This past weekend I had time to re-enjoy Mike Shoup’s book Empress of the Garden. A brief glance tells you this is a gorgeous picture book of elegant roses, but I hadn’t remembered how much substance is there too. Maybe I read it too fast the first time. I got it for my birthday in July. In the book I learned more about the ARE rose-growing program. I learned that Dr. Robert Bayse almost destroyed Belinda’s Dream thinking he could do better. He was influenced to keep the rose by Dr. William Welch. Now I am enjoying this rose as are a lot of you.
Through Mike’s anecdotes and history, I learned more about Dr. Griffin Buck’s rose program and that his Carefree Beauty is a prominent parent of the ARE Pioneer roses. I read about the special people who have roses named for them. One of these was Emily de Zavalla who became known as the First Texas Lady of Roses after her husband, a minister to France in 1834, brought back Cramoisi Superieur, Louis Philippe, and others. I learned more about Thomas Affleck whose nursery was just a few miles from what would become ARE. I believe the rose named for him was bred from Carefree Beauty and Dr. Bayse’s Blueberry. I already knew that one of the Pioneer roses was named for Stephen F. Austin (the Father of Texas), but I didn’t know it was bred from Carefree Beauty and Graham Thomas. I have that rose and love it. Sometimes it’s a delicate yellow and other times it’s almost white. So gorgeous! Great scent too. I read about the legend of the lady who is supposed to be the original Yellow Rose of Texas who kept Santa Ana busy.
Another thing I got from the book this weekend was in a side section about Ralph Moore that told how he donated his genetic material to Texas A & M. I also learned about the original Rose Rustlers Margaret Sharpe and Pam Puryear along with Ruth Knopf and Peggy Martin. I learned about the Bayse Chair in Rose Genetics at A & M. So interesting!
And don’t think that the book is all pictures and history; there was the usual information about pruning, pegging, rooting, training and moving roses. I learned that ARE uses aerobic compost tea and that the ARE in Independence, TX, has an enormous metal umbrella tree. I’d like to see that. I think they grow Peggy Martin on that one. I learned that pruned rose canes are good for smoking meat. One of the anecdotes that I enjoyed was about the first time Mike Shoup saw a Mermaid rose. She obviously impressed him.
Which brings me to another subject of the book. I know some on this forum don’t care to personalize their roses, but Mike does this throughout the book, as the title suggests, he refers to most roses as she. That’s not so unusual, but he personified them according to their personalities or characters. Chapter titles included Reliable Showgirls, Drama Queens, Big-Hearted Homebodies, Regal Showoffs, Petite Party-Goers, Balloon-Skirted Ladies, Earthy Naturalists . . . Well, you get the picture. He concluded that his Pioneer roses are more cowboy than empress. Along with the chapter titles, he lists personality traits for the roses like flashy, refined, greedy, rambunctious, obedient, compatible, effusive, dainty, cooperative, ravishing, docile, capricious, etc., etc., etc. Mike Shoup’s writing style is unique, and since I love to write, that was one of the things I enjoyed most. When he speaks of SDLM, he says “she seldom exposes her knees like other divas do”, and “if you plant her and her many sisters all together, you’d be amazed at the conversation”.
Well that’s all I have to say - just that I really enjoyed the time I spent with this rose book. If you like history, gorgeous pics of roses, advice and comments from a noted rose grower, and if you don’t mind his personification of the roses, you’d probably enjoy it too. Lou