Let me see if I can entice some help by putting up a purrrrty picture, lol.

The pic is very enticing, but I don't know if I can be much help on the Rose Society idea. My understanding is that rose exhibiters are the ones who get the most benefit from Rose Societies which have, in general, been accused of pushing hybrid teas at the expense of other kinds of roses.

OGR gardeners especially resent that emphasis since the old garden roses are not bred to produce big fat gorgeous blooms (one per loooooooong stem) and therefore can't compete and win in any of the standard categories. I guess from what I've heard, some (I don't know how many) Rose Societies have tried to be a bit more accommodating and set up some kind of "other roses" category that would allow old garden roses to display their particular virtues even if they don't look like hybrid teas. I'm not sure how welcome that makes old garden rose growers feel, however--an extra tag-a-long category, but Queen of the Show and such traditional and prestigious categories are still dominated by the big long-stemmed hybrid teas--after all, they are the most beautiful roses, according to most Rose Societies?

The other area of dissension is the use of sprays. Too accepted and even pushed by some (many?) Rose Societies, whereas many other rose growers have renounced all sprays. Big fights can break out on that subject!

That said, I do enjoy well-grown roses--even big fat long-stemmed hybrid teas as well as old-fashioned garden roses. If it were convenient, I would go to a Rose exhibition and probably enjoy it thoroughly--but that many hybrid teas in one afternoon might be like eating too many sweets--I'd be on a HT high, nervous and jittery and high-strung til I came down to where the old-fashioned garden roses were. LOL

That is just one side of the issue. I'm sure others can give you another perspective also.

Kate

A local Rose Society can be a good thing if you have some good people involved. Yes some are big on showing but if you have a few people in it that understand there are many different interests in rose growing & give all interests a voice, you can find a lot of value & enjoyment in belonging. Networking & garden visits with other rose growers in your area....this is a great source for what roses & what growing ideas will work best in your area. You can also save money by purchasing bulk roses & supplies thru both local & mail order nurseries. For example, if I purchased 3 roses from Palatines, it would cost me about $5/bush shipping. My rose society pooled our order so we got 30 roses bringing the shipping down to about $1.50/bush. So if you can get a good group together, go for it.

I belong to three local rose societies. NONE of them are doing well at this time. Membership has fallen way off and there is little money to do much of anything. One of them doesn't have enough money to pay for the meeting space through the end of the year and is talking about disbanding. Sad!

Not all societies are affiliated with the American Rose Society. There are several here in Michigan that aren't. Yes, a lot of the ones that are affiliated with ARS do have shows, but here again, not all of them. You can choose what type of society you wish to have and whether or not you want to be a part of the ARS.

At NONE of the societies I belong to do we push only HTs. We've had many programs about OGRs and many other types of roses, including Knock Outs. We have many members who only grow OGRs and some who only grow KOs and we respect that and enjoy sharing our knowledge about them with each other. We do have our small show in the spring but even here we try to emphasis that ALL types of roses are welcome and our schedule reflects that.

I think times are changing and societies are too. If you want to attract members you need to have programs that reflect the type of gardens they have. Now days that's a lot of emphasis on no spray and easy care. The roses being offered now are starting to reflect that change as well. Our last meeting was a program on all the new roses introduced the last couple of years. Only two of those where HTs and neither of those were "exhibition" type blooms. There was a lot of talk about the OSO Easy roses and Easy Elegance roses as well as the Earth Kind list. Those are the types our members want to grow so that's what we talk about.

I'm not surprised membership is low--Internet forums such as these tend to emphasize the bad points of hobbies more than the good. For instance, the RRD threat in many parts of the country. But, after hearing Ann Peck's talk at an ARS Division Convention, I concluded that with reasonable vigilence, I'd lose fewer roses than most CT rosarians lose to winter. True, gardens do get wiped out, but in all the cases I'm familiar with, nobody is keeping watch.

dublin, I never thought about joining a society because I thought they were like what you described. But they are not! At least the one I belong to. I saw an add to a Rose Day that they were sponsoring and went to it. One of the members was giving a lecture on Old Garden Roses. Many of my society members love OGRs and don't really grow HTs. And guess what, I went to a show and I LOVED it. I brought all my OGRs. I don't show HTs (well I tried, but failed miserably) I've won some nice awards at shows and now I'm into arranging. The categories for OGRs are pretty extensive. It may be different for different shows but there are many categories that you can show in and win.

But perhaps the best part is the great people I have met and become friends with. Rose people are a bit crazy, but most of them will give you the shirt off their back (or a rose out of their yard). Honestly I have gotten more 'free' roses since joining the society. We also do group ordering of roses and amendments and other supplies, so that is a big benefit.

