President's Message - October 2025

Hello all GRS members and friends:

I am sure you all will agree that Fall of the year here in the Gainesville area is the most enjoyable. That is realized after coming out of so hot and humid spring and summer. I personally suffered far more this year than any other year I can remember. Perhaps it is getting older that makes the difference. Even our roses showed far more heat stress than in years past. Our plants looked tolerable when we cut them back a few weeks ago. Lots of dead canes, distorted leaves. A lot of this came from three outbreaks of chili thrip and spider mite damage. These effects come from very hot and dry weather, and we had way too much of both.

Now is the time to be cutting back the rose stems to at least pencil size, doing this in the next few weeks will give you the season’s best blooms. This will be just in time to have some for holiday decorating. Too late for any of the fall shows though; they needed to be cut back by mid-September in time for local and district shows.

I will continue to feed our roses with a soluble fertilizer until mid-October. By then rapid growth will have slowed way down due to shorter daylight hours.

Your annual membership dues are now due to remain on our membership list. I hope you will keep up your membership and stay active in learning how to care for your plants. Feel free to invite your neighbors to join us in becoming a member. We are attempting new avenues for monthly programs and hope you will enjoy them. This month we will be watching a PowerPoint program which was created a couple years ago by Dr. Ed Bez from High Springs. Dr. Bez is a history buff and did a nice job with this presentation. Jean Giesel will be presenting this for us. Please bring your “Bee” comments and tales to share. I am sure each of us has some sort of “bee” memories.

In closing, I want to remind you that there is till time to register for the 2025 Deep South District Fall Convention and Rose show. There is always something new to learn at these yearly events. Plus, seeing all the newest roses on display at the show is exciting. The ARS Vice Present Elect will be there as the keynote speaker for the Saturday evening banquet. Carrie Berg and her husband, Joe, live in a suburb of Milwaukee, WI. They are coming a long way, so let’s attend and show them our southern support.

I hope to see you all on the 12th.

President's Message - September 2025

Hello all GRS members and friends:

Well, it’s now time for us to start up our fall meetings, of which most will be held at the Tower Road (75th Street) County Library.

I hope you all had a good summer in spite of the record-breaking summer heat. I sure could not take being out in it for very long. I tried to keep our roses sprayed to ward off insects and diseases, but with it being so hot, the rose leaves got real bad spray burn effects, so they really look awful. I hope after cutting them back in mid-September, the new growth that follows will be nice and green again.

Tip of the month -- do not let up on watering. Even if you keep a record of rain fall as I do, our roses still can get very dried out this time of the year. Roses should get a good three inches of water each week. Another suggestion is to get a fall feeding done by mid-September. This will give ample time for granular fertilizer to break down and become available to produce those nice beautiful blooms for the fall. In our case, we try to time this feeding and cutting back to correspond with the fall show dates.

Our VP, Jean Giesel (Program Chairperson) is working on meeting programs and events. You will enjoy the September program. See Jean’s notes in this letter. Many of us know Mark and enjoy his wealth of knowledge and fun programs.

I would like for us GRS members and friends to start bringing in a sample bloom from your garden each month. Let’s tell a little bit about that rose, how you came to grow it, what you like or dislike about it. Perhaps this will help members in selecting new roses for their gardens or pots. Let’s make it fun.

Now is the time to pay our GRS membership dues for the year (2025-2026). Please bring your check, payable to GRS to the 9-14 meeting, or send it by mail if you are not able to make the September meeting. Don’t forget, we now have five Consulting Rosarians for questions. Please utilize their knowledge to help you with your questions and issues. If we don’t know the answer, we will research and get and answer for you.

In the meantime, stay cool and well hydrated.

I hope to see you on the 14th.