GB 198 TRANSCRIPT Fragrant Roses. Lumpy Lawns.
Farmer Fred 0:00
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Farmer Fred 0:31
We’ve had a lot of segments on this podcast lately about roses. The best ones for long lasting cut flowers. Controlling weeds around roses. Even the best tasting roses. But we haven’t answered one of the most obvious rose questions, until today: what are the most fragrant roses. Master Rosarian Charlotte Owendyk has a list of her Top 10 favorite fragrant roses. One question that has reappeared year after year here may seem rather surprising, but it is a problem for some gardeners: tripping while walking on the lawn, because it’s lumpy. America’s favorite retired college horticulture professor, Debbie Flower, has some cures for that lumpy lawn. We’re podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory. It’s the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots. And we will do it all in under 30 minutes. Let’s go!
Farmer Fred 1:35
You may have heard on the podcast Debbie Arrington talking about the tastiest roses, the roses to munch on, and she mentioned something very interesting: that the tastiest roses also were the roses that had the best fragrance. So what are the most fragrant roses? Let's talk with another Master Rosarian, Charlotte Owendyk, of the Sierra Foothills Rose Society. Charlotte, you have what, over 300 roses in your yard, right?
Charlotte Owendyk 2:01
That's correct.
Farmer Fred 2:02
So, I imagine that you've got some fragrant favorites.
Charlotte Owendyk 2:06
The ones that most people asked me about when looking for good fragrant roses, they always asked and mention Mr. Lincoln, and Double Delight. These are roses that were hybridized in the late 60s, early 70s. I bought Double Delight the year it came out. So let's not talk about my age. Anyway, they are lovely roses, but I don't have them in my yard. Why is that? Because they're not as disease resistant as some of the neer roses that came down the pike. At the time these roses were bred, they were going for scent and people were spraying their roses then, so they didn't have to worry about mildew and black spots and all those things. So the roses were not as strong and sturdy. The newer roses that they have produced now, they're much stronger and they're more disease resistant than the older roses, believe it or not, disease resistance and fragrance are actually linked somehow in the genetic makeup of a rose. So first, they couldn't get both those two things, they had to go for one of them. And so they went for disease resistance first and then once they got some disease resistant, they started incorporating more fragrance. So you'll see more and more of the newer roses have are fragrant, which is really, really nice. And so I'm going to talk about some of my favorite ones. My absolute favorite, I'm going to start start off with that one. First is Secret. And I've mentioned this before and you've heard me talk about it. It produces beautifully, but it's a bicolor rose, it has pink around the edging and kind of a creamy, the center of the pedal is creamy white, and it will actually turn darker pink, just like a little bit like Double Delight does. And it's so it changes. If you bring it inside it it gets lighter because it doesn't have the sun bringing the color out. It's got a fragrant, strong spicy scent to it. It's a very vigorous bush. The bush grows really strong and puts out a lot of blooms and it's usually a one bloom per stem. Occasionally you get a spray which is two roses or more buds on one stem. And they're great cutting roses so it's lovely to bring that inside. It will scent the entire room. So you can tell I'm in love with this rose.
Farmer Fred 4:50
We should mention that's a hybrid tea rose.
Charlotte Owendyk 4:53
Most of these roses are hybrid teas and thank you for that. Very few of the ones that I mentioned are shrub roses, one or two. There may be, I think I'm gonna mention Julia Child. She's a floribunda. So, it could be a grandiflora but grandiflora is like a hybrid tea, only they throw out more cluster blooms. Instead of one rose per cane, they'll have two or three per cane. So that's the difference between grandiflora and a hybrid tea rose.
Farmer Fred 5:22
Are you going to mention Julia Child?
Charlotte Owendyk 5:26
Oh, I can. I can, but it's not my second most favorite. I guess it could be because I love the color. Can I tell my favorite story about Julia Child and why how it got its name?
Farmer Fred 5:29
Be my guest.
