Rose Show pays tribute to the garden’s true star

The rose is truly the queen of the garden. With its beautiful flowers, delightful fragrances and attractive growth habits, what’s not to love?

“Roses are versatile perennial plants that look well in every nook of your garden: as climbers growing up trellises, shrubs as color spots and as flowers to cut from June to our killing frost in November,” says Cliff Winger, president of the Spokane Rose Society.

You are invited to join in a celebration of the glorious rose at the Rose Society’s 64th annual rose show next Saturday. It will be held for the first time at Northland Rosarium in southwest Spokane, the perfect setting for this free event.

“Having the show at Northland will bring people to the show because they are interested in roses, are interested in buying roses, and are eager to learn more about rose growing,” says Master Consulting Rosarian Lynn Schafer.

“To promote this, we are going to make it almost like a mini rose convention, only it will be open to the public.”

At the heart of the show are the rose entries in a wide variety of categories. It doesn’t cost anything to enter roses, so even nonmembers can participate. Rose Society members will be on hand to help with their displays.

Entries should be brought in by 9 a.m. the day of the show in order to be ready for judging by 10 a.m. The show opens to the public at noon.

Of special note is that the featured speaker will be Master Rose Breeder Ping Lim.

“Ping works with McMinnville (Ore.) grower Oregon Pride to produce beautiful, disease-resistant, easy-care and fragrant roses,” Schafer explains.

Carol Newcomb, owner of Northland Rosarium, is looking forward to hosting the rose show this year.

“We have around 1,000 roses in the display garden and we are planting a new English garden of roses this spring,” she says.

Northland specializes in own-root roses which are very cold-hardy for our region. With the harsh winters we have been experiencing in recent years, many gardeners have lost their grafted roses since they are more susceptible to winter kill.

“Visitors can see blooming roses at the show and in the nursery,” Winger says. “There will be rosarians available to answer questions and give tips to make growing roses fun and stress-free.”

Regardless of your interest in roses, the show will be a delightful way to spend a day in the country.

“This is a good opportunity to get out and smell the roses, ask questions and see our national flower as it grows here in the Inland Northwest,” Winger says.