeners, avoid talk of invasive species, peat moss and pesticides. And while I agree that it’s a shame we can’t have reasonable conversations on topics that could really benefit from some reason, you’ll inevitably tweak someone’s strong feelings along some pretty predictable ideological fault lines and that’s no fun.

I’m going to carry through with this topic anyway, but in order to avoid (or at least delay) any hard feelings, I’m going to approach this from a place of common ground: no one, and I mean no one, wants to climb into a spray suit on a hot day, strap on tightly-fitted respirator, and walk around the garden with a backpack sprayer filled with pesticides.

It’s unpleasant, dangerous, expensive and usually only solves a pest problem for a short period of time, while also posing risks to the non-target organisms who might actually be the “good guys” and part of the solution. I never assume that gardeners are out there spraying just for fun but rather because they feel they’re out of better options. So it only makes sense for me to focus the first part of this article on those: the better options!

Resistant Varieties

I’d love to grow the thornless and beautifully fragrant Bourbon rose Zéphirine Drouhin. I’ve tried. Three times, in fact.

Zephirine Drouhin photo by T. Kiya CC BY-SA 2.0

It’s just too susceptible to foliar disease in my climate that it proved difficult to grow well, regularly dropping most of its foliage to black spot, powder mildew or both.

Once you know the challenges of you climate (and this is something experienced rose growers in your area are not reluctant to share) it can be helpful to guide your buying choices towards roses that are best suited – or at least not poorly suited – to resist those problems. I sometimes take for granted that rose gardeners are familiar with Helpmefind, a sort of “Wikipedia” or rose varieties. If I’d been paying attention to the write-up there, I might have skipped my efforts to grow Zephirine (at least the second or third time!)

There it is on that final line, in plain black and white. They usually post a rating for at least blackspot and mildew, but also include Member Rating for overall tolerance of disease, heat, cold, rain and shade. It bears saying here that you’ll have a lot fewer problems with pests and diseases if you’re rose is well suited to your climate and its location in the garden.

The Basics of Rose Care

It seems to follow from what I just wrote above that an rose coping poorly with extreme heat & humidity or too much shade is going to be more susceptible to pest problems. This is undoubtedly true. That old expression that says “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is exactly the wrong approach when it comes to plant health. It should be reformulated as “What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker and more susceptible to secondary infection” – not as uplifting, I admit. In fact, the reason yellow sticky cards (for pest monitoring) are yellow is that the pests are especially attracted to the sickly yellow leaves of stressed plants.

Photo by Maja Dumat CC BY 2.0

Look after the basics: a reasonable soil with decent drainage and not too high a pH. A sunny spot – at least 6 hours for most roses, with some exceptions. Appropriate watering. A mulch to maintain consistent moisture and temperature. Fertilizer as needed – but not so much (especially nitrogen) as to spur on an excess of lush green growth, because the pests love that too!

Plant for Diversity

One reason traditional field agriculture is so reliant on spraying pesticide is because they plant in monocultures. A whole field of corn planted in close proximity can be quickly decimated when a fast-reproducing pest moves in. In mixed landscapes, there’s more balance between various predators, parasites and pests. I strongly encourage rose growers to plan and plant for diversity in the garden, which also creates a perfect excuse to source all the interesting shrubs, perennials and annuals you’ve ever fancied, even in passing.

For more on the biological approach to pest management, and some of my plant recommendations, here’s a video on the topic:

Sanitation and Pruning

One cultural control to pests, especially foliar disease like blackspot and powder mildew, is to prune out any damaged, diseased and congested stems from low down and in the centers of the shrubs. Combine this with a stripping of the lower infected foliage as warranted by the severity of the outbreak. This kind of cleanup can reduce the chances of the disease spores reinfecting your plants, and also allows for proper air circulation within the shrub.

For a quick discussion on stripping leaves, here’s another of my video topics:

The classic time for a thinning pruning is just as your roses are waking up from winter (in temperate climates anyway). However, I tend to thin a bit throughout the season as I deadhead my roses. The earlier you catch signs of foliar disease the better I’ve found, but I really do focus my efforts on the most susceptible varieties in my garden.

Tolerance

It’s a dirty trick of rose culture that tells gardeners they should be looking for perfect blooms and spotless foliage. The same way that farmers have tried to educate produce customers that a crooked carrot tastes fine compared to a straight one, rose growers should let themselves off the hook for a bit of chewing damage on their leaves. One of the cornerstone principles of modern pest management is just keen observation and setting a “tolerance” level for pests and disease. This will come with time, as you see which warning signs of pests require intervention, and which require a shrug.

