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Past Shows:

Show #10/5510. Roses - A Cutting Edge Industry

Summary of Show

How Roses Were Propagated In The Past
KEITH SHOWS US HOW ROSES IN THE PAST WERE TYPICALLY PROPAGATED. One would take the leaves off the stem and expose the eyes, the meristems that are used in the budding process. He takes a knife cuts the eye out, then using a piece of understock makes what's called a t-bud which is a t-cut in the green bark. He opens it up, takes the eye from the other variety, inserts it, then using budding tape, seals it so that it's airtight. This means that now on the understock we have a new variety that we're interested in growing. The understock typically used is called Dr. Huey and it is very aggressive and fast growing. In breeding roses years ago roses were selected for their flowers, not necessarily their vigor. They required the vigor of the Dr. Huey understock to support a really fast growing shrub.

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A Look At Almost Every Class Of Rose
THE GUYS NEXT LOOK AT A WONDERFUL DISPLAY OF ROSES, there is almost every major class of rose here. How does one tell them apart? Many have certain similarities, some look quite different. With some, one can tell the difference by the bloom. For example, Floribunda roses are usually about 3 inches apart, they open fully, although often high centered and they always have a fairly informal look when fully opened. They have nice compact flowers in clusters and are great in a perennial border. By contrast the Grandiflora has a much bigger flower, a bit more formal in the way it looks, it flowers in clusters, in fact the clusters are so big that one can often cut individual stems within the cluster and use those in a vase.

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Roses Used In The Garden
ERIC AND KEITH NEXT WALK THROUGH THE GARDEN TO SEE HOW ROSES ARE USED and the varying applications for the different classes. They start with 2 tree roses. They are examples of little compact, mounding shrub roses. Rosa 'Yellow Ribbons' has been budded onto a 24 inch Dr. Huey understock. It would look great in a container. It has a great height in the garden, great vigor, great disease resistance, totally carefree, totally self-cleaning and has a great presence.

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Cause Roses
ONE OF THE EMERGING TRENDS IN ROSE BREEDING, ONE THAT HAS GAINED A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF POPULARITY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS ARE ROSES FOR A "CAUSE." Not only are they great roses but a portion of the proceeds goes to a designated charity. Rosa 'Diana Princess of Wales' is a great example. It is an elegant Hybrid Tea, very fitting for remembering this elegant lady. 10 percent of the proceeds go to the Diana Foundation which removes hundreds of thousands of landmines around the world. Another Cause rose is Rosa 'Veterans Honor' which is a beautiful red. A portion of the proceeds go to veterans aid. Rosa 'Ladybird Johnson' is a magnificent rose and its proceeds go towards wildflower foundations that preserve wildflowers throughout the U.S. Arguably one of the very best Hybrid Tea roses ever bred is the Rosa 'Pope John.' It is a magnificent rose and has a heavenly fragrance.

Click here for more info

Fragrance In Roses
FRAGRANCE IS IMPORTANT but several years ago many roses were released that didn't have that quintessential rose fragrance. But it is a huge way that we experience a rose and fragrance is again becoming an important factor when introducing a new rose. Think about it, the first thing most do is put their nose in a rose, therefore it's important for it to have a nice sweet smell.

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Show #10/5510. Roses - A Cutting Edge Industry

Complete transcript of the show.

In this episode Garden Smart travels to southern Oregon to visit with a rose breeder. Roses have become a hot item for the garden. New introductions and new innovations in the industry have led to a myriad of new possibilities for roses in the garden.

Do you ever feel like you're having trouble keeping up? Well, there is a reason for that. Today we're bombarded with a lot of information and it is coming at us at what seems like a million miles an hour. It is reported that within the pages of New York Times in 1 week there is more information than the total amount of all available information in the 18th century.

