The Polish Pope and the N.Y. Ballerina

Ballerina rose has very small single blossoms in large sprays that are reminiscent of hydrangeas.  David Austin dates it to 1937, by Bentall.  It is a hybrid musk rose and considered wonderful in the garden border.  Our story on Saturday is that this rose got its name when a young women in the U.S. moved to New York in 1932 to become a ballerina.  She brought two of these rose plants with her. And what she did was take each tiny flower and freeze it in an ice cube.  Then she sold them to the New York bars for fancy drinks.  She made her fortune this way, and named the rose "Ballerina". The documented hybridizing story is that the rose was  hybridized by Joseph Pemberton in London between 1912 and 1926. He hybridized 35 varieties and 20 are available in the nursery trade today.  Pemberton is well covered as a rosarian and nursery owner and when he died, he bequeathed the roses to their gardeners and that's how Jack and Ann Bentall became associated with the rose.  The famous rose Iceberg of 1958 was bred from one of Pemberton's.  Iceberg is one of the all-time popular white roses and still grown widely today. So how is  the Polish Pope related to roses?  John Paul II has a beautiful white rose named for him.  It was hybridized at Jackson and Perkins, and Vatican representatives travelled to the hybridizing field before the Pope's death from Parkinson's.  A group of Cardinals picked out this exceptional pure white rose to be the commemorative rose after his death. Jackson and Perkins went out of business, though the name is still used for the current selling. Our grower at Palantine has this rose in the field, and was contacted by the company that bought Jackson and Perkins, and threatened with a law suit over licensing.  What he knew though, was that the Vatican had paid outright for the rose - he said $150,000 - and owned it without any patent or licensing rights attached to it.  So he is able to continue to grow and sell this exceptional rose. Unless the Vatican decides otherwise. We see the Ballerina rose in the field - you can see the tiny flowers in big hydrangea clusters.

Rocket Launch

It is today - rockets are launching into space! "Early Wednesday morning, rocket enthusiasts will have the lucky experience of being able to watch two launches at roughly the same time. Around 7:30AM ET, SpaceX is slated to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets from the California coast, while European launch provider Arianespace will send up its Ariane 5 rocket from its South American spaceport in French Guiana. If all goes according to plan, the vehicles will launch around 15 minutes apart. The SpaceX launch will be the seventh mission the company does for long-standing customer Iridium. SpaceX has a contract with Iridium to launch 75 satellites for the company’s Iridium NEXT constellation, which provides global telecommunications coverage. SpaceX has been launching these probes in batches of 10 (except for the sixth mission, which sent up five satellites). After this seventh flight, SpaceX only has one more group of satellites to launch, and then its job for Iridium will be complete. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is slated to take off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California at 7:39AM ET. Following launch, SpaceX hopes to recover as much of the rocket as it possibly can right now. The rocket booster will attempt one of the company’s signature landings on a SpaceX drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. And a little while afterward, SpaceX will also try to catch the Falcon 9’s nose cone, or payload fairing, the bulbous structure that surrounds the satellites at the top of the rocket".   This is quoted from theverge.com - there is more at Spaceflightnow.com with live coverage. I wondered how many people watched the last one?  Over 3 million. This seems like great news to know there are scientists and astronomers out there.  Last week I visited Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field, and as I drove along 3rd Avenue Louth I found myself in the midst of hundreds of thousands of roses.  It is the Bakker's rose growing field between 5th and 7th Street.  Here's a partial view of it - this is 8 photos together in a panorama. It only covers a portion.

Ba + Na2

Do you know about the banana peels and how they became a familiar joke?  Mental Floss has the story on this. In the mid-1800s bananas started being shipped from Panama to New York City. They became a popular street food.  At the time, people tossed their garbage  (I gather lots of it) into the streets, and this included bananas, so they would linger there accumulating and decaying. It was so prevalent, that Harper's Weekly in 1880 admonished anyone who tossed their banana peels on a public walkway, as this would likely result in broke limbs.  Virginia Scott Jenkins in her book   Bananas:  An American History says that in 1909 the St. Louis city council completely outlawed "throwing or casting" a banana rind on public thoroughfares because of falls and broken limbs.  Dan Keppel's book on the banana describes how the banana peel epidemic in New York City resulted in the first large-scale recycling effort in the United States:  a fleet or uniformed workers swept the streets in shifts and disposed of the waste. Vaudeville comedians took up the cause with the banana-peel pratfall. It became a fixture of physical comedy.  Harold Lloyd included the gag in his silent film The Flirt, and Buster Keaton in The High Sign.  Even Woody Allen included the gag in Sleeper. I thought today's topic might be advice for 2018, and  I gave up - this is one topic where there is way more than one can get through...well, it is advice!  I did find something that appealed to me (or if put in banana speak 'a-peeled'). Retirement is the beginning of the time when you can sit back and give advice to others, even though you never followed it in your own life. Here are two Niagara crops you may not be familiar with - roses and Gingko trees - these are in the Bakker's growing field near Lilycrest Gardens. And our third picture is a Canadian History moment - this was a poster given to us by our friend in Colorado.