Biological Controls

My favorite biological controls are the ones that come for free! Birds and beetles eat slugs. Hoverflies eat aphids. Pirate bugs do a pretty good job on thrips. Predatory mites hunt down the spider mites. There isn’t an insect pest I can think of that doesn’t have its natural predators, and also, as noted above, plants that you can put in your garden to encourage them.

However, it may happen that an outbreak of pests overwhelms your plants faster than natural predators can deal with them. This is actually almost inevitable at certain points in the year. Pests reproduce very quickly when their food is plentiful(the roses, in this case are putting on fresh growth). The predators are naturally one step behind, as they need their food source (the pests) to build up before they can start their own population boom.

It’s nice to know that one of your options is to supplement with biological controls. Ladybugs are a well-known choice, but in my conversations with professional growers I’ve heard strong recommendations for generalist beneficials too. Your eventual choice will depend on the pest you’re dealing with and what’s available from local suppliers – who are generally pretty helpful with recommendations.

Pirate Bug photo by gbohne CC BY-SA 2.0

I should also mention that some biological controls are offered in ready-to-use products sold at garden and hardware stores. BTk is a bacteria used to control caterpillars, and it’s cousin BTi is pretty effective against fungus gnats in propagation (the product these come in is dunks or bits for mosquito control). There’s also Milky Spore to apply to lawns with Japanese Beetle larvae. So not everything needs to come from a specialty biological control company.

Natural or Organic Pesticides

Insecticidal soap is just true liquid soap (potassium salts of fatty acids) applied as a spray. It’s a contact pesticide, meaning it has to be sprayed directly onto the pest population to be effective. It’ll wipe out aphids with no problem, but has a little trouble with spider mites and thrips because they’ll shelter in their webbing or in the folds of flowers and distorted leaves. It will also kill non-target insects if they’re hit by the spray. There’s no residual action, so once the soap dries, the plant is safe again for pests and beneficials.

Sulfur is the purified straight-up element, applied either as a finely ground powder (usually suspended in water as a spray) or vaporized in a sulfur burner. It’s pretty effective against powdery mildew and spider mites. It shouldn’t be applied within 7 days of soap or oils

Horticultural oil is a refined paraffin or vegetable oil formulated to be less damaging to plant tissues while still offering some control of insects and fungal disease. See above that it shouldn’t be applied in close timing with sulfur. Like soap, it’s a contact pesticide for insects with no residual effects. It’s the product most recommended for scale insects.

Potassium bicarbonate is sort like baking soda (and sometimes used as a substitute) – but safer to use on plants. Sprayed in a solution (3% by weight) with water it’s broadly pretty effective for prevention (but not cure) of foliar disease. It’s even more effective when combined with chitosan (0.75% by weight) as described in this video:

I think it’s important to say that these more “natural” or organic type sprays aren’t guaranteed to be without harms. I like the above options because they have a long record of relatively safe use, because they’re targeted, don’t have residual effects, and because they’re shown not to result in pesticide resistance very readily. Those aren’t things you can say for the “hard” synthetic pesticides, but you should still treat any and all of these with due care. Understand the products, the risks and all safety precautions before applying.

Dormant Spray

Maybe my favorite kind of pesticide application is in the dormant season because it combines sanitation with prevention. Pest populations (both insect and microbial) are at their lowest and most inactive during the dormant season. Somewhat stronger solutions of lime-sulfur, dormant oil or copper-based sprays can be used to great effect in reducing their overwintering populations or spores before they can reestablish in the spring. I give details and answer questions about these sprays in the following vid:

The Hard Stuff…

In the same way as I acknowledge not all “natural” pesticides are intrinsically harmless, I have to say that not all synthetic chemicals are crated equally harmful. I personally have been able to draw the line (on my farm) at solutions offered above. Mainly I’ve focused on companion planting (to attract and support beneficials) and proper plant care, pruning and sanitation. I use the bicarbonate, soap, oil or sulfur in a very targeted way as needed during the active season, and only use dormant spray on susceptible varieties (if at all).

When I worked in a commercial wholesale nursery, they whole arsenal was available to us, and some of it was pretty scary. Organophosphates like diazinon and malathion gave me real concerns from a human health point of view – I wouldn’t use them then, and if you’re considering it, I’d just advise you to really understand all the risks.

