Planning A Spring Rose Garden

Gene Boerner Magnificent Floribunda, 2013 spring bloom

Growing roses can be easy. Most gardeners tell me they want a rose garden. Time constraints today demand easy steps to see quick results and the considerable cost that we invest in our gardens require lasting success. When asked why they don’t grow roses most people tell me they think Continue Reading

Roses for a Life Time, Chicago Flower and Garden Show

Stormy Weather, Large Flowered Climber

Sweet Home Chicago  I grew up 38 miles north ‘as the crow flies’ along the beautiful N. Shore of Lake Michigan. Next Wednesday, March 19, at 11:00 AM I’ll be talking about rosesat the Chicago Flower and Garden Show. I wish Lynn Arthur and my mother could be there. Here’s Continue Reading

Why I Wrote Four Seasons of Roses

Julia Child

Necessity…the mother of invention ~ Plato Necessity is why I wrote Four Seasons of Roses 2014 Monthly Guide to Rose Care.  Everyone that visits my rose garden tells me that they want roses.  I ask them “what’s standing between you and the object of your desire?” The answer is always Continue Reading

Fantasy Pick Roses

Love Song a floribunda

Fantasy Pick Roses for 2013    Sports analogies dig deep into the heart of the American landscape.  Rose gardening can be a tough physical sport. A helmet is my next gardening fashion statement. It shall coordinate with my leopard rubber boots. This fall, during an attempted shovel pass, I did Continue Reading

Planting Roses in The Fall

'Weeping' Rose and Leaves

“The tints of autumn…a mighty flower garden blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, frost.” ― John Greenleaf Whittier   Beveridge D. Fergusson’s Scottish Proverbs circa 1641 proclaimed, “An open confession is good for the soul.” I openly confess I have never planted a rose bush in the fall. I Continue Reading