President's Message - March 2026

Hello to all GRS members and friends:

Ralph is still in Shands Trauma ICU and unable to put together his message for you. He asked that I let you know he misses you all and is trying his best to get better and heal. He thanks each of you for pitching in and keeping everything moving along. Thank you for your prayers, cards and concerns. Everything is appreciated and is a blessing. - Jean Stream

Reminders from your VP – Jean Giesel

We need to remind everyone that Daylight Savings Time begins on the day of our meeting, March 8. Bring family, friends, and neighbors. Speaker is Michael Johnson of David Austin Roses USA, of Tyler, Texas. “The presentation will focus on David Austin Roses and is designed to be informative and engaging for both experienced and newer rose growers.”

We are scheduled to have access to the room at 1:30, so we need some help setting up about 40 chairs. I will arrive early to start setting up the literature table for Dan.

We will not have our usual raffle since we will be giving out door prizes at the program.

On April 25, we will be at the Millhopper Branch Library with our Roses for Everyone program. We'll be welcoming people of all ages to participate in rose activities and learn more about growing and appreciating roses. It's also a good time to get to know our fellow rosarians better. We will start setting up at 10 a.m. when the library opens.

President's Message - February 2026

Hello to all GRS members and friends:

February is for most rosarians in our area a time to start their Spring pruning. However, for me mid-March has been my time to prune. This is to target Spring rose show dates and for the most part this timing has worked out if the weather works out. I suggest after pruning the remaining stems and ground around each plant be sprayed with a dormant solution like Lime/Sulfur. This treatment will go a long way in sanitizing the garden.

As mentioned in last months newsletter, I am trying to downsize the number of plants we need to take care of. Potted plants are where I am downsizing. So far only one person has committed to take a few, so if you are interested, please let me know. I will be working on removing some, trashing them if there are no takers. I can let you know what varieties I have available.

Part of this month’s program being presented will be a talk by Ann Sherwood. Remember Ann had set up her nice display at our last meeting and we did not have time for her to present it. She’s going to talk on The World Rose Convention 2025 in Fukuyama, Japan—the City of Roses. If time allows, Jean Giesel will help us view Rose Diseases with Mark Windham. We are all familiar with Mark and know him to be a wealth of rose culture knowledge. Thank you, ladies. We look forward to these talks. We will have Michael Johnson, General Manager from David Austin Roses coming to give us a program on March 8th. This talk promises to be engaging and informative so, please come and let us all show our support for our speakers.

I am in need of two members to serve on our 2026 nominating committee. New officers needs to be voted on at our March meeting (positions to start in September). A new slate of officers should be ready to start in our new fiscal year. Please consider volunteering.

It was nice to have a break in January and now it is time for all of us to get together again. I hope to see you all at the meeting on Sunday, February 8th.