Pyrethroids are related to natural compounds found in the Robinson’s Daisy (Tanacetum coccineum) – synthesized and reformulated to make them quite an effective insecticide with a short residual – usually a couple of days. I guess you could call that “natural-ish”. I mention it here because it’s been found fairly effective against rose midge, which as a pest doesn’t give you a lot of other options. Toxic to a wide range of insects, fish, reptiles, humans (at higher exposure levels) and especially to cats.

Spinosad might even be better included in the above (natural) category, as a chemical extract of a natural compound in a particular bacteria. Some certifying agencies permit its use in organic agriculture. It’s affective against a wide range of insects and hasn’t been found to be very dangerous to mammals. I mention it here because it’s often recommended against chili thrips, which are hard to tackle otherwise.

The Difference Between Climbing and Rambling Roses

The Difference Between Climbing and Rambling Roses

Do you want a 3m/10ft rose you can tie onto a small arbor or trellis where it will bloom in bright colors all season long? Climber.

Do you want to unleash a rose to scramble up and down the side of a barn and delight visitors with its clusters of soft-hued flowers in the late spring? Rambler.

There are other distinctions between climbers and ramblers that I’ll discuss in this article, but I begin with the thing that matters most to hobbyists: the way they’re typically used in the garden.

‘Handel’ a modern climber Photo by Ryan Somma CC BY-SA 2.0

See the climber ‘Handel’ in the above picture. It exemplifies some of the characteristics of a modern climber. They’re generally (but not always):

  • Repeat blooming
  • Come in a full range of colors, including pure red, bright orange, and vibrant blends like modern hybrid teas and floribundas
  • Solitary or cluster flowering
  • Around 3m (10ft) tall on average for a small to medium climber
  • Variable hardiness
  • Complex hybrids
Adelaide d’Orleans by Leonora (Ellie) Enking CC BY-SA 2.0

Now have a look at ‘Adélaïde d’Orléans’ as an example of a rambler, with impressive clusters of flowers in a delicate muted color. What a show! Ramblers generally are:

  • Once-blooming
  • Limited in their range of colors. More subtle tones of white, pink, yellow
  • Cluster flowering
  • Quite large. 5m (16ft) + would not be uncommon
  • Somewhat hardier than modern climbers on average
  • Closer relate to wild species roses

These generalizations are for convenience more than precision – and I fully expect that there are readers ready to volunteer exceptions on almost any one of these characteristics. What about ‘Ghislaine de Feligonde’ a repeat-blooming rambler? Or ‘Bleu Magenta’ or ‘Chevy Chase’ to challenge the matter of subtle pastel tones? Rule-breakers aren’t hard to find in these groups.

Rambler ‘Bleu Magenta’ Photo by T. Kiya CC BY-SA 2.0

Breeding

If you want to get technical, ramblers are defined by their close genetic relationship to wild roses that have that same “expansive” growth habit. The major groups of ramblers are the near-direct offspring of the four rose species listed in the picture below:

These nearly wild genes account for their predominantly once-blooming (late spring/early summer) annual flowering cycle, and also for their more natural range of colors, with individually smaller, simple blooms in clusters.

Climbers are not defined by genetics, but is rather just a description of usage or growing habit, so they tend to be far more diverse in flower form, color and overall growing habit. I made a video a while back where I looked at the lineage of roses in a “family tree” of sorts. Here’s a clipping from that video:

What you’ll find is that climbing roses are identified from every corner of this chart, and from all different classes. Hybrid tea? ‘Climbing Peace’. Floribunda? ‘Iceberg’. Miniature? ‘Warm Welcome’. Hybrid Perpetual? ‘Souvenir du Docteur Jamain’. Shrub? ‘Constance Spry’.

That makes it difficult to say anything particular about the climbers, because some are more like their Bourbon parents, and others are very much a Hybrid Musk. They tend to have repeat blooming in common between them, but even that’s not a firm rule.

Pruning and Training

Ramblers prefer a light touch when it comes to pruning. They bloom on mature stems (at least one season old) so a severe cut back will definitely impact flowering the following year. The safest time to prune them is directly after their annual flush of flowers.

Climbers, as repeat bloomers, can accept a little more assertive pruning for shape, size and rejuvenation – and most gardeners will do this structural pruning in late winter or early spring, while the framework is still laid bare to the eye. They still perform better if you leave a significant portion of their main stems in place, but targeting damaged, diseased & crossing stems is a must. Trim the laterals (the smaller flowering branches coming from the main stems) down to a node or two.

