Tremendous, stupendous, beyond awesome! Kudos for an exquisite job that will make all of us want to book a flight to Sacramento. Thank you, Jeri, for your devotion to roses and quality!

How do we go about Silent Auction bidding?

Jeri: You have outdone yourself with this project. Thank you so much for your many efforts and hard work. Printing it out now so I can give this baby the attention it so richly deserves.

Kate

Anita's the right person to answer the Silent Auction question, but I THINK
they will do it more or less as I do it at CoOR.
The roses are out on display, and each rose has a sheet where you can write your name and your bid.

Of course, you know the drill, right?
You rush over to put your final bid in SECONDS before "time" is called,
thereby aceing out those who bid earlier. :-)

Jeri

I'm already replanning my gardens here along with a load of dolomite sand is a possible addition for pH adjustment.
That is the most exciting thing I've seen in a long time.

Now I'm really confused. Why does President de Seze look like Jenny Duval? Usually, it's the other way around.

I wish I could be there. Have a wedding to go to that same day; promised to deliver the toast, so unfortunately cannot call in sick to be in Sacramento :-(

Maybe next year.

Hi -
Jeri's right about the silent auction bidding. You will bid on site and whoever is the high bidder, gets the rose. We will set a minimum on each of the silent auction roses, generally $20.

The catalog includes any roses that we have three or more on hand. We have another couple hundred "onesie and twosie" roses in different varieties, but we've learned not to advertise those because people get too disappointed.

Most of our roses are found, and have been identified by various and sundry rose experts, not all of whom agree with one another. 'President de Seze' may be id'd correctly, or may not be. Gallicas are marginal in Sacramento, so it may bloom somewhat differently here. You also have to wonder at the skill of the photographer (me). It's truly a beautiful rose, however, with multiple tones of mauve, rose and purple, and gorgeous yellow stamens in the center. Fragrant, too.
Anita

>> We have another couple hundred "onesie and twosie" roses in different varieties . . .

*** And some of THOSE are the most exciting roses in the sale. :-)

Jeri

Beautiful!!! as if I could get anymore excited about this event! Thanks for all the hard work ladies.

That is simply stunning, Jeri! I have been waiting impatiently to see what would be available and that catalog was MORE than worth the wait. I am eagerly anticipating seeing the cemetery and bringing home some new babies. It seems there are so few of each available, do I need to camp out overnight the way others do when hoping to get much-desired concert tickets? I'm much more likely to make a sacrifice for Duchesse or Francesca than for Madonna or Britney! Thank you very much for your hard work!

Great work Jeri. Wonderful layout, descriptions, quotes, photos. It looks like it will be an exciting event.
Masha

Ladies, I do NOT think you want to spend the night in the cemetery.
It is a wonderful place, but even I draw the line there.
:-)

Jeri

Brilliant job, Jeri! I can hardly wait. You have added a great deal of excitement with your catalog. It is a great piece of marketing. Truly magnificent!

Joanne

The place is locked at night, and gates open at 7:30 am. There's not much advantage to getting there very early. We'll have the roses roped off. At 9:30 sharp, sales will begin.

The Silent Auction will run all day, and close at 2:30.

There were still very good roses on the table in the afternoon last year. I'll try to be around so people can ask questions about the roses. I am only leading one tour this year.
Anita

Jeri - just stunning. I wish I had even a quarter of your talent.

Anita - I am only leading one tour this year.

Yes, I know :-).

Since it's locked at night and I don't actually relish sleeping in a cemetery quite yet, I'll wait until the morning. As a nearly lifelong resident of Novato, I hope that OTN will return home with me. But all the roses are stunning, so I'm sure to find at least a few treasures. And if I don't, that guy Gregg down the way opens his garden in May and he always has tempting beauties!

I hope to meet some of you lovely ladies in person that day. Anita, are you leading a tour at a particular time?

Same question from me..

