President's Message - December 2024

Hello Fellow GRS members and friends,

Here we are once again at the Holiday Season. Jean and I sure hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends. With Christmas just a few days off, we want to remember the reason for celebrating and start making our preparations. Don’t forget our annual Holiday dinner and fun time this year is in Melrose at the Homemakers Club building, 15728 Park Street. If you volunteered to bring a dish, that is great. Jean is coordinating the list if you need to check to see what you can bring. Please feel free to bring a guest if you have a last-minute visitor.

The upcoming District Spring Meeting will be the last weekend in February, 2025. It is here again in Gainesville, close enough for all of us to attend, so please mark your calendar. This is the DSD meeting where I buy all of my roses and supplies for the year. There is no tax or delivery charges, so it is a great deal for sure. Attached in these pages is a Product List from Jim’s Organic. Pre-orders are recommended. Nelson Roses will also have modern roses and Rose Petals Nursery will have the antiques. These vendors need our support if we wish for them to keep coming. The registration form and speaker schedule for this event will be out soon, so keep an eye out for this in the next DSD Bulletin.

My tip of the month is – Clean up and Fresh Mulch, if needed. Our garden sure needs a lot of fallen leaves cleaned up. With my ongoing back issue, keeping our roses healthy has been a real challenge. I have just not kept up with my routine of spraying. With a large garden and roses so close together the plants need spray protection in order to keep leaves on the plants. The rainy 6 weeks did not help this situation either. I am hoping for a better 2025.

In closing, I want to remind you we still have a few of the Nelson’s Fortuniana Roses left for sale. This is a GRS fund raiser. Price per rose is $30 each or 3 for $75.00. Call me for the varieties still available. They make a great gift.

I hope to see all of you at the Melrose Holiday Dinner. Don’t forget your exchange gift if you wish to participate.

Stay well and come to the party.

President's Message - November 2024

Hello Fellow GRS members and friends,

I want to start off by thanking those of us who worked on and supported the DSD/GRS & MCRS Convention and Rose Show. Even though it was a success for the most part, we did not profit all that much as in past years. Higher expenses and fewer attendees has really shown how these events are losing favor with our longtime convention supporters.

The good news is we did not finish out in the red. My message last month related to the possibility of dispensing with our annual rose show. As mentioned, this proposal has been discussed with the GRS Executive Board and CR’s. The consensus was unanimous to bring this action to the Society for a club vote. If passed by a majority, then we will proceed in disposing of the show supplies. All of the left over show awards will then be offered as raffle items until they are gone.

It truly breaks my heart for us to be in this position, but there is no way Jean or I can keep up the pace that is required for successful rose shows. Plus, we have no new blood wanting to pick up where we leave off. Please be sure to come to the November meeting and let your voice be heard if you disapprove of this proposed action.

The Newberry Master Gardeners Expo, although it was good exposure for GRS, it was not what we had hoped it to be as far as making a few dollars for the club. GRS sold 22 of the 57 roses we had purchased from Nelson’s Roses. I still have 7 roses in 3 gallon pots left for sale at $30 each, or $75 for 3 plants. I will bring a few to the November meeting just in case some of you want one or two. Call or email me if you want to know which varieties I have.

The tip of the month. Our roses are still in need of regular watering. Just because it has cooled off, does not mean they don’t need to be watered. They still need regular watering, just not as much at this time of the year.

Fall is the very best time here in Florida to plant new roses, either replacements or new beds. Fall planting will give your new plants a head start on forming a new root structure before the heat of summer arrives. This gives far better success for healthy plants.

Hoping all our members come to the November meeting. See you at the library.