I want to share a couple of videos with you that will help to highlight some of these varieties. First my video on “The Difference Between Climbing and Rambling Roses” with some examples of notable roses from each class:

And while I’m sharing my picks of roses, here’s another video I made with picks for great garden climbers:

4 Easy Steps to Breed Your Own Rose

4 Easy Steps to Breed Your Own Rose

What does it take to be a rose hybridizer? As it turns out, mainly patience. Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure the top-tier rose breeders also bring a wealth of knowledge and a keen eye for quality to the endeavor, but the basic techniques themselves aren’t complicated to understand. Once you know the steps, it’s just a matter repeating the process until you produce the rose you always imagined (or one you never knew you wanted!), but each attempt can take years to evaluate. So yeah, patience!

Anatomy of a flower

You aren’t going get far into the hobby of hybridizing roses without knowing just the basics of flower anatomy. The birds and bees, so to speak – although with roses it usually has a lot more to do with bees than birds. In the above diagram, the male parts (bearing the pollen) are called the stamen, and in the center of the flower are the female part that will develop the seeds.

Your goal is to collect the pollen from one selected parent, and transfer that pollen (when ready) to the seed parent without giving the bees a chance to interfere with their own pollination efforts.

By the time your rose is at the stage you see in this picture, you’re too late! You can see the outer ring of stamens (labeled #1) and the central pistil (labeled #2) and how perilously close they are to each other. If you look really closely at the other flower, you’ll also see the yellow flecks of pollen that have dropped onto the petals. Imagine how easily a visiting insect could fertilize the flower with its own pollen! For you to avoid this risk, you’ll have to get there before the flower even opens.

Step 1: Collect the flowers of your chosen pollen parent

Timing: Morning of Day 1

Collect flowers that are nearly open. The petals will still be “closed” around the pistil and stamen, but loosely enough that you can force them open. Because you’ll be using these flowers for their pollen, you can cut them right off the plant. Trim the petals away at this point.

Trimming the petals from my pollen parent, ‘Graham Thomas’

Some people will just cut off the top “sacks” from the stamens (called anthers) at this point, but I was taught to just leave them on the flower so as to use the whole things as a “brush” when applying the pollen. The pollen may not be ready right away, but if you collect these flowers into a small container, you should begin see the release of pollen within a few hours.

Step 2: Prepare your chosen mother rose

Timing: Morning of Day 1

The flowers of the seed parent (mother) need to remain on the plant because after pollination it will take around 3 months to develop ripe seeds. Again, select flowers that are still closed, but that the petals are loose enough to work open. For this flower, remove both the petals and the stamens.

Only the central pistil remains

At this stage, the pistil may not be quite ready to accept pollen. That may happen as early as the same day or up to a couple of days after petal removal.

Step 3: Transfer the pollen

Timing: Afternoon of day 1, repeat for the next 2 or 3 days to be sure

This really is as simple as using the flower of the pollen parent (you collected this in step 1) to brush the pollen onto the pistil of the mother plant. I usually do my first transfer on the afternoon of the first day, and then try again a few times over the following days just in case the mother plant wasn’t ready yet. You can also brush the loose pollen on with your finger if a lot has released from the pollen sacks.

Now’s the time to label your cross. I use a plastic loop tag with the name of the pollen parent and seed parent. Yes, you can probably figure out the seed parent anyway (because the flower is still attached) but I note it down anyway because I figure I could get lazy about it at the time of seed collection.

Step 4: Collect and plant the seeds

Timing: Around 3 months later

The fruit of a rose (called a hip) will develop and ripen over the course of the season. Most varieties have hips that turn orange or red when the seed inside is ready to be harvested.

Photo by Henryk Kotowski CC BY-SA 3.0

Some roses make good mothers and develop lots of seeds. Others are less prolific. Some roses are more or less compatible with each other than others at pollen or seed parents. This is my gentle way of tamping down the expectations that you’ll get a lot of viable seeds from each crossing. It could be zero, it could be just a few, and it could be upwards of 30.

Roses program their seeds to require a period of cold & moisture (called stratification) before they’ll germinate. In nature, this would be a winter after the hips have dropped and broken down in the soil. Don’t just leave the hips on the rose for the winter and then try to germinate them the next spring. Seeds in the hips are inhibited from this stratification even if they withstand a long cold winter on the shrub.

Sow them in a seedling tray with potting soil and leave them in a sheltered place outdoors over the winter. Alternately, place the seed tray (or just the seeds in a ziploc of perlite, sand or vermiculite) into the fridge for up to 3 months. You should check occasionally to make sure they haven’t started to germinate in the fridge (sometimes they do!)