I would also urge those who are in a society or want to join one to volunteer. Hold office (it's not that hard, I am currently Secretary and Treasurer), do events, help with the show planning and set up. If you enjoy the society and what it does for you, you have to give back.

I'm new to showing, and to rose societies (I belong to two). I love showing and attending shows. I especially enjoy seeing all the different types of roses that exhibitors bring. In my area, OGRs, shrubs, knockouts, are all shown. I myself love growing and showing minis and minifloras. Yes, the big, buxom, hybrid tea will probably win Queen, and rightly so since exhibition form is first and foremost, and they so often have the best form especially when grown by top rosarians. But a perfect little mini or miniflora bloom can win rose-in-a-bowl and be on the judges table over a hybrid tea. Or floribundas win for an english box. There are so many different classes one can enter it can be mind-boggling when first starting to show. The varieties are judged on their own merit, so can still win blue ribbons without having hybrid tea form. I had nine blue ribbons from my last show, and three roses on the judges' table. Not one hybrid tea was among my entries. I view showing as an incentive to grow better plants, inspiring me to take good care of them to produce better roses.

Much of what my societies do involve educating the public, and educating new members on how to grow better roses. I've found that many longtime growers are eager to share their knowledge. We have some society members that don't show at all, and some new members have just a few roses on a patio or balcony.

Membership is in a downward spiral, from what everyone says. Times are changing, interests are changing. I think rose growing in general has dropped from the 70's and 80's, when all those big, showy, disease-suseptible, and tender hybrid teas were being pumped out in rather abundant numbers. We've lost a lot of wonderful hybridizers and rose nurseries. People who liked the look of roses, but not the work, have opted for the easy-care knockouts, which are still selling like crazy. One of the things societies can do is to educate the prospective new rose grower about some of the newer rose varieties which are just as easy to grow as knockouts, but are prettier, have better form, will give them more color choices, and probably will be more rewarding to grow. Knowledge is the key, and societies can help spread that knowledge.

I would love to be a member of a society but the closest one to me is 25 miles away and they meet at night. I just don't drive highways at night anymore if I can help it. If they would start a daytime group I'd jump in as a charter member in a heartbeat. I'd love to learn from other local rose growers!

I think that people are intimidated about entering their roses when you compete with other people that are judges (not for the current show). The judges' entries at a show are just for the judges judging that particular show. Please correct this statement if I am wrong. The economy is probably a factor for rose societies not growing. There's not enough time and energy when you work 2 jobs.

Rose societies can be a great thing or a total drag. It depends on what "YOU" make of it. I enjoy rose societies. Great people that grow all kinds of roses in every society that I have belonged to. I listen to other people talk a what they grow and why. I have learned so much about roses and the "little tricks" that make a rose bush happy from the rose societies. Hands on garden work you can't get from a book or the internet. It has made a tremendous difference in my garden over the years. I'm over a hour away from my home society and have a hard time making the evening meetings. As far as the ARS goes, they are making a big change in how they do things. Years ago it was just exhibit. Now they are more into helping the gardener grow all different kinds of roses that fit their life style. I know the ARS Conventions still do the Rose Shows but have expanded the schedule to include all types of roses and just about all the seminar's at these conventions talks about everything roses except exhibiting. The latest magazine that just arrived the other day has two (2) pages that talk about rose shows and the rest of the magazine talks about everything you can think of as far as roses go. A big change from 10/15 years ago.
Now, I exhibit my rose at 2 or 3 shows a year because I enjoy that part of my gardening but the main function of my garden is for me to enjoy it's beauty and for my neighbors and friends to enjoy the beauty of our National Flower.

I tried to go to a show at our local city's botanical gardens. It was advertised on their site's calendar and on the rose society's page but neither had any real concrete information about the event (that I could find). We went and there were lots of people setting up and looking busy but no signs explaining where to go or what to do. We meandered through the area three times and never figured it out. When we asked the garden employees about it they seemed confused and thought either that it was a private event or a separately ticketed event. Perhaps we just got unlucky with our timing and choice of people to ask but it was discouraging. We'd visited that day primarily to see the show and left disappointed. It seems like it would have been a great way to introduce new people to the group.

