Rose Curators
Preserving our historic collection of roses
Erin Benzakein: Old European roses & Hybrid Musk roses
Early on in my flower growing journey I had the good fortune of meeting Anne Belovich who welcomed me a number of times into her magical rose garden. Every time I stepped onto her property, it felt like being transported into another world and I always dreamed that someday I would be able to create a garden as beautiful as hers.
While I have been growing and collecting heirloom roses for nearly 20 years now, it had always been a very casual hobby. But after Anne passed away, I went looking for more information about rose preservation, and that’s how I met Gregg and came to learn about the curator program through The Friends of Vintage Roses. Only then did I fully understand what’s at stake for the future of old roses and just how fragile they really are.
After much deliberation we decided that we would adopt all of the old European classes which seem the most at risk and also well-suited for our climate. My hope is that we can not only preserve these varieties for future generations but also help shine a spotlight on them and ultimately get more of these historic treasures planted in gardens all over the world.
Mark Mason Taylor: Bourbons & Gene Boerner Hybrids
My love
for Bourbons goes back to my love for La Reunion, France, an island in the Indian Ocean where I lived during the formative years of my life. The island, formerly known as the “Ile de Boubon” is about the same size as Maui, and it’s where the Bourbons were bred, way back when the French enclosed their sugar cane fields with rosebushes. And it was in a field there that the first recorded rose cross happened. Its parents, a China rose and Damask, brought the best of both worlds together, extraordinary fragrance with the Eastern reblooming gene. Empress Josephine’s garden at Malmaison was chock full of this special class. Many of the Bourbons were given the names of members of French government and their wives to curry favor for Josephine’s commoner Corsican husband, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Today I grow Bourbons in the furthest point on Earth from La Reunion: Salt Lake City, Utah. Great choices to add to your garden are ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ (the most famous Bourbon), ‘Souvenir de Malmaison’ (the flagship of the class), and my favorite, the translucent and delicate ‘Pierre Oger.’
It’s a great honor to be named curator for this fundamental class in rose history.
Gene Boerner is one of the most important rose breeders you’ve never heard of. Although the Floribundas had been around since in 1907, it really wasn’t until Gene came along that this class became king. Known as “Papa Floribunda,” his cultivars took home an astounding fourteen AARS awards.
I first encountered the work of Gene Boerner with his namesake rose. Constantly coated in pink blossoms, it’s one of the rare cultivars I consider to be truly everblooming. But being the fragrance ho I am, this mild-scented glamazon was on my hit list for three years. But every time someone came to my garden, it was Gene they pointed to in awe. Not my 8-inch ‘Chicago Peace,’ not the ambrosia perfume of ‘Francis Meilland,’ it was ‘Gene’. Papa Floribunda’s roses are a must have and any rosarian without at least one of Mr. Boerner’s creations is missing out.
Trang Bui: English roses (Austins)
My love of old garden roses began with an email to Jill Perry, the curator of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden. I emailed her asking for information on acquiring ‘Oyster Pearl’, a rose no longer commercially available. At the time, the San Jose Heritage occasionally held nursery sales and I wanted to know if ‘Oyster Pearl’ would ever be sold. She replied that the garden could use more volunteers, and I agreed to come in.
Since then, I’ve become a regular volunteer at the Rose Garden, which I’ve come to appreciate as one of the most important public spaces in San Jose. I have always loved roses, in particular Hybrid Teas and the classic long stem roses of floral shops, but the Heritage Rose garden exposed me to roses of the past, their history and diaspora, and their impact on our culture. And when my husband and I purchased a five acre, former working apple orchard in Sebastopol, I discovered the Friends of Vintage Roses and more old garden roses I simply couldn’t live without.
When Gregg asked me to be a curator for the David Austin roses, I accepted on the spot. I love David Austin Roses roses for their old fashion blooms and fragrance and had about 70 DAs growing in my garden that I’ve purchased through the years. It’s an honor to be entrusted with the care and conservation of this class of roses and I look forward to being a part of Gregg’s mission to save and share rare and remarkable roses with others.
Ralph Tran: Hybrid Perpetuals & Damask Perpetuals (Portlands)
I have been an avid gardener for over three decades, starting at the age of 10. My first real experience with gardening started with an innocent trip to the farmer’s market with my mom when I was in the 5th grade. I asked for a potted orchid plant (a Cymbidium) and a bunch of cut roses (a Hybrid Tea). I was able to keep that orchid plant alive and it is thriving to this day. That bunch of roses actually produced several rooted cuttings, a plant of which I still have today as well. That single potted plant and bunch of roses over the decades has turned into a collection of about 25,000 orchids and hundreds of rose bushes. I have always been fascinated with plant propagation. No matter how many times I have rooted a cutting, it still feels magical when checking in on cuttings to find that they are starting to show signs of root and growth.
In addition to my love of gardening, I have always been fascinated by the fact that there are plant cultivars that have withstood the test of time and survived decades, even centuries. A large portion of my private orchid and rose collection is devoted to classic cultivars, dating back to the mid 1800s. This curatorship is a venture that I feel such pride in being able to be a part of as preservation and propagation have always been a central interest in my gardening life.
