President's Message - September 2026

Dear GRS members and friends,

August 21. We are up here in Fancy Gap, VA, enjoying the “coolth” and hoping our roses will bounce back as the heat lets up a bit in Florida. I’m planning to start pruning around Labor Day unless it is still too hot. This should produce blooms in October when GRS will be taking part in the Horticultural Expo on October 17 and the Deep South District Conference and Rose Show October 23-25. More information and the conference registration sheet are available in this newsletter.

If you haven’t attended a DSD event, you have missed a great opportunity. And if you have never entered a rose show, give it a try! The schedule for the show is available at deepsouthdistrict.org. The schedule lays out the various categories. New exhibitors can enter the Novice classes as well as any others. For beginners it is easy to enter photographs which can be taken at any time. Just remember to keep track of the rose name and make the focus as sharp as possible. Our Consulting Rosarians and others will be happy to help new exhibitors.

Our Vice President and Program Chair Kathi Warren has been working diligently to schedule our programs for 2026-27. We kick off with a docent led tour Sept. 13 at the Harn Museum of Art focusing on plants and gardens. A detailed calendar is below.

It’s time to pay your membership dues! Please bring to our September event or mail to Jean Stream.

Because we won’t be having a regular business meeting until November, we need you to sign up to help (and bring roses) at the October 17 Expo. At present, we are planning to meet and greet, pass out literature and free cut roses, and do mini arrangements and rose rooting.

Jean Giesel, Master Rosarian, Acting President 

President's Message - May 2026

Dear Gainesville Rose Society members and friends,

The last meeting of our rose year is our May 17 picnic at Dudley Farm Historic State Park. There is an entry fee of $5 per car. We will meet on the porch of the visitor center and begin our picnic at 2:00 p.m. Fried chicken will be supplied; bring a side dish or dessert to share. The sign-up list is below. Please email Mary M at menoski@msn.com with the number of people you are bringing and dish. If you decide to come at the last minute, please do come. Somehow, the food always works out! Chairs are available on the porch, but you might want to bring a lawn chair. Google Dudley Farm State Historic Park for more information and a map of the park.

Thanks to Art Wade for arranging our visit. After the picnic, he will be available to talk about the collection of heirloom roses in the garden. There may be a ranger available to tour the farm or you can visit on your own. We are investigating use of the tram. The park closes at 5 p.m.

Many thanks to all who made our Roses for Everyone event a success. We tallied 55 visitors who enjoyed our displays and activities. If you gave us your email address, you will be receiving this newsletter, and we encourage you to join us at Dudley Farm and in September when we meet again after a summer hiatus.

Are you and your roses enjoying the cooler than usual spring weather? It’s starting to heat up in the afternoons, but the mornings are still delightful. The cold winter delayed blooming, but what a spring display! We now have two “new” favorite roses, Honeymoon and Climbing Pinkie.

Honeymoon, or more correctly Arborose Honeymoon, is a vigorous large-flowered climber covered with scapes of up to seven or more blooms. The lovely blooms are white with tinges of pink. The moderately fragrant cupped blooms have a high petal count reminiscent of English style roses. Released by Kordes about ten years ago, it can reach at least 10 feet in height and scoffs at foliage diseases. Heirloom Roses, Edmunds, and High Country Roses carry Honeymoon. Heirloom Roses can say it better: “While Cl. Pinkie is technically a Climbing Polyantha Rose, her nearly thornless canes are easy to train as a Climber. . . . Cl. Pinkie’s rose pink blooms are cupped and produced in clusters with great profusion. Once established, it is very difficult to catch this rose out of bloom and the flushes of scented, semi-double flowers simply smother the bush in bright rose pink. Train her as a Climber or let her grow without support as a graceful, cascading shrub.”

If you want a very easy to grow and train pink climbing landscape rose, try Climbing Pinkie. In my mind, it is superior to Climbing Pink Pet in vigor and display. It was discovered as a sport of Pinkie by E. P. Dering in 1952, and has been given the Earth Kind designation. It is also listed in Peter Kukielski’s Roses without chemicals book of 150 disease-free varieties. Heirloom Roses and the Antique Rose Emporium carry Climbing Pinkie.

Jean Giesel, Master Rosarian, Acting President