Really beautiful and WOW are some of those roses HUGE!

Thank you for the tour of the rose gardens. For someone like me who has never seen most of these old roses in person (except for a few I personally grow), all those pictures--close-ups and full-bush--are a real treat.

Kate

Thank you Malcolm - I appreciate the pictures very much. They are great! It's a good reference (I am ordering 25 for next year). Yesterday I was clicking on a picture of Paul Neyron rose on-line, and Norton Security flashed a big yellow screen "Virus attack". I'm safe clicking on your pictures - many thanks.

Wonderful resource--both blossoms and bushes. And you even alphabetized them! Love that :)
Marcia

Wow - and thank you.

It's really helpful to see these wonderful photos of so many roses, especially the full bush shots. Thank you!
Molly

Thank you Malcolm. I was happy to see the roses as they would appear in our gardens, not "glamour shots". Your pictures confirmed my previous opinions about which roses I liked more or less, making this a very useful thread, in addition to it being enjoyable.

Ingrid

OMG, they're gorgeous!

Thank you so much. These are pics I will treasure all winter.
Jeannie

I just added 35 more, including several varieties not previously included. If you want to see only the new additions, view directly from my photostream, rather than within the set.

Thanks so much, Malcolm. It was a treat to see all of your southern belles. I hadn't seen Edith Schurr before; that is a pretty thing.

Thanks for the great pictures. It is hard for us in the northern climes to think of roses doing their best in November. I guess this is like our springtime.

This is an excellent record of roses for Florida and deep south gardens. Great bush shots to go with the close-ups. Thanks, Malcolm. It was an education. :))

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

These are photographs which will probably become a continual resource to me as I add to my own garden. The photographs of the entire bush is especially helpful. After seeing your Leonie Lamesch, it looks like I'm going to have to move mine :( Thanks for "letting me know" sooner rather than discovering mine had suddenly gotten HUGE--maybe being a little north of you will help. Jeff

Jeff, It can get quite big, but in looking at that photo again, I hope you're not interpreting it to mean the entire "hedge" is Leonie -- she's in the middle. However, the plant from which my cutting came, at Boone Hall, Charleston, SC, must have been at least 8 feet tall, so yes, it can get large.

I saw Leonie at Boone's Hall a few years ago and I fell in love with it. There was no one there to ID it for me, but I researched until I found the indentity of that beauty. It was the first of June and it was blooming splendidly. Sadly, I have never found one to purchase locally and I don't buy enough roses at any one time to justify an on-line purchase. Thanks again for the wonderful photos.
Molly

wonderful photos of an awesome collection of roses! I had the great pleasure of visiting the Florida Southern College (and Malcolm)last weekend. The roses and all of the other plants were great- growing in a beautiful campus. Thanks for posting Malcolm- I now need to find Leonie Lamesch. If you are a plant, rose or achitecture lover- Florida Southern is a treat.

Malcolm,
I'm hoping you'll give me lots of details.
Do the roses grown at Florida Southern get sprayed? If so, would you provide details of what with and how frequently?
Fertilizer - same questions.
Also, any details on the soil? Initially amended only, continually amended? How so?
How were the specific roses chosen for addition?
Are new additions to the collection ongoing?
Do you have a personal rose garden as well and if so does it include any roses not at FSC?
Lastly, most everyone I know drools over Double Delight. I noticed Osira -couldn't help it the photo leaps off the page, can you give any info/details not on HMF about it?
Thank you.

sandandsun,
I'll try to answer your questions in order, here.

1.Do the roses grown at Florida Southern get sprayed? If so, would you provide details of what with and how frequently?

That varies by garden. Yes, the two main gardens are sprayed weekly, always with a fungicide for black spot. I know they use manzate (or some form of Mn/Zn dithiocarbamate) and that they alternate that with some other material -- I'm not sure what (it's a professional spray service). When requested, they also include an insecticide for chili thrips. We use soil-applied imidacloprid as our first line of defense against chili thrips, but because of the potential for resistance build-up, we do ask the spray service to use something else, periodically.

Other areas (in the greenhouses, the "great wall" garden behind the greenhouses, Bermuda Mystery beds, etc.) don't get sprayed with any fungicides at all, nor any insecticides other than imidacloprid. We do use a miticide (usually Pentac + Avid) in the greenhouses when needed, based on scouting.

2. Fertilizers -- We fertilize in the spring (March) with Harrell's Polyon 12-6-8 (I think???) 6-month slow-release material. We supplement that with a couple cups of alfalfa, a couple cups of Milorganite, and about 1/3 cup K-Mag (a natural mixture of magnesium sulfate and potassium sulfate) and perhaps 1/3 cup Epsom Salts. We also adjust the pH up, as needed, with dolomite. I try to keep the pH above 6, but it's often much lower. We know it's really getting low when we can see boron toxicity on the plants. Then in the fall (usually October) we use another couple cups of Milorganite and another 1/4-1/3 cup K-Mag.

3. Soil -- Yes, initially amended in 22" wide x 18" deep holes with up to 4 cubic feet of peat/perlite potting mix (we're using Fafard #2 these days, but that varies). Into that, we mix the spring fertilizers listed above, along with about 1/3 cup triple superphosphate, 1/8 cup STEM (trace elements), and 1/4 cup gypsum. We keep a deep (4"?) mulch of pine bark or pine straw, depending on which garden, year-round.

4. Selection of plants -- some were chosen because I had seen and liked them; others were sent to us for rose mosaic virus heat therapy (the real reason for existence of the gardens is as a mosaic-free gemplasm repository). Many others were sent to us as "found" roses, to be rescued from possible extinction, since we're known to have good success with propagating roses. I try to get those propagated and farmed out to appropriate areas as soon as possible, and if they are types that should do well for us and we have space, we'll keep a plant. Over the last 30 years, some things have not done well and were replaced; others have been maintained. We do still get a few "new" things now and then, but have not actively increased the inventory much in recent years. We are in the process of designing and preparing to plant a new, large garden, and I'm hoping to add quite a few more climbers than we currently have. Almost everything is grafted to 'Fortuniana' rootstock. Exceptions include some of the Chinas, Tausendschoen, and R. laevigata, which are fine on their own roots.

5. Personal rose garden -- no I don't. I rent a house from the college, and they insist that renters use their murderous lawn service, who see to it that any valuable plants die as quickly as possible. It makes the mowing/weed-eating easier...

6. Osiria -- this is a greenhouse-adapted florist rose. We grow it under glass. I don't think I could spray it enough to keep it happy outdoors, but I have not tried.

Thank you Malcolm. Informative, interesting, and just plain excellent information. Thanks.
I understand about landscaping "services."
When initially disabled by herniated discs years ago, I contracted with one that promised I could trust them. On their first and ONLY visit, they weed whacked to oblivion my $30 prized specimens which were acquired by great effort and could not be replaced. Yes I understand. Landscaping guys are mercenaries not gardeners.

I just now added another 32 photos to the set, taken today, including more full-plant views as well as a couple more varieties. Rather than alphabetizing them, I've left them at the end of the set so you can see what's new.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to the FSC rose photos