It will be quite enlightening reading what has survived and remained healthy in your climate and conditions. I'm glad your health appears to be improved. Both the collection and YOU are resources to be treasured!

I'd love to wander through that tangle of plant life, looking for roses like a botanical archaeologist! Thanks for sharing Paul!

Paul, may I share this on the HRG and Gold Coast pages?

Yes. It breaks my heart over and over to think that so many roses are just now unobtainable, because the nurseries that offered them are gone forever.

Even roses we once thought were "safe" in places like the Sacramento City Cemetery are now endangered at best.

My theory about why the Old Roses are survivors is that the Old Roses we have, we have in large part because they survived for so long, lost and forgotten. At my stage of life, that's the only kind of roses I dare to grow.

@jeri

yes of course, share this anywhere you wish!

He looks like Moses! Maybe when he retires he could root those rare roses again. 3000+ roses! I hope they're all still alive, and rose tags are still there. I am wondering what made him to drop the nursery idea......

Wow, I remembered ordering from this nursery years ago.

Fun reading to see what have survived. Thanks!

@summersrhythm_z6a

Lars is retired now, and has no interest in propagating any of the surviving roses. Neither do I. We don't have the infrastructure to do that kind of work here anymore.

Out of 3000 varieties, I would say less than half of them are still alive. Few modern hybrids survived for long without spraying fungicides every 12 days. We simply refused to keep doing it since there was no point and no manpower to persist.

What made Lars decide to quit the nursery? It was 2006 and it was becoming obvious there was trouble on the horizon. The nursery never made enough money to do more than pay expenses and wages. You have to remember that the 2007 recession took down even the giants of the industry, so things looked pretty bleak for small players. It was clear even in 2006 that things were not going to improve for a nursery like The Uncommon Rose for at least a decade, so it was decided that an exit was best, before it started losing money.

Very interesting, Paul. Thank you.

Thanks for the update Paul. I hope I could change your mind and Lar's , but enjoying retirement is important, it's time to relax, I totally understand. I am glad to hear half of the roses are still alive. I just wish I knew about his nursery back then, and started rose gardening earlier. I recently realized running a nursery is not an easy task. I wasn't thinking about profit making. I was planning to cut down high property tax expense by opening a farm or a nursery (as a side business) on the property that we are in the buying process. It's zoned for agriculture. But in order to meet the requirement, I have to make at least $10,000 income per year from the farm or nursery. That's a lot of a bands have to sell, too much stress for after work, so I drop the idea of a nursery. I am a lady biker, pretty brave in most of time, but not brave enough to start a small nursery. Lol

The two fastest ways to lose a million dollars are to open a nursery or buy a large boat.

"The two fastest ways to lose a million dollars are to open a nursery or buy a large boat." @roseseek

The only reason to open a nursery these days is to have a hobby after retirement. Or if you don't need to make money. Preferably both.

Thanks Paul, that was such a touching story .

I do remember well the real rose nurseries...

I also remember stumbling across your Old Garden Roses and Beyond, now almost 20 years have passed. Back then It awed me to discover such a wealth of roses existed, and I read about every single rose you listed, returning multiple times until I memorized your descriptions and ratings . I expect in an ocean of names, no one fathoms the extent of rare roses in the deep, or the ones that have vanished.

I used to try to find someone who spoke antique rose language when I went shopping, anyone that understood their worth. I'm still alone, except on Rose Forum. I love to read your comments when your name pops up.

A wise old Charles de Mills

Preferably both.

What's more, as the world and the nation, are now . . . I don't see any good future for such "non-essential" industries. Not in my lifetime, anyhow.

And that just makes me want to cry. And cry.

Paul, I hope this might make you smile.

Here comes an idea to wake up his secret garden from years of napping. Lars could have volunteers to clean up the rose garden and then to charge people for touring. The money from touring could help with maintenance and other misc expenses for the garden. It would be less stressful than running a nursery. :-) And it would give people more opportunities to learn about old garden roses which he loves dearly....... a good idea? :-)

Vintage Gardens has tried to do something like this. It is a huge amount of work.

Does the town or city not want to preserve this piece of history. Is there anyway the local rose society may contribute to this wonderful garden. It can become one of the town's tourist attraction.

@jjpeace (zone 5b Canada)

"Does the town or city not want to preserve this piece of history. Is there anyway the local rose society may contribute to this wonderful garden. It can become one of the town's tourist attraction."

This property is outside city limits. Corvallis already has a large public rose garden which they can barely afford to maintain. Currently, it survives mainly because the University sends student volunteers to help. Otherwise, it would be in serious trouble. Adding another derelict garden to the city's list of things to care for is guaranteed to be a no go.

Local rose society?? That died ten years ago. There are no local rose societies anymore.

Make it a tourist attraction? No way. Its on private property, and we don't want a lot of traffic coming onto the farm. I don't see this as a problem looking for a solution - it simply is what it is: a snapshot of a lost era.

I came in just alittle too late as well. I buy everything I can get my hands on though! But I started just as Vintage was closing, and most others had already done so. How I love my OGR! I do what I can to help preserve. May we all do what we can, and I hope it matters. I tell everyone interested about OGR, even some that aren't, lol and yoga. My two loves besides my family.

Thanks for posting this Paul. And thank you to Lars for the blog history of the Uncommon Rose and the trip through time to way back when.

I did not know much of the history of yours and Lars venture into the rose nursery business, nor the tribulations that finished it. You told me about the loss of many of your surviving roses in the 2015 arctic outbreak, (Polar Vortex), but this was the first I have heard of the devastating flood that hit the Uncommon Rose in 2006.

The story is both enlightening and tragic. I very much enjoyed the afternoon you spent with me last spring and now appreciate even more the rare roses that you sent south with me to California. Most of those roses were to be coming North right about now to be placed in the new Heritage Rose Garden where they can be appreciated, curated. propagated and perhaps a few at least redistributed. So, the roses will remain in John's Garden in California for another year, being well cared for and growing on.

Alas, we Canadian folk too are sheltering in place and I and my volunteers have been locked out of the Summerland Ornamental Gardens since the end of March, until the pandemic is past. We potted up more than 100 rose plants last week that I ordered last fall and that are destined for the heritage garden. They are being held and cared for by a local retail nursery thank goodness. Fortunately, there is still one Government of Canada Employee allowed in the Ornamental Gardens to make certain that the irrigation is working, so the roses will be blooming for each other rather than for we humans.

You sent a plant of Golden Century south with me, so I will have to ask John how it is coming along. I also remember you showing me the plant of Grenadier Cottage when I was at your place. I believe there were only one or two blooms open when I was there, but it certainly is a very beautiful rose that in my view deserves to be saved and cherished.

If anything, both Lars' story and this pandemic teach us, is that nothing is certain and nothing is forever. But both these things also highlight the human need to treasure beauty and to try to cherish and protect it. Both the story and the pandemic only make me wish to finish our Canadian heritage rose garden project all the more. It is in such public Gardens that rare and heritage roses have by far the best chance of surviving. We will never be a Sangerhausen, but we will have some rare, beautiful and historically significant roses, including quite a number of yours in our collection when we are finished.

Treasure Trail, I am propagating plants of this beauty from my Mother plant for John and for inclusion in the Summerland Ornamental Gardens collection. It roots very easily and loves the dry Okanagan summers.here.

Stay safe and well.

Cheers, Rick