Today we visit one of the oldest Public Rose Gardens in the country,
Elizabeth Park in Hartford, Connecticut. They have thousands of Roses
in their two plus acre demonstration garden. They have Ground Cover
Roses, Climbers, Heirloom Roses and Hybrid Teas. We'll discuss how to
select them and how to control pests and diseases.
Mayor Eddie Perez welcomes Garden Smart to Hartford, the capital city
of Connecticut. Hartford is a city on the rise, it's a city that
celebrates it's heritage and culture while bringing new excitement to
urban living. They have great spaces in Hartford for the public to
enjoy, places like Elizabeth Park and it's world famous Rose Garden.
The City of Hartford and Friends of Elizabeth Park have a joint
partnership to make sure that they protect and enhance this beautiful
space and make sure that people enjoy it year round, whether for
weddings, proms or just a trip to the park. People have been coming to
this park for over 100 years. The Mayor invites our Garden Smart
viewers to come and visit, to enjoy the quality of life in Hartford and
to witness the heritage and cultural institutions. For a city of this
size the amenities are second to none, whether visiting the Wadsworth
Museum, the second oldest museum in the country, or the new convention
center, or witnessing the growth of city housing or enjoying downtown
and the central business district, the city has much to offer. The City
of Hartford has great people who participate in protecting and
enhancing this wonderful city and its' wonderful spaces like Elizabeth
Park. The Mayor turns the show over to one of those special people,
Donna Fuss the Rosarian for Elizabeth Park.
Donna Fuss as the Park rosarian gets to take care of all these beautiful Roses.
Donna tells us a little about the history of the Park. Charles and Elizabeth
Pond owned this land. Elizabeth died many years before Charles and Charles wanted
to do something for the City of Hartford and remember his wife. Thus he willed
the land to the City with the stipulation that it be a public park, that it
be named for his deceased wife and that it be free to the public. The City of
Hartford took possession in 1897 and hired Theodore Wirth a landscape architect
who interned at Kew Gardens in England. Mr. Wirth and his influence is the reason
the Park has a formal victorian looking garden. The 1904 opening date of the
garden makes this the oldest municipal rose garden in the country. In 1912 the
American Rose Society came to the City and asked them to add on a section for
testing Roses. Thus this is the oldest Rose test garden in the country. In 1938
The American Rose Society came back and asked the City to add an area to commemorate
Theodore Wirth because he was the father of the American Rose Garden and he
started in this garden. So, as of 1938 the garden was complete and today the
beds are configured exactly as they were then. The Garden is 2 1/2 acres and
has 15,000 bushes, the third largest in the country. This garden has a unique
partnership between the City and The Friends of Elizabeth Park. In the 1970's
Hartford hit some hard times and felt they were no longer able to afford to
keep up the Rose Garden and in fact decided to plow it under, which would have
been terrible because this is such a great collection of rose varieties. Several
groups, the Horticultural Society, Historical Society and Federated Garden Clubs,
got together, went to the City and asked permission to form a group to help
support the Park and try to renovate it. The first objective was to save the
Rose Garden, then the rest of the Park. Thus the Friends of Elizabeth Park was
formed and since then Friends have given or purchased things for the City. There
is a volunteer group of about 150 people that help out in different gardens.
The Park is like a living encyclopedia of Roses. They have anywhere from species
to the most modern hybrids. The oldest species in this garden is Rosa Sericea
Pteracantha which goes back to the dinosaurs and is located in the Heritage
Garden. In the main garden there are 8 sets of arches, the compass points are
covered with Excelsa and Crimson Rambler, Roses with very lax canes, very long
canes different from a Climber, which has a stronger cane. Other compass points
have the pink Dorothy Perkins and a white version of Dorothy Perkins. The arches
are a little past peak but glorious. The Park is famous for its Ramblers and
Climbers. They have very old, extremely rare Ramblers that don't exist in other
places. They have a collection of Walsh Ramblers, Walsh has a hybridizer out
of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He hybridized these Roses with long canes and
sent them to England and England claims them as their Cottage Roses. This is
nice because almost everything else has come to us from Europe and England whereas
here we gave them something in return. There are Rugosas, which are common beach
Roses and hybrids thereof. Then they get into very old Hybrid Teas and Floribundas,
Grandifloras, right up to the Modern Shrubs. A beautiful Roses this summer is
Rainbow Sorbet, it carries so many colors-vivid pink, a red, yellow, peach-it
really is a rainbow, it's beautiful. One of Donna's favorites is Wild Blue Yonder,
it is an informal purple that has a wonderful fragrance.
