Flowers for Valentine's Day: How to make them last longer

Roses at Salinas Walmart

Flowers for Valentine's Day: How to make them last longer

Although we should have pruned all of the rose bushes in our garden by now, I bet there might be one or two plants that haven’t been downsized yet. Perhaps you can make the best of it, if they still have blooms, and put a garden rose in a vase on Feb.14. If you do find unopened buds, you can pull off the outer petals and dunk the stem in tepid water. Place the rose in a warm, sunny spot indoors. It might not win “Queen of Show” but it will open.

How to keep cut flowers blooming longer

If you are the lucky recipient of a bouquet of commercially grown, cut roses (or purchased some for yourself) always re-cut the bottom of each stem as soon as you bring them into the house. Do this under warm, running water – if you can manage it - and place them in a vase into which you have dissolved a couple of aspirin tablets.

This is true science. Aspirin is derived from a chemical compound found in willow trees. It has the ability to counteract – at least for a time – the onslaught of rot and encourage the stem to uptake water. If the stem still has prickles on it, put your leather gloves on and push them all off. The rose will take in water from the area where the thorns once grew.

Continue to further refresh your stem cutting every two or three days and replace the water.

If you get a bunch of tulips, take the time to prick the peduncle of each flower with a pin. That’s the green part between the petals and stem. This allows the pressure to escape and the tulip won’t spend as much energy opening and closing as it responds to daylight. This procedure should allow them to last a few days longer.

A mixed bouquet will also benefit from the treatment above. The different cut flowers will have different life spans. As they drop petals, remove them from the arrangement.

Carry the vase and flowers out to a cool garage for the night and return it to the breakfast table. That should also extend the bloom.

Celebrate with flowers

Chocolate and wine are nice but ... remember the New Year's resolutions to lose a few pounds?

Buying flowers, especially for no occasion whatsoever, is a great way to lift your spirit and the spirits of those around you. Bring vibrant colors into your home when the skies are gray and the air is chilly. It also keep our floriculture businesses alive.

"In The Garden with Joe Truskot"

The Monterey Bay Area's new garden show airs on KSQD 90.7 Santa Cruz, Saturdays at 9 a.m. PST. Give it a listen. Featured guests: Feb. 16 Joe Ghio, Feb. 23 Stephen McCabe. Streaming at www.ksqd.org.

In the Garden with Joe Truskot airs on KSQD 90.7 Santa Cruz

Premiere program airs on February 16 with a special guest.

Sharpen Your Shears and Start Pruning

Correct place to prune a hybrid tea rose. All growth above this point continues to be smaller. Beautiful flowers won't bloom on such thin canes. With warm sunshine, water, and fertilizer, your rose bushes will be lush with healthy leaves and flowers.

Keep in mind the three reasons why we prune: 

1. To give the rosebush a rest. In our climate, roses don’t go dormant and will benefit from a
long winter’s rest. By reducing the size of the plant, we allow it to regain its strength at a
time when sunlight and warm temperatures are at a minimum. If there are still flowers and newly sprouted canes on the bush, cut them off. New growth will return in February.

2. To reduce disease and insect damage. It’s easier to clean up around the roses when they
are just a few canes. By removing all the leaves, dead and living, we can reduce the number
of insect eggs and fungal spores. It’s just basic sanitation. Therefore, on hybrid teas prune away everything that is smaller in diameter than a pencil. Remove all canes that are growing through the center of the bush. Keep the center as open as possible. Make your cuts at an angle always with bud eyes pointing to the outside.

3. To allow sunlight to reach the base of the plant. The warmth of the sun encourages new, strong canes to emerge from the bush. These new canes promise years of new flowers. The bud union should rest on the soil line.

Autumn Paintings by Catharina Klein

Don't those roses look like ones that bloom in autumn when grapes and medlars are ripe?

Although not many roses in this video, it does show off her talent for capturing the spirit of autumn. She was born in 1861 and was already exhibiting her work in the 1880s. Several of works in this video, especially the highly detailed ones, were bound in a book of daily poetry readings published in America in 1894. So she was already famous by then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of2WbFIPdxA

Enjoy the video.

Local rosarians pick top hybrid teas

Local rose growers select best varieties

Planning to purchase a rose for your garden? Then, stack the odds in your favor by buying one of the following hybrid tea roses. Monterey Bay Rose Society members selected them by consensus from a list of more than 80 easy-to-grow varieties.

This following list contains traditional hybrid tea roses that resemble what most flower lovers think a rose should look like. They grow well in the gardens throughout the Central Coast of California and will impress visitors when cut and brought inside. They are also proven winners on the trophy table at local rose shows. These bushes are all still in commerce and, therefore, can be ordered by you or by your local nursery.

(If you are looking for roses to create a large splash of color in your garden or for climbing on a fence or arbor, these aren't the ones to choose. That's another list coming to this blog soon.)

The year next to the rose indicates when it was first introduced and made available for sale.

Perfect Moment, 1989

Perfect Moment, Queen of the Show

It's a blend of red and yellow, blooms throughout the season, healthy and disease resistant, slight fragrance, classic hybrid tea shape, blooms are five to six inches in diameter.

 

Gemini, 1999

Gemini, hybrid tea

A blend of dusty pink and beige, Gemini is also frequently on the show table with its nearly symmetrical form. It's a winner in the garden as well with its disease resistant foliage and its generous production of flowers throughout the season.