Brad Fay is the Programming Director of Southern Oregon Public Television. Brad says he often doesn't have enough time to even read his emails, much less all the articles and other stuff that comes in. And the information coming in relates not only to his area of expertise, television, but hobbies as well as to many other topics of interest. One of the things that Public Television has traditionally done and is doing even more today is taking the responsibility of distilling the information down to something that's useable, very accessible and very accurate. That's important because people have a lot of sources for their information now, whether it's the 500 channel television universe or all the information that comes down the internet. Public television prides itself in being the place where people can go and get information right the first time. Garden Smart is a perfect example of one of the great gardening shows on Public Television that provide good, accurate information. His wife, as an example, is a Rosarian. She collects roses and is always looking for Public television shows to provide information that can make it fast, easy and accessible to expand her knowledge base regarding roses. Garden Smart is one of the few places where one can find garden specific information - fast, accurate and up to date. That is called cutting through the clutter and getting the content. Public television and Garden Smart are great resources. And when it comes to roses Keith Zary is uniquely situated to provide rose information.

Many view the horticulture industry as an old industry, one that's slow to change. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the world of roses is a great example of a cutting edge industry. There are new innovations and new introductions every year. And Keith Zary is a leader in those innovations. He's been involved in horticulture for more than 30 years and for the last 22 has been a rose breeder. His parents were both avid horticulturists and Keith has always had a strong interest in horticulture. He went to Texas A & M where he earned degrees in horticulture and genetics. Specifically, he has always been interested in breeding. After college he went to the seed industry for a few years but while there looked into other job opportunities, found one at his present company, was fortunate and got the job and is still there today. When he came into the industry, it was all budding, Hybrid T's, Grandifloras and Floribundas. We've now seen a real revolution. Today we're deeply involved in on-root roses and the shrub rose has taken over the market.

KEITH SHOWS US HOW ROSES IN THE PAST WERE TYPICALLY PROPAGATED. One would take the leaves off the stem and expose the eyes, the meristems that are used in the budding process. He takes a knife cuts the eye out, then using a piece of understock makes what's called a t-bud which is a t-cut in the green bark. He opens it up, takes the eye from the other variety, inserts it, then using budding tape, seals it so that it's airtight. This means that now on the understock we have a new variety that we're interested in growing. The understock typically used is called Dr. Huey and it is very aggressive and fast growing. In breeding roses years ago roses were selected for their flowers, not necessarily their vigor. They required the vigor of the Dr. Huey understock to support a really fast growing shrub. At that point they weren't interested in on-root vigor, only interested in selecting flowers that looked beautiful. So, what has changed in the breeding program that went from on-root roses to roses that are essentially just a cutting that's stuck in the ground of the greenhouse? In the 70's, 80's and 90's they began to experiment and discovered that they could root most any rose. Some did well on their own roots, some didn't. In 2000 they made the decision that within Keith's breeding program they would no longer bud anything coming out of research. Everything would be on its own roots, thus they were then selecting for on-root vigor and that has revolutionized how roses are produced. This innovation has allowed the time required to develop new roses and the process to be sped up dramatically. They can now produce roses faster and it has opened up a number of opportunities from the standpoint of how roses are used and how they are produced.

There are many different types of roses and the classic rose, the one traditionally produced using the old grafting and budding method is the Hybrid Tea Rose. What makes the Hybrid Tea Rose a Hybrid Tea rose? They discuss several classics: Rosa Hybrid Tea 'Nancy Reagan' and 'Beloved' are great garden roses. They have tall, high-centered buds, long stems, lots of petals, they unfurl slowly and they make a great flower in a vase. But they're quite awkward looking as a garden plant. But they do make ideal cut roses. If buying roses for Valentine's Day one would typically buy the classic Hybrid Tea Rose.
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THE GUYS NEXT LOOK AT A WONDERFUL DISPLAY OF ROSES, there is almost every major class of rose here. How does one tell them apart? Many have certain similarities, some look quite different. With some, one can tell the difference by the bloom. For example, Floribunda roses are usually about 3 inches apart, they open fully, although often high centered and they always have a fairly informal look when fully opened. They have nice compact flowers in clusters and are great in a perennial border. By contrast the Grandiflora has a much bigger flower, a bit more formal in the way it looks, it flowers in clusters, in fact the clusters are so big that one can often cut individual stems within the cluster and use those in a vase.