There are other gardens within this Garden, this is a full
horticultural park. It has a lovely perennial garden designed by Fred
McGourty, a shade garden, a sunken garden that's 4 steps down, a
Heritage Rose Garden, where almost everything is pre-1867 (the date
between modern and old-fashioned), there is the Putnam Greenhouse (a
cute little greenhouse, open to the public) that was a gift and there
are other greenhouses used for production (every planting in the city
of Hartford comes from these greenhouses). The plants in the City are
either grown by seed or cuttings with the crew at the Park taking care
of all those plantings. It's a Park that people feel connected to.
Charlie decides to wander around for a while and thanks Donna for her
time, direction and expertise. Thanks Donna.
Charlie first looks at a classic Hybrid Tea Rose. This one is called Moonstone
and is the Rose you're most likely to find when in a garden center. It's the
most popular Rose out there. The way you can tell that you have a Hybrid Tea
is if you have one big flower per stem, usually a strong stem. It's the classic
cut flower Rose you give on Valentines Day. It's a beautiful Shrub, will grow
to 3 or 4 feet tall when mature but it needs care. It likes fertilizer and needs
some pest control for disease and insect problems. If you want a good cut flower
Rose, the Hybrid Tea is the way to go. The breeders decided they loved this
Rose but wanted more flowers on it, a more floriferous Rose. So they found an
old-fashioned Rose called Polyantha Rose and crossed it with the Hybrid Tea.
We view a Polyantha, it has lots of different flowers all bundled up, but they're
very small flowers. The Polyantha when crossed with the Hybrid Tea results in
the Floribunda Rose which is another very popular Rose. If you like big flowers
and want lots of them the Floribunda Rose is the one to choose. This one is
called Travelmunde, it's a beautiful red variety. Floribunda Roses have many
flowers per stem, unlike the Hybrid Tea that has just one flower. They're big,
but not as big as the Hybrid Teas, but very floriferous, they put out a beautiful
show. Floribunda Roses are less finicky about their cultural requirements, they
don't need as much fertilizer and pest control as the finicky Hybrid Teas. The
breeders said well it's a great idea to have Floribundas but we want to have
some big Roses with multiple stems, so they created the Grandiflora Rose. Grandiflora
Roses are a cross between the Hybrid Tea Rose and the Floribunda Rose. They
have the big flowers of the Hybrid Tea but they have lots of them just like
the Floribunda. The shrub itself will grow to 4 to 5 feet tall and is a nice
landscape plant, it is a focal point type plant. It requires care, like the
Hybrid Tea, but because it's such a nice big Rose it can make a statement around
your yard. A lot of the modern roses, a lot of these hybrid Roses don't have
the scent many remember. Some of the new ones have a fragrance but many do not.
One group of Roses that cross between the old-fashioned and the moderns have
scent. Old-fashioned Roses are great, they have beautiful flower shapes and
many have a strong fragrance. The problem with old-fashioned Roses is they only
bloom once during the season. The modern hybrids that we've discussed are great
because they flower all season long. David Austin from England bred them together
and created the David Austin Rose or English Rose. These Roses have the beautiful
flower shapes of old-fashioneds and the scent, plus they flower all season long.
In addition they're a shrub Rose so they get rather big and they don't have
as many problems. These Roses are hardy through about zone 5, just like the
Hybrid Teas and the Floribundas and the Grandifloras. Any colder than that and
they may struggle, that's where you would go for a hardier Shrub Rose.
Roses have a reputation of having lots of insect and disease problems but it
doesn't need to be that way. You can select disease resistant varieties that
don't get a lot of fungal diseases. Also it is important to clean up the plant
during the growing season and into the Fall so you don't have those diseases
and insects over wintering. Charlie now shows us his apothecary. There are lots
of home remedies and sprays that are safe and effective for Roses. The first
thing is to wash the disease spores off the leaves. Get your sprayer or garden
hose and in the early morning go through and wash the leaves. What that does
is blow disease spores off so that they don't get started and a disease that
doesn't get started is not going to get established on a plant. Another home
remedy is milk. A solution of 1 part skim milk, nine parts water put in a sprayer
and sprayed on the leaves will prevent Rose diseases like Powdery Mildew. Another
home remedy is baking soda. Mix 2 teaspoons of baking soda, some summer oil,
soap and a gallon of water. Find a 1 gallon sprayer, add the household baking
soda, include a tablespoon of summer oil or horticultural oil (a low grade oil
effective on foliage but doesn't harm it) which helps the mixture stick, add
several drops of liquid kitchen soap, which also helps the mixture stick on
the leaves, then put the mixture in the sprayer and spray it on the leaves,
usually early in the morning. You may need to do this repeatedly, once every
week or so to prevent diseases from spreading. This mix is effective in combating
Black Spot and Powdery Mildew. If you want to purchase a product you might want
to try Neem oil. Neem is a tree that grows in India and they extract the oil
from the seeds. It is very safe, in fact, in India they make toothpaste from
Neem oil. It is good at preventing disease from spreading and is effective in
keeping insects away. Speaking of insects, there are several that like Roses.