Here’s a video I made about growing roses from seed:

What should you expect from the seedlings?

Okay, so the steps weren’t too complex (I hope – if they seem that way, it must be my explanation!). They do take some time, though. You may have already counted a minimum of 3 months for seed ripening, and 3 months for stratification/seed germination. What’s more, you may not see significant flowering on the new seedling in the first year of growth. It may throw a few small flowers, but they’re generally not the best examples of what the baby rose will produce when it’s mature.

Will it flower like the chosen plants? Not necessarily. This is where the complex genetics of roses comes into play. Even a self-fertilized rose can look and grow quite differently than the mother. If you imagined rearing a seedling that reproduces the perfect form of Parent A and the outstanding fragrance of Parent B, that’s a wonderful goal – but it’s likely to take more than a few tries to get close to the ideal! Some larger breeding program germinate thousands of seedlings every year in the hopes of introducing 2 or 3 roses after years of evaluation.

So expect something unexpected. I say none of this to discourage you. Far from it! Some great roses have been bred in small batches by amateur breeders. Also, it’s reassuring to know that all the biggest names in the history of rose breeding started out with a single act of cross-pollination.

If you’re looking for some guidance about which roses make good seed parents, pollen parents or what classes of roses are most compatible genetically, there’s thankfully an excellent forum of rose hybridizers to support the hobby.

Just to finish off this article, I’ll mention that I’ve put basically the same steps and information into the following video:

Daytrips and Activities Near Nicomen Island

Daytrips and Activities Near Nicomen Island

If you are travelling some distance to visit Fraser Valley Rose Farm, why not pair your trip with a fun outing along the way and explore the surrounding areas north of the Fraser River? We have curated a list highlighting popular destinations including hiking, shopping, sightseeing, dining and family fun activities. Be sure to check their websites for more information.

1. Power House at Stave Falls Visitor Centre. Hayward Lake Recreation. Located at 31338 Dewdney Trunk Road Mission. Take a tour of the 100 year old powerhouse. Check out the displays, demonstrations, and exhibits. If you enjoy a hike, choose between the Hayward Falls walk, or the longer Hayward Reservoir Trail. Pack a picnic and enjoy lunch at Hayward Lake, or stop for a coffee at the Energy Wisdom Tea Lounge. Great beach and a place to launch your canoe or kayak!

Powerhouse at Stave Falls – BC Hydro

Photo by Holly Cuny CC BY-SA 3.0

2. Mission Springs Pub Brewing Company. 7160 Oliver Street Mission. Try some craft beer from this 10 barrel brewing company while enjoying outstanding pub food. Established in 1996, this place offers family dining area as well as a licensed pub area, so the whole family can enjoy this unique setting with views overlooking the Fraser River.

3. Fraser River Heritage Park, Blackberry Kitchen, Westminster Abbey. Located off 5th Ave and Stave Lake Street in Mission, this 40 acre park offers impressive views of the Fraser River, biking and walking trails, a rose garden, a large gazebo and lots of history. The park is also home to many of Mission’s festivals, events, and concerts as well as the summer Sunset Markets.

If you enjoy fresh, local dining with stunning views, be sure to stop in to the Blackberry Kitchen right in the heart of the park. (reservations are recommended).

Home

From the park you are not far from Westminster Abbey 34224 Dewdney Trunk Road Mission– A hilltop community of Benedictine Monks. A peaceful, serene setting offering lovely grounds and walking paths that lead to breathtaking panoramic views of the Fraser Valley—be sure to bring your good camera! Please check the website for visiting hours and visiting guidelines. *There is a hike that begins at Heritage park and climbs up to the Abbey, but it is a steep grind!

Photo by Joe Mabel CC BY-SA 3.0

https://westminsterabbey.ca/

4. Ferncliff Gardens– open mid August to late September this family owned 100 year old Dahlia retail nursery displays over 150 varieties of Dahlias in their beautiful show garden. Located at 35344 McEwen Avenue in Mission, this nursery is nestled amidst a picturesque setting.

5. Shangrila Farm- Open late July to early October, this unique Dahlia farm hosts a summer flower festival, displaying over 200 varieties of Dahlias throughout their 10 sprawling acres of land. There is so much to explore at this one-of-a-kind property including sculptures, fairy gardens, forest trails, ponds, bridges, flower tunnels, artwork, grapevines and many unusual green structures. This is guaranteed fun for the whole family. Located at 13842 Spratt road Mission, only minutes from Cascade Falls. Check website for hours and rates.