The Shrub rose looks a lot like the classic old style English Rose. It is called a shrub because it has an informal shape, it's big, in this case an arching plant, great in the perennial border, usually they're grouped in 3's or 5's to form the backbone of the border. It's great because it's always in flower, it gives an informal look and it's also very nice as a cut rose.

Landscape roses have received a lot of attention lately. Good and Plenty is a great example. It is a compact rose, grows about 2 feet tall, 2 feet wide, it has great foliage, very resistant to black spot and it has a very informal look. It provides a leathery feel to the perennial border. It can be used anywhere in the landscape where one wants consistent color throughout the growing season.

Rosa 'Electric Blanket rose' is a blanket rose. It grows about twice as wide as tall. In this case it's a very small rose. It grows about 1 foot high and 2 feet wide. It's great anywhere one wants it, but is particularly attractive on a slope or in a small container where it looks great arching over the edges. It's a magnificent rose.

The miniature rose is a classic. Rosa 'Winsome' is one and has a tremendous number of garden applications. Rosa 'Hot Tamale' is another and it forms beautiful, little buds that open up into a lovely little flower. It looks like a miniature Hybrid Tea. Even the foliage is miniature. The plant is only about 2 feet tall. It's a great rose for a small border but even better in containers. It looks fantastic on a porch or balcony and has never ending color throughout the growing season.

Climbers are a classic rose and a mainstay on arbors in a lot of old gardens. Rosa climber 'Blaze of Glory' is sort of a Floribunda style flower but it grows on long, arching canes that can be trained along a split rail fence, off a trellis or up against a wall. It gives great height to the garden and provides color in areas where most gardeners never think of having color.
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It's been great to see the different classes. ERIC AND KEITH NEXT WALK THROUGH THE GARDEN TO SEE HOW ROSES ARE USED and the varying applications for the different classes. They start with 2 tree roses. They are examples of little compact, mounding shrub roses. Rosa 'Yellow Ribbons' has been budded onto a 24 inch Dr. Huey understock. It would look great in a container. It has a great height in the garden, great vigor, great disease resistance, totally carefree, totally self-cleaning and has a great presence. In this case they have under-planted Rosa 'Happy Chappy' with a groundcover rose meaning the whole area underneath is covered. These were planted in the spring and today almost touch, by the end of next season they will completely touch. It is a totally carefree rose and very, very low maintenance. But what is unusual is that these are apricot, which in groundcover roses is unique. It does fade to pink and will fill the entire area. They provide a great deal of color even late in the growing season.

They next look at miniature roses. The first has great, unique color contrast and the form is outstanding. It is a compact plant, has great miniature flowers, tremendous foliage and a unique color. It will be a wonderful introduction in several years. And they have many different applications in the garden, for example up towards the front of a perennial border or in containers. If these were grafted onto an understock to make a tree rose they would be absolutely fabulous.

Rosa climber 'Dorothy Perkins' was the first rose introduced by Keith's company in 1902. Here they have it trained along a little picket fence. It's not in flower now because it only blooms in the spring. But there are a lot of modern climbers that bloom all season long.

Another rose is in the corner of the garden and is hiding a wall to break up the monotony of the wall and to add a much needed splash of color. It's a nice addition. The modern Rosa climber 'Joseph Coat' like its namesake from the Bible is a rose of many colors-yellows, oranges, even finishing a red before the petals actually shutter. It does finish off this corner, hides the ugliness and provides great vertical height. It's an aggressive grower, this one has quite a bit of height. When looking at using climbing roses in the garden remember that a climbing rose can be maintained at any height you like. They don't have tendrils like a Clematis or some of the other vines. One probably needs a trellis or some other way to simply attach the climbing rose to the wall. But it is hard to beat.