Aphids and Thrips, for example, are soft bodied and easy to kill. A nice product
to use for them is insecticidal soap. It is soap that's been formulated to be
effective on Roses but doesn't harm anything else and is probably better than
using dish soap. Put it in a spray bottle, you may need to use repeated applications
because Aphids reproduce like rabbits. There is a new product used to control
caterpillars in the garden, it's called Spinosad. It's made from a bacteria
that's naturally occurring in the environment that's formulated to spray on
foliage and any caterpillars that are present will eat it and die. It's safe
for other beneficial insects, for pets and humans but effective against caterpillars.
The Japanese Beetle is a problem for Rose growers in the East and the South.
It is a coppery-colored beetle and loves Roses. They come out in June or July
depending on where you live and will flock towards Roses. Their main purpose
in life is to mate and feed. Use this to your advantage, there is a trap that
has a pheromone lure, it is aromatic and has a sex pheromone that attracts them
for mating. Put this in a trap about 3 feet above the ground, place them upwind
and the Japanese Beetles will come from miles around to hit the trap. It has
gotten a bad rap because if you're the only one using this trap in your neighborhood,
you'll attract the beetles from others' yards. Thus you must get everyone to
join in, put them in shrubs and trees and your flowers should be protected.
You could also hand pick Japanese Beetles, especially early in the morning when
they're sluggish. You could also spray beneficial nematodes on the lawn to kill
grubs. If you use all these home remedies you can control most of the Rose problems
you might have.
Reggie DeLarm works at East Knoll Pottery and today shows us how she
makes reproduction heirloom yelloware pottery. Pottery like this was
made in the middle of the 1800's, maybe earlier. Yelloware is
identifiable by its' yellow clay which is under a clear glaze. Today
Reggie shows us how she makes a flower pot. Her potters wheel is
electric, she starts by centering the clay. When the ball of clay is
centered you open it up. She uses a sponge on the outside, squeezing
the inside and outside together, leaving the only place for the clay to
go is up. When the pot is formed she then forms a rolled rim to make
the design a little stronger. This old fashioned craft is still
interesting and the dishware Reggie makes is stunning. Thanks Reggie.
The Sun Sprite Rose has a nice fragrance but you want to keep it healthy by
fertilizing it. Roses are heavy feeders so Charlie suggests adding compost in
the Spring, really building up the soil, maybe put in some time release fertilizer
pellets, then use regular Rose food to keep the Roses really looking good. Another
home remedy involves fertilizing with coffee grounds. Coffee grounds sprinkled
around Roses about a quarter of an inch to half an inch thick will help Roses
grow and bloom better. So after you perk your coffee, save the grounds, dry
them out, then sprinkle them around. You'll find your Roses perform better.
Donna mentioned the Rambling Roses at Elizabeth Park. Charlie takes a look at
a Rambling Rose and explains what a Rambling Rose is. Rambling Roses have long
supple canes. We view a cane that is 1 year old and it's about 10 feet tall
and still growing. That is why you can train them on big arches. If at home
the arch will need to be a strong metal or a strong wooden arch because the
canes can get pretty heavy. The canes will come up in multiples, there will
be lots of them, and the only way to keep them on the arch is to tie them in.
Here they've used twine, you could use wire. Tie them in tightly so that they
will hold onto the arch, thereby enabling the rose to go all the way across
providing the beautiful arch of 180 degrees. Rambling Roses, like Climbing Roses,
don't flower much on new growth but they flower on the 2nd years growth. When
looking where flowers are coming from, the side branches in this case are loaded
with flowers. The main growth is going up and creating more and more side branches.
That is how you get flowers all the way around.
Today we've learned about great kinds of Roses here at Elizabeth Park,
from the Hybrid Teas and the Floribundas to Ground Cover Roses to
coffee for fertilizing Roses to insect and pest control. Elizabeth Park
in Hartford Connecticut is a wonderful place to visit. We thank
everyone who helped us make this show possible.
Links:
The Litchfield Inn
Regina DeLarm, East
Knoll Pottery
Elizabeth Park
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