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EarthKind in Texas; All Stars in California

12 years ago

Jackie wondered if California had an equivalent program to Texas's EarthKind program for roses. I'm posting the reply here for greater visibility.

While California does not participate in the EarthKind program, and does not have a rose-specific program, UC Davis does have a program called the Arboretum All Stars. To quote from their website:

"The horticultural staff of the UC Davis Arboretum have identified 100 tough, reliable plants that have been tested in the Arboretum, are easy to grow, don't need a lot of water, have few problems with pests or diseases, and have outstanding qualities in the garden. Many of them are California native plants and support native birds and insects. Most All-Star plants can be successfully planted and grown throughout California."

Four roses have been included in the 100 plants. They are Iceberg, Mutabilis, Perle d'Or, and Pink Gruss an Aachen.

UC Davis is hosting a Rose Day on May 5th. It seems to be centered around their All American Test Garden. I won't be there since I am busy that day. UC Davis does have one of the few (two?) rose virus indexing programs in the United States. Given that California is a center of the rose breeding and rose growing industry, I think the focus is on there, and understandably so.

http://ccuh.ucdavis.edu/events/roses-2012/your-sustainable-backyard-roses

Rosefolly

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis Arboretum All Stars

Comments (5)

jerijen
12 years ago
It's interesting to note that while not all Earthkind Roses are "all-stars" in California, I certainly have found all four of these to be.
I'd love to see more roses meet Davis's criteria. I know many can.
jacqueline9CA
12 years ago
Thanks for the info! These 4 roses certainly are good in CA - I agree with Jeri that I hope they do more roses. Interesting that these are chinas & polyanthas - hope next time they test some tea roses!

Jackie
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eahamel
12 years ago
Here's a list of the Texas Earthkind roses.

I'm sure you'll find a lot of familiar faces here! Since most of these are well-known antiques and a few moderns, I don't know why most wouldn't do well in CA.

Here is a link that might be useful: Texas Earthkind Roses List
kristimama
12 years ago
In addition to that list, 2 additional roses (Monsieur Tillier and Mrs. Dudley Cross) were added to the EarthKind List in 2011.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2011/apr/ek-roses-2011.html

This is an interesting discussion. I guess in my naivete about roses, I sort of assumed that the EarthKind roses were a good list of drought tolerant roses that would work in a variety of climates even outside of California. But I guess I should have paid more attention to the fact that it's part of the Texas University system and maybe not all will work for California. It's great that UC Davis has a list, albeit a short one. I wonder if someone from the Heritage Roses groups in California has spoken with the folks from UCD to lobby for the inclusion of some of the heartier antique roses in California?
jerijen
12 years ago
eahamel -- I've found through direct experience that no-few "Earthkind" roses have tremendous rust and/or mildew problems in my conditions.

The fungal issue of importance to their testing is blackspot.

Roses that are blackspot resistant in Texas FREQUENTLY turn out to rust and/or mildew badly in my garden.
Moreover, many roses that are disease-free in the Central Valley have TERRIBLE problems here at the coast.

That being so, for me, an "Earthkind" title is of academic interest only, and even tests at Davis mean little to me.

We go back to "Location, Location, Location."

Jeri

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