6. Cascade Falls- Located at36421 Ridgeview Road, Cascade falls is a 22 Hectare park complete with a stunning 30 metre waterfall, suspension bridge, 2 viewing platforms, walking trail, picnic areas and many spots to cool off on a hot summer day. Whether scrambling over boulders in the rushing Cascade creek, or finding the perfect spot in one of the lower crystal clear pools, this is a very popular spot in summer, so plan to arrive early especially on hot days!

https://www.fvrd.ca/en/main/parks-recreation/parks-trails/cascade-falls-regional-park.html

By Casey Yee – Cascade Falls Park at Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18291190

7. Historic Dewdney Pub aka Church of the Blues– 8793 River Road South- this building is rich in history. Built in 1912 originally as an Anglican church, this landmark has been operating as a pub since 1978. The amazing food, friendly atmosphere, big patio, and live music has made this unique spot a very popular destination for travelers and locals alike. Be sure to check their website for hours, menu, and list of live entertainment so you can plan your visit. The pub is licensed for family, so kids are welcome!

8. Noorish Creek, Ravens Bluff hike, Dewdney grind. Dewdney is home to a secret paradise of crystal clear swimming and hikes with breath taking views. Just off Hawkins pickle road in Dewdney, there are so many spots to explore. This area is also known for some of the most spectacular places for bald eagle viewing.

9. Sasquatch Inn. Located at 46001 Lougheed Hwy, this pub is a wonderful place to stop for lunch after enjoying a day of local recreation. Boat tours, fishing, paragliding, golfing, camping and bird watching are just some of the activities to try while exploring the Harrison Mills area.

http://sasquatchinn.ca/

10 Rowena’s Inn and Sandpiper Golf. choose from a menu featuring fresh and local, the River’s Edge Clubhouse is a perfect dining experience. With indoor and outdoor seating, the restaurant has waterfront views of Harrison river as well as sweeping sights of the Sandpiper golf course. Located at 14282 Morris Valley Road In beautiful Harrison Mills. Rowena’s offers many group activities including guided wine tours, Eco tours and Eagle viewing. Book a tee time for a round of golf, or continue up Morris Valley Road for loads of recreational destinations including Chehalis Lake, Grace Lake, Wood Lake, Weaver Lake and dozens more.

11. Kilby Historic Site–this is a heritage attraction fun for the whole family. A living museum of farm history in the Fraser Valley, there is so much to see and do. Farm animals, general store, cafe, gift shop, museum, tours and costumed staff all make this historic trip through time fun and educational. Check website for hours and admission fees then stop for a picnic at Kilby Beach in Kilby Provincial Park.

Explore Kilby Historic Site

12. Hammersley Farms u-pick berries-2320 Bodnar Road. Take the family out to pick farm fresh blueberries. This is great hands on experience. Harvest a few buckets of summer berries as the kids learn how their food gets from farm to table.

fresh, blueberries

And on the note of farm fresh, be sure to bring some cash. The corridor through to Agassiz is loaded with farm stands selling all sorts of items including eggs, fruit, veggies, plants, artisan and local crafts. Try the Agassiz-Harrison Circle Farm Tour and shop fresh and local by shopping at one (or all) of these Farmer’s Markets:

Mission City Farmers Market

Deroche Farmers Market

Agassiz Farmers Market

Here’s a video I prepared featuring these and other locations in the north Fraser:

The Start of Our Rose Farm

The Start of Our Rose Farm

(First published in the Roses-Canada Quarterly Journal)

The farmers’ market might seem a slightly off-key place to sell roses. There among the hand-crafted soaps and blackberry honey, the beaded jewellery and ancient grains bread, I know I seemed a little out of place. Don’t get me wrong. You’d sometimes find a vendor who offered a few herb or veggie starts aside their display of no-spray produce, at least for the first few weeks of the season. What wasn’t so common was vendors of ornamental plants – and especially not the “Queen of Flowers” herself, the garden rose.

However, the farmers’ market is just where I found myself in the fledgling years of our little rose nursery, Fraser Valley Rose Farm. We were trying to find customers for the old garden roses I had produced as cuttings from my own garden. Roses like ‘Sophie’s Perpetual’ or ‘Buff Beauty’ (pictured) that had once been easy enough to find in the mail-order business, but were now dropping out of the trade – in some cases along with the nurseries themselves.

Between my wife Lisa and I, I’m definitely the more avid gardener and grower. She was an excellent sport about spending our weekends trying to sell plants, and even though the roses were a tough sell at first, she indulged me with a fair amount of freedom in my growing choices. She gave me the occasional much-needed nudge towards diversifying our offerings, just to keep sales moving in the right direction.