I belong to a rose society - the only one in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan as far as I know. Although life has changed and I no longer am able to make the 150 mile round trip to the weekday evening meetings every month (or twice a month as I used to do when I was on the board for a few years) I still pay my dues just for the newsletter and the chance to get together with some very lovely folks once or twice a year at special events. This thriving group is not about rose shows at all even though they are an ARS chapter; rather they are about educating and encouraging rose growers, enhancing established gardens and giving back to the local community. They maintain gardens at a library, a hospice center and more. Every year all but the funds necessary to start off the next year's meetings are donated to food banks, women's shelters and such. And there is still money for field trips and other special events. Their main fundraiser is an annual (organic) fertilizer mixing day where hundreds and hundreds of pounds of rose fertilizer are mixed up in a small cement mixer and sold - mostly to members. Most all the members come and help with the big job of mixing, weighing and labeling. I'm proud to be a part of this group and more wonderful people I've never met. There can be more to a rose society than showing the flowers one grows (not that there is anything wrong with that if it's your interest) if one gets together a group of people with the same ideas.

Thanks SOOOO much for your perspectives. I find this information extremely valuable. Does anyone know if there is a minimum number of members needed to start an ARS chapter?

We were active members of the local society when we had a local society. Some of the above post have started to nibble at the edges of the real issues.

1. Distance. There are limits to how far people will go to attend a meeting. Most of our regular attendees traveled less than half an hour to the meetings. The farthest among them traveled about 45 minutes. While some people may happily travel longer, it is a very real constraint.

2. Time of meetings. Every group I've been involved in has been torn in half between two very basic points of view. Older, retired people often dislike driving at night, and prefer holding meetings weekend afternoons. Younger, working people dislike having meetings during their prime gardening hours and prefer holding meetings weekday evenings.

3. Programming. This was our biggest issue. There really aren't that many speakers/programs with the breadth of experience to give a totally new program every year. It isn't easy to come up with interesting enough programs once a month, almost every month, year after year. This is the one area the ARS really let us down. Because of our size, we were very dependent on outside material. At that point, they had about 3 canned programs on hardy roses, and that was it. It was equally hard to get appropriate newsletter material from outside. If you are far enough north that you can pretty much cut and paste standard HT culture articles, this isn't going to be an issue. If you feel the standard articles need a lot of editing to be accurate, then you are going to be in our position where everything has to be created by your society, and that is a lot of work.

4. Participation. 'Many hands make light work' is true. None of this is a problem if you have enough people willing to help. If you can get 12 people to each contribute a newsletter article once a year, that's an original article every month, with nobody doing a lot of work. However, you have to ask a lot of people to get those 12. The same is true for every other society job. Someone may be willing to be President for a year or two, but quits in a huff after ten years because they have been pushed too far.

Notice I haven't said anything about shows. Within fairly reasonable guidelines, shows can be what the local society wants them to be. We had shows where the Dowager and Modern Shrub classes had more entries and more exhibitors than Exhibition HT. If we had continued on, we were seriously considering creating our own Shrub certificates because we needed a Shrub court.

Here's another problem that I'm seeing in my area. Garden clubs like rose society, hosta society, lily society, etc. have mostly members 50+++ years of age and some clubs are simply going away because of the lack of new younger members. Some of my garden friends complain that young people aren't into gardening. However when I look around I see the younger folks coming at gardening from a different way....they're interests are in things like urban garden plots, urban chickens, urban bees, CSA's, etc. What do others see?

Just my two cents-- I think starting a society is a great idea, but like wisorosarian says, do your best to make it accessible. I cant tell you how intimidated I was to go to the Rose Society meeting for the first time when I lived in California. This was San Diego and I was under 30, a complete novice at roses (still am). Everyone was much older, all homeowners and sounded like they knew so much already, I was shy and feeling very lost in those grand rooms where the meetings are held. I did not grow up in a gardening family, I didnt even have a yard of my own. But I wanted to learn but didnt want to look stupid. Being accessible to all ages and giving a feeling of inclusiveness for all will take away the stuffy preconceived impression people may already have about a rose society.

Things for younger members: emphasize the service/ charity work (such as the hospice garden maintenance mentioned earlier), environmentally friendly/low impact rose growing techniques, rose growing for pollinators, small space/container rose growing, garden tours with tea/evening cocktails.. things like that.

We must be lucky and have an active society. I joined in January and meetings have included: pruning, Tom Carruth, graywater, ARS president, modern styles of arranging, a share roses from your garden and Dan Bifano. No rose shows, a raffle every meeting and people bringing refreshements

Well you are in California! I went to a District meeting this January. It was a lot of fun. I think everyone should try it once.

Thanks everyone for such great replies.

Clubs are a great venue for giving away roses or like new gardening stuff you no longer need. Two years ago I potted up a few roses and gave them away when they were about ready to bloom at one of the club meetings.