Find Local Flowers

The Bakker's rose fields are still a sea of colours and scent, and these plants will likely be harvested in the fall for processing as dry root plants, and then will get to garden centres and nurseries for potting up in the early spring.  I wonder if they ship all over North America or if they are more locally based. The roses that are purchased at florists are typically from South America.  The Pick Ontario site has products grown in Ontario by season. Tea Roses are listed on their website, but how do I the consumer make sure I am buying local flowers? Pick Ontario says I should go in and ask for Ontario grown product.  So I guess that's my task today - to find out what Cole's has that is Ontario grown now in August.

Roses and Roses and Roses near Lilycrest!

What a crop!  We think of wheat, corn, and soy beans.  We don't think of roses.  Here they are on the same road as Brian's Lilycrest gardens hybridizing field.  This is 5th Street Louth in St. Catharines, close to the QEW.  There is perfume in the air. It is that time of year when  the seasonal fungus commonly called Dog Barf Fungus or Dog Vomit Fungus sprouts to life.  Here is more about the fungus.

Tunnel Vision

This is one of the Bakker's growing fields of nursery stock. This one is near Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field. As far as you can see little trees on white stakes.  What is most enjoyable is their 150 varieties of roses blooming in the summer.  According to their web site, they have 450 acres of soil in parcels of land of 6 to 58 acres all within 3 miles of the home yard. Interesting that in their introduction to the company, they indicate that land costs are $35,000 per acre.  Here's their 2016 catalogue: http://www.jcbakker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ReferenceGuide_2016_Web.pdf

The Ringling Gardens

Florida Gardens

Florida Gardens    There are some flowering trees that colour the landscape in the February gardens of Florida.  The Red Silk Floss tree is a large tree on the landscape with large flowers.  These pictures show the flowers on the grounds of the Ringling Gardens.  The flowers could be found along the paths - perhaps set there by the Ringling Gardens grounds crew.   I didn't see many Florida gardens with roses. They need to be heat tolerant and there's an epidemic of thrips that consume the plants.  It takes constant insecticidal treatments to maintain a rose garden in Florida these days.  This picture of the rose garden shows its immense size and makes one aware of the work to keep it so attractive.  An aspect of the Ringling Gardens were the sculptures and statues set along the pathways of the gardens - collected in Europe by the Ringlings.  There must be hundreds.  There is even a Dwarf Garden  - these are statues of dwarfs brought from Italy - a link with the circus theme. This little fellow isn't one of the dwarves, but does look a bit grumpy.  He's set against one the many Banyan trees on the property. The Ringling Gardens were restored just over 10 years ago, yet they look perfect today as though they have always been cared for.

Dewdrops in the Garden

I popped out to the garden early yesterday morning and found these wonderful dewdrops in the garden on one of the roses.  Just one. Other roses didn't have them even though they have the saw tooth leaves.  It seems like one of those mysteries.  So I went to Wikipedia, and perhaps the explanation is clear - the leaves are thinner than other roses.

"Dew is water in the form of droplets that appears on thin, exposed objects in the morning or evening due to condensation."

I also found many entries for Dewdrops in the Garden.  It was released 2 Aug 1994 by Deee-Lite.  The entries for Deee-Lite go on for pages...

Roses Galore in Niagara

Bakker's grows a lot of nursery stock in the Niagara region and particularly in St. Catharines.   The Third Street pop-up nursery had Bakker rose bushes for $10 a few weeks ago, so I have four new roses.

They have a splendid show on 5th Street where my brother, Brian Bergman's Lilycrest Garden hybridizing field is.

Here's the show a week ago - a little like Holland and those rows of tulips...

The Wow of Rose Arbours is Right Near Door

Hi everyone,

If you live near the St. Catharines area, there's a stunning set of rose arbours on Junkin Street.  Junkin is  between Geneva and Niagara Streets near the QEW.  The roses are located mid-way down the street on the south side.  I estimate the height to be over 10 feet and the width is almost that much too.  It is the absolute abundance of the roses, though, that makes this a stunning find.  

Please let me know the variety of rose, if you know it, in the comments.  

Take a few minutes to go out of your way to see this beautiful living sculpture.  Or enjoy the photos below.  It has been a splendid month for roses in Niagara this year.

Have a great Floral Drive-by!
Marilyn