So we grew an assortment of perennials from seed, and those ended up providing an easier way to connect with customers. The farmers’ market crowd was largely kind and attentive, politely reading the picture cards of these perennials. They were particularly keen on those with ecological value: drought tolerance, pollinator friendly and host plants for beneficial insects. It wasn’t difficult to place a small monarda (bee balm) or asclepias (milkweed) into their shopping baskets, but as soon as I started talking about roses, there was a discernible resistance.

This immediate, visceral reaction was something I wanted to understand. I had imagined our future farm business to be centred on roses, but these customers seemed unreceptive. Was it the price? No. I was selling my smaller 1 gallon pots for $15 dollars at the time. A bargain, really. And these customers didn’t hesitate to spend that much on a grilled-cheese sandwich from the food truck parked in the next stall. So what was it?

Fear. That’s eventually how I came to recognize it. It was a quick flash of fear that translated to a verbal brush-off. “I don’t have the space right now”. “We’re about to go on vacation”. “I only grow vegetables”. “I have a brown thumb”. It was this last one that came up most frequently, and it was the closest to the real underlying message: roses scare the heck out of me because I’ve heard they’re difficult to grow, and if I’m being honest, I don’t like the idea of being judged for doing it wrong.

It’s not like that grilled cheese sandwich, that would be finished in minutes. It’s not like a lavender-scented bath bomb that would go down the drain with the wash water. It’s not even like buying a hanging basket, displaying it for a few months before dumping it out into the compost. Growing a rose sounds like a commitment, and there’s a fair hesitation to take on a commitment when you’re not sure you can measure up.

And this is the crux of it. As Bill DeVor said in a presentation to the American Rose Society: “The rose industry spent the last hundred years teaching their customers to be absolutely terrified of the products they were producing”. He’s exactly right, but he could have gone even a bit further: much of the modern cultural baggage around roses goes right back to Victorian gardens, with their stern geometric beds dedicated exclusively to roses. This style of rose gardening, with roses segregated and trimmed up with bare lower stems for exhibition was exported without much change as the ideal for suburban rose gardens. To Bill DeVor’s point, the industry piled on with guidelines around specialized fertilizer regimens, pests and disease control. It’s no wonder novice gardeners might feel “judged”.

Lisa and I persisted and adapted our business in the early years. I planned and grew more of the kinds of plants that the farmers market crowd appreciated, and even began to grow veggies and cut flowers for market day. But I wasn’t quite ready to give up on roses.

And this is where I say something I hope will surprise you just a little: social media saved our rose farm.

Instead of selling the merits of roses one reluctant customer at a time, I decided to share my enthusiasm in a more receptive environment. Instagram is all about pictures, and roses are oh so photogenic. When I coupled a striking photo with a well-written description or story, I could side-step their natural defences. There’s nothing too threatening about an Instagram photo! Likewise, I could make an informative video for YouTube, and reach new gardeners right when they needed me: on call for when they Googled a question about that overgrown rose in their new property. If I could make that experience a little less intimidating for them, maybe there was hope to rehabilitate the reputation of roses yet!

I took some inspiration, I have no hesitation to admit, from Paul Zimmerman. In his book “Everyday Roses” and elsewhere in his public presentation, he made a mission of demystifying roses. This approach was exactly what the public need to hear: roses aren’t some difficult, fussy prima donna, demanding a special place in the garden and a detailed schedule of expensive sprays and amendments. Roses are tough, high-performance shrubs that deserve a spot in the garden with all of your other useful plants: for bees, for wildlife habitat, sometimes for hips, and of course for the way their flowers complement other plants.

Of course, it took some time for the benefits of this outreach to make any difference to our business. Lisa and I held onto our day jobs, and continued to pack our plants out to community selling events on the weekends. But now the momentum was shifting. Local customers who had met me on YouTube or Instagram or Facebook seemed a little less intimidated by the roses. Viewers within driving distance began to ask if they could visit the farm, and while this was unexpected, it wasn’t unwelcome.

In the past couple of years, Lisa and I have started to add the garden beds and landscape features that were always in our imagination, but that we’d never had the time or imperative to get into the ground. I have to say, the misty Fraser Valley mountains of Nicomen Island make for an excellent bit of borrowed landscape to our mixed plantings of roses and perennials. I’m enjoying a return of sorts to the very thing that started us on this path: a passion for gardening that eventually gravitated to roses.