Beth Hana: Pernetianas
My journey of collecting roses started over 30 years ago. It started with a single rose bush found on our lot space in the mobile home park we moved into when my husband got out of the Navy in 1989. I knew very little about roses, and proceeded to accidentally kill it before it bloomed. But then I decided I had to find out everything about them, and get one to replace it.
I had absolutely no idea just how many colors, types and names there were. I researched any and all books and catalogs I could find. It became an obsession. And then one day, when I discovered the gorgeous brown climber called ‘Butterscotch’ at the old Home Club store, it became my goal to acquire as many unusual or obscure roses as I could find. By the time we were able to buy our first house, I had around 800 potted plants that we had to move there, including hundreds of minis.
I eventually got up to over 1800 roses, up until the Camp Fire blew through Paradise and wiped out our home and everything we had, including over half of the roses. We moved the survivors to our new location in Los Molinos, and I have since added hundreds more, trying to replace many of the ones I lost, and adding new ones. Many of the rarer roses in my original collection came from Vintage Gardens. I was sad when it closed. But now I am honored to become one of the co-curators of the lovely Pernetiana roses for Gregg and The Friends of Vintage Roses.
Sue Bunte: Floribundas
Excerpted from an article by Sue in our Newsletter, issue 19, July 2018:
About 30 years ago I decided since nobody had ever promised me a rose garden, I would plant one myself. At the end I had 90+ plants, but over a period of several years I lost all but 16. Six years of drought and a very healthy population of gophers can devastate a rose garden in no time at all. Most of the survivors were old roses, so when I decided a few years ago to start over again, I sought out nurseries who specialize in vintage roses, discovered TFoVR and showed up at the garden the day they were cutting flowers for the Celebration of Old Roses. . .
[Eventually] I agreed to become the curator of the Floribunda Collection and began the process of moving 281 plants to my property in Napa. [Editor’s note: Sue has since moved her collection to her new home in Mississippi.]
I love my Flori’s. The range of colors and blossom types is simply amazing. It has been one of the most rewarding undertakings I have been involved with, not just the Flori’s, but helping to save this amazing collection. Some of the roses in the TFoVR collection can’t be found anywhere else in the country, and some are so rare they can’t be found anywhere in the world. If this collection is lost, that may very well be the end of many of these roses, and that would be a tragedy.
Pamela Temple: Ramblers & English roses
Excerpted from an article by Pamela in our Newsletter, issue 19, July 2018:
When we were asked to foster the Rambler rose collections that now belongs to The Friends of Vintage Roses, we were thrilled. We live on 38 acres. It is a wild, isolated, and dramatic landscape in Northern California. . . To me it seemed an ideal place for huge rambling roses.
We wanted to grow many of the Ramblers freestanding and untamed. We planted some of the roses with lax growth habits so that they would tumble down the hill to the road. Some more arching and upright ones we planted out in the field as haystacks and mountains. It is exciting to see a rose growing in this natural way. The wild exuberance of Ramblers makes them my favorite class.
Taking on the responsibility of preserving a collection of roses has changed my perspective on gardening. Previously I had focused on making a pretty garden. Now the expansiveness of my garden provides a sanctuary. I consider it my responsibility to provide for as many of these amazing rambling roses as I can on this hillside. As the world seems to grow smaller and smaller, finding a place for people to see these beautiful giants is very important to me. We all need these wild and exuberant beings.
Susan Feichtmeir: Modern Shrub roses & Polyanthas
I sit on The Friends of Vintage Roses Board of Directors and also serve as the curator for the Modern Shrub and Polyantha collections.
I had to build out a new section in my garden for these roses, since the two collections combined are more than 200 roses. The Shrubs were planted in 2020 and 2021 while the Polyanthas were installed in 2021 and 2022.
The Shrubs are just the best roses, ever, for someone who does not want to be bothered with a lot of work. They are incredibly tough and resilient, and bloom abundantly.
I am still learning about the Polyanthas. Although I have had some in my garden all along, I don’t know their habits and preferences as well as some of the other rose varieties. Also, since this is the first year in the ground for many of them, we need to wait another year to judge their real sizes and habits. I can’t wait!
John Bagnasco: Hybrid Teas, Pernetianas, & Floribundas
Excerpted from an article by John in our Newsletter, issue 19, July 2018:
The California Coastal Rose Society (in north San Diego County) has been involved with preserving the genetics of endangered rose varieties for the past 18 years. . .
We were thrilled to receive a small part of the Vintage Hybrid Tea and Floribunda collection. Last winter, 181 Hybrid Teas and 51 Floribundas were shipped from Sebastopol to Bonsall, CA. A permanent home for these plants is under construction, and they will eventually reside in Fallbrook, CA. . .
We hope eventually to bring more plants from Vintage into the collection. I am especially keen on recreating the Pernetiana collection. The dry, mild climate of San Diego County, where blackspot is rarely a problem, is ideal for growing this class. . .