Double Delight, 1977

Double Delight, hybrid tea

Double Delight has been around for more than forty years and for good reason. It's petals are half cherry red and half creamy white, the plant is healthy and generous with flowers when not pruned too severely, and it boasts a mild sweet fragrance. It's grown by nearly everyone who loves roses.

Sugar Moon, 2012

Sugar Moon, hybrid tea

This beautiful white rose opens well and sports a delicate fragrance. It's flowers can be five inches in diameter on top of  dark green, healthy foliage.

Memorial Day, 2001

Memorial Day, hybrid tea (Photo by John Mahoney)

Honoring those who gave their lives to serve this country, this medium lavender-colored rose offers the classic hybrid tea shaped blooms and a delicious fragrance. Its generous with its flowers and a healthy plant.

Fame!, 1998

Farme!, hybrid tea

Its dark pink color is intense, its form is classic hybrid tea, and its popularity among those who grow it is high. It rewards gardeners with plenty of blooms from a large and healthy plant.

Brandy, 1981

Brandy, hybrid tea

One of the most popular apricot colored roses, Brandy opens quite dark and lightens as its petals unfurl. It keeps its color in the sun though and provides ample flowers on its large and healthy plant.

Ingrid Bergman, 1984 

Ingrid Bergman, hybrid tea

This disease-resistant, vigorous dark red hybrid tea grows in many gardens. Her multi-focused center is easily identifiable as is her nearly unstoppable flower production. Very mild fragrance.

Stainless Steel, 1991

Stainless Steel, hybrid tea (Photo by Judy Sauvé.)

For light lavender-gray rose lovers, Stainless Steel was a godsend and surpasses in all categories her rival Sterling Silver. She has a healthy plant, large flowers and blooms in flushes.

About Face, 2003

Undoubtedly, one of the most striking color combinations in a rose - yellow upper side and bright orange underside. It's a grandiflora which means it often produces multiple blooms of hybrid tea shape on a single cane. It's healthy and popular.

Falling in Love, 2006

Falling in Love, 2006 (Photo from the National Garden Society)

Perhaps one of the greatest pink hybrid tea roses ever developed, Falling in Love has the classic shape, modern disease resistance and generous flower production throughout the season. It's definitely on my short list of roses to get for the future. It does have nasty thorns.

Gold Medal, 1982

Gold Medal, grandiflora

A top favorite since its introduction, Gold Medal changes its color and highlights depending on the light, food, and season. Its vigorous, disease resistant and provides plentiful excellently shaped flowers.

Miss All-American Beauty, 1964

Miss All-American Beauty (aka Maria Callas), hybrid tea

The oldest hybrid tea on this list of recommended roses is Miss All-American Beauty, known in Europe and elsewhere as Maria Callas. Its tall, healthy and generous with its satiny pink flowers. It's thorny and the centers are often muddled but it fits in the easy-to-grow HERE category.

Easy Roses for California's Central Coast

Purple Splash is one of the most vigorous and floriferous climbers on the market.

Join us Thursday, October 25, 7 p.m. at the Aptos Public Library. I'll present a PowerPoint slide show of Easy Roses to grow in our area. Joining me will be several other rosarians who can answer your specific questions about these extraordinary plants. All guests are welcome.

Now is the time that local nurseries are ordering roses for next year. Attend our meeting and check out roses you can be successful at growing. Then, take your suggestions to local nurseries.

Most of the photos are from local gardens and were taken by local rosarians. These are definitely the best roses for our area and all have enthusiastic supporters.

Many of the suggested roses are usually available locally.

Among our many suggestions are: Sugar Moon, Memorial Day, Julia Child, Twilight Zone, and In The Mood.

Sugar Moon

Memorial Day, photo by Janey Leonardich

Julia Child

Twilight Zone, photo by Janey Leonardich

In The Mood, photo by John Mahoney

Autumn in the Rose Garden

Autumn in the Rose Garden

Rosa californica hips

It's official. Summer has ended and autumn is here. The length of night is the same as the length of day. Less light along California's Central Coast doesn't mean growth of rose canes stops, but the grow that does happen is often longer, thinner and more susceptible to the first strong wind that blows.

I stop feeding my roses any chemical fertilizer after Labor Day. It will encourage growth and I want the opposite to happen. October, however, often offers a week or two of sunny warm temperatures and the last flush of flowers - what we call a strong repeat bloom. If you have been feeding the roses throughout the summer, there should be plenty of nutrients in the soil to make the autumn blooms flourish. I often see a much more intense coloration in the petals. The warm, dry weather with sunlight in shorter supply often provides the best color.

Give your roses a little alfalfa now. It's a great tonic with many beneficial properties which will encourage your roses to make good roots during the winter.

Once you seen the last flush of flowers, allow them to form hips. this will help to shut the plant down and get ready for winter. I like to have my roses ready for pruning by January which is now only three months away.

My Rosa californica is off on its own on the side of my potting shed with good reason. It's disease-free, pretty single pink flowers in the spring and summer, and marble-size hips in the fall. It's notorious for wanting to create a hedge. In the wild, the thick hedge it forms allows it to capture blowing leaves to build up the soil and attract nesting birds whose excrement provides a steady supply of fertilizer. It's roots will also secure a bank and therefore prevent erosion. Think about a spot in your garden where a clump of our native rose might do very well. It sends up runners with great regularity so choose a stop away from your hybrid teas and floribundas and, for that matter, your other garden plants and vegetables.

These bright red hips are packed with vitamins and minerals. Wash them, chop them and drop a couple in your teapot.