The YouTube channel that I started in our difficult yearly years (and a bit reluctantly, I have to admit, because who likes public speaking?) has yielded what I feel are some rare advantages for a small farm: a chance to speak directly to potential customers, and even a modest supplemental income to let me grow roses full time. Anyone who has farmed for a living will understand that our challenges are far from over. Quitting the day job wasn’t the first step, but the feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me that it’s a pretty significant one.

In recognition that I’m writing this article for and audience of dedicated rose lovers in Canada, I’d like to conclude with a few final thoughts. The first is gratitude: the rose societies and the rose community at large in Canada has been incredibly helpful and supportive. I feel I owe particular thanks to my local rose societies, the Fraser Pacific Rose Society and the Vancouver Rose Society, both of which welcomed me to speak and sell plants at a time when the rest of the market was less than enthusiastic, and I really needed the encouragement.

Next, I don’t mind emphasizing what a powerful tool social media can be for the future of our hobby. Particularly in the last couple of years, as local garden clubs have foregone many of their in-person gatherings due to the pandemic, I feel the advantages of online community building becomes clear. As one example, I started a small Facebook group called the “Canada Rose Exchange” in this same time period, and it has recently passed the mark of 1000 members. These are Canadians from all age groups and regions, and they’ve come together to share pictures, offer opinions, and even to trade roses and cuttings of hard-to-find varieties.

Finally, Lisa and I are humbled by the support, and we want to take this opportunity to build a special little rose nursery and garden on beautiful Nicomen Island. These days it’s very much a work in progress, but we’re excited to share that progress with the community that has made it possible. Whether you’re able to visit in person during the selling season or equally if you can only visit through our videos, I hope you take this as a very warm invitation to Fraser Valley Rose Farm.

Events

Events

Public Speaking

One of my favorite ways to get the message out about roses is to speak with garden clubs (online or in person). I ask a speaking fee of $150 for an in-person event at local clubs. I’m quite happy to bring along plants for sale, and I can set up online ordering in advance for garden club guests. For online presentations, because there’s no travel involved, I reduce this rate to $100 CDN. For any group outside of the lower mainland, I’m happy to work out details for a visit, but we’d have to talk about a fee to cover travel expenses.

Here are some of the clubs I’ve booked so far for the 2024 season. For those who live nearby, there may be an opportunity for club members and visitors to pre-book plants & have them delivered to the meeting:

Feb 21 Maple Ridge Garden Club meeting 7pm

Mar 18 North Surrey Horticultural Society meeting 6pm

Mar 27 Richmond Garden Club meeting 6pm

Apr 3 Hope Garden Club meeting 7pm

Apr 9 Dogwood Garden Club meeting 7pm

Apr 11 Upper Lonsdale Garden Club meeting 7:30

Apr 16 Bowen Island Garden Club

Apr 20 Fraser Pacific Rose Society meeting 2pm

May 1 Burnaby Rhodo & Garden Society meeting 7pm

May 8 Chilliwack Garden Club meeting 7pm

May 14 Qualicum Garden Club (day trip)

May 16 Mt. Lehman Garden Club meeting 7pm

May 21 PoCo Garden Club 7:30pm

May 22 South Surrey Garden Club meeting 7pm

Jun 11 New Westminster Horticultural Society

Sep 16 Squamish Gardeners meeting 7pm

Sep 17 Seattle Rose Society (online) 4pm

Sep 17 Vancouver Rose Society (online) 7pm

Sep 24 Dunbar Garden Club meeting 6pm

Nov 12 Huronia Rose Society (online) 4pm

Local Selling Events

Most seasons I’ve been able to book time at local selling events like farmers markers and specialty plant sales. Here’s what I’ve planned so far for 2024 (subject to changes and additions):

Mar 24 BC Master Gardeners meeting 9am

Apr 6 BC Council of Garden Clubs (Burnaby)

Apr 13 and 14 Bradner Flower Show

Apr 21 Port Moody Farmers Market 10am

Apr 27 Langley Garden Club Plant Sale 9am

May 5 Coquitlam Farmers Market 9am

May 19 Coquitlam Farmers Market 9am

Jun 1 Gwynne Vaughan Park plant sale 9am

Jun 9 Coquitlam Farmers Market 9am

Jun 23 Coquitlam Farmers Market 9am

Oct 26 BC Council of Garden Clubs meeting 9am

Do you know of another worthwhile (read: well-attended) local community event or plant sale you think we should attend? If so, drop us a message.