Joe and Eric next visit another potentially challenging spot in the garden. Here there is a lot of road noise. There is a gas station behind, thus a privacy fence is needed. Oftentimes when thinking of a privacy hedge evergreens come to mind. But there are many advantages to using a rose as a privacy screen. This is a prime example. And it is strikingly beautiful. Rosa 'Fragrant Lavender Simplicity' can be tall, upright, provides great screening, has great flowers all season long and has a wonderful fragrance. There are very few woody plants that can offer all of these great features. Thuja plicata 'Green Giant' will keep intruders out. It is well armed and as the rose matures it becomes even stronger, it becomes quite impenetrable. It's a great hedge.

One of the best ways to see the difference between Floribunda and Grandiflora is to look at them in the garden. The Floribunda has dense clusters of blooms, is a little more tight and compact. The Grandiflora is bigger, a taller plant, has individual stems within the clusters which are longer and great for cutting.
Top

ONE OF THE EMERGING TRENDS IN ROSE BREEDING, ONE THAT HAS GAINED A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF POPULARITY IN THE LAST FEW YEARS ARE ROSES FOR A "CAUSE." Not only are they great roses but a portion of the proceeds goes to a designated charity. Rosa 'Diana Princess of Wales' is a great example. It is an elegant Hybrid Tea, very fitting for remembering this elegant lady. 10 percent of the proceeds go to the Diana Foundation which removes hundreds of thousands of landmines around the world. Another Cause rose is Rosa 'Veterans Honor' which is a beautiful red. A portion of the proceeds go to veterans aid. Rosa 'Ladybird Johnson' is a magnificent rose and its proceeds go towards wildflower foundations that preserve wildflowers throughout the U.S. Arguably one of the very best Hybrid Tea roses ever bred is the Rosa 'Pope John.' It is a magnificent rose and has a heavenly fragrance.

Keith and other breeders around the world are working hard every year to introduce roses with new and different colors, forms and fragrances. A good example is the All-American Rose Selection winner for 2008 named Rosa 'Mardi Gras.' It's a yellow, pink and orange plant with a strong fragrance. It's an attractive plant and would be an exciting addition to any garden.
Top

FRAGRANCE IS IMPORTANT but several years ago many roses were released that didn't have that quintessential rose fragrance. But it is a huge way that we experience a rose and fragrance is again becoming an important factor when introducing a new rose. Think about it, the first thing most do is put their nose in a rose, therefore it's important for it to have a nice sweet smell. Thus breeders around the world are striving to bring fragrance back.

Rosa 'Laura Bush' has a wonderful scent and it is a brownish, tan type rose. It is stunning. More than 10 years ago breeders began to combine yellows and lavenders with the result being some nice tans. They continued to work and ended up with fairly deep russets. It's been satisfying to get this great color as well as a very nice fragrance.

Rosa 'April in Paris' is a beautiful Hybrid Tea. It has intense fragrance, has a creamy pink center with a wonderful pink margin. It makes a beautiful cut rose. It grows vigorously on its own roots but the compactness gives it the opportunity to become a great container rose. Since gardens are getting smaller, it's particularly timely and it has many applications.

Eric thinks all the roses have been fantastic selections. He can't wait to see what will be introduced next year. The past 10 years have been exciting. The way that roses are bred and the way roses are produced has led to a myriad of new possibilities for roses. It's been a real revolution. Roses are now available as plugs, as small container plants, as gallons, they're even available now for planting in the fall. Of course, fall is the best time to plant roses and now they're available that way. Roses are adaptable to just about every corner of the garden, even great in containers, on the porch or patio. Eric can't think of a single application where roses wouldn't fit in. There are ground cover roses and vines, they can be used as a hedge and they look fantastic as hanging baskets. Their use is unlimited.

Eric thanks Keith for our tour. We've learned a lot about roses. The opportunity to spend the day with someone who's on the cutting edge of the rose industry is a treat. We've devoted shows to roses in the past, this has been by far the most informative and comprehensive. Thanks Keith.
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By Delilah Onofrey, Suntory Flowers
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