Anita,

What time is your scheduled tour? You are my favorite tour guide!
It will be fun to meet at the event. The rose sale gets a little dicey and you have to be crowded close to the table to get your hands on the rose of your dreams...

Dawn et al -- This year, we have such a large number of roses to offer that I doubt anyone is going to go away disappointed.
(Well, EYE might. There's only going to be ONE 'Mel's Heritage,' and I'd be very surprised if we were not out-bid.)

To tell y'all the truth, doing a catalog like this is a hazardous occupation.
I get done, and find that I want half the things in the book.

But there are also a LOT of roses that aren't in the book at all. Roses that we had only two to sell -- like the "Northside Pink" version of "Grandmother's Hat." (It seems to be darker than most). And 'Tina Marie,' a vigorous, registered blush/white sport of GramHat. And "The China From Adina," a nice little pink China from my family's cemetery in TX. And "Lady Reading," a Polyantha you don't see every day. And on, and on.

Jeri

I'm supposed to do the first tour of the day, at 10 am, which of course will be prime shopping time.

The schedule right now is -
10 am - the evolution of the garden (me)
11 am - Sex in the Rose Garden (a talk, not tour, given by Barbara Oliva)
12 pm - TBA - our very own Jannorcal
1 pm - TBA - Jennifer Holden

Judy Eitzen will be zipping around in the electric cart for people who have trouble walking, leading a tour of the overall cemetery at each of those scheduled times.

They'll all be good!
Anita

This all sounds so exciting-------I seem to be having difficulty viewing the catalog----Is it possible to buy the catalog ??

Florence

Florence, what problem are you having?
You can contact me directly . . .

I believe we will have copies to sell, but the price is not as yet established.

Jeri

Jeri, thanks so much. I really enjoyed everything about it, the quotes, the rose prose, the pictures.

Gean

Jeri,

The download amount has been met with the file. You need to resend it. Thanks,

Daun

The Cemetery Rose website was hit with a hack attack.

Though the site has been cleared, Google's crawler hasn't yet picked that up, so they still show it as infected.

If you go to the site through Internet Explorer, you won't have a problem:
http://www.cemeteryrose.org/

Click on the hot pink "button" to reach the catalog.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cemetery Garden Web Site

Jeri, great job on the catalog. Wish I could come.

Carla

Carla, I wish ALL of my friends could come!

Jeri

Patti, if you'll send me an email, I'll make sure you end up with an Old Town Novato, that is, assuming there aren't any left at the sale. The rose belong back in Novato. I collected it from the land underneath the new TJ's and Whole Paycheck.

Cass
cbernstein at earthlink dot net

Wow! Thank you, Cass, for your kind and generous offer. If the others beat me out for the OTN at the cemetery sale, I will indeed email you. Do you live in Novato, too? Or were you just rescuing roses condemned by the developers?

This board has the very nicest people on it!

Pattie

And also keep in mind that, in addition to the big one in the Silent Auction, there are several smaller plants.
It's a beauty.

Jeri

Mel's Heritage, that is!

Please thank Clay for encouraging me to purchase Barbara's Pasture Rose. One of the buds has opened, and OH MY! So lovely and very fragrant. Exactly what I look for in a rose.

Pattie

Pattie, the first time I saw Barbara's Pasture Rose, I took a bloom home.
All the way home, it filled the little motorhome with that wonderful fragrance.

Jeri

I grow Barbara's Pasture Rose at home. I agree about the fragrance - I love to cut a stem for the windowsill over my kitchen sink, so that I can catch a delicious raspberry scent as I walk into the room.

The cemetery BPR is bigger than Jeri described, but I have one at home that is about five high by four wide. I cut it back harder than we do a lot of the cemetery roses, to about 3 1/2 feet, and keep cutting stray canes off that are blocking the pathways or crowding other plants. Each cane removed becomes a cutting, of course, which is where all of those BPRs in the sale came from!
Anita