Charlotte Owendyk 5:37
Okay. Julia Child did not want a rose named after her. But Week's Roses at the time said, well why don't you come and take a look at all the roses in our growing fields. So she drove over to down near Bakersfield where they had the growing field because she lived in Santa Barbara at the time. And she walked through and she pointed to some roses in the distance, and said, "that one."
Farmer Fred 6:04
Just like that,
Charlotte Owendyk 6:05
just like that. Tom Carruth, who was the hybridizer of this particular rose is very proud of this story. That's who I got the story from. And she liked it because it was the color of butter. Everybody who's cooked with Julia Child recipes know she loves butter. So that's why she picked that particular one. And it has a myrrh fragrance. To some people it smells like anise or that type of licorice scent. Some people smell it very well and some people don't. But it's a beautiful bloom and it's just a rich, buttery yellow. And it's very, very disease resistant. The blooms will fade a little bit as they get older. But who cares when you got a really gorgeous bloom. I have one bush which is the very first one I got. And then I have six tree roses in there. And the whole bush is butter yellow. So people when they see my yard, they know a Rosarian lives there, because not everyone sees those bushes. But anyway, my next favorite rose, and this one is an excellent rose, called Memorial Day. It also was hybridized by Tom Carruth. He is an excellent hybridizer. They are kind of roughly orchid pink hybrid tea roses, that the blooms are about five to six inches across. They're just stunning. And my bush right now, it looks like a big bouquet. I have at least 25 to 30 buds on that particular Bush as we speak because I just looked out the window. It is a super strong, classic old rose fragrance so that a lot of people like that old rose kind of a fragrance. So it's almost nearly thornless too. So that's another reason a lot of people liked this particular Rose. It's a pink. It's a pink rose and sometimes they have the pinkish orchid kind of purplish pinkish purple, kind of lavender pinkish lavender, I guess, I would say. So it's absolutely lovely that all these three roses, all the roses I'm talking about are very, very disease resistant. None of them have had black spot or powdery mildew on them as we speak.
Farmer Fred 8:33
Do the roses you mentioned have a wide planting area? Can other parts of the country, other USDA zones besides us here in USDA Zone 9, have success with these?
Charlotte Owendyk 8:44
Yes, most of them. There are some people who live in the really colder areas. And there, the nurseries that they would go to would not stock any rose that won't survive. They're colder areas. And in some of the colder areas people will bury their roses in winter and such like that. So I would check with your local Rose Society. I'm thinking if you're in USDA Zones 2-3-4, maybe five, that's a little getting a little touchy. Secret, for example, is frost tender. So that one you need to stay in a warmer area or you need to protect it as a rose.
Farmer Fred 9:25
All right, so we have in your list of disease resistant fragrant roses, we've got secret Julia Child and Memorial Day. I bet there's more.
Charlotte Owendyk 9:34
I think I can add a few more. How about a red rose, Firefighter. That's a dusky Red Velvet hybrid tea. And it has an intense old rose fragrance. It was named after the firefighters who lost their lives on 911. So it's a remembrance type rose but it's an excellent cut flower. It's almost always one bloom per stem and it very vigorous, it likes to bloom. That's a taller Rose. It's a little bit taller than some of the other ones. Another one I really like, is for that blush kind of a bridal pink. It's called Francis Meilland. And this rose has amazing sweet strong fruit and citrus. I like roses that are kind of fruity. In fragrance, Damask and fruit are my favorite. And this one. It's beautiful. It has the center of the roses kind of pinkish and then unfurls on it becomes ivory white, and it's just gorgeous and a great cut flower.
Farmer Fred 10:38
So a fairly new entry.
Charlotte Owendyk 10:43
That was about within the last 10 years. All of these are within the last 10-15 years.
Farmer Fred 10:49
You know, going back to something you were talking about, originally about the old roses, they had a good fragrance, but they were susceptible to diseases. You mentioned Mr. Lincoln and Double Delight, probably Fragrant Cloud would be in that mix as well.
Charlotte Owendyk 11:01
That's true. It's also in that category. I didn't put that in this article. But I made a note to mention Fragrant Cloud, because when it came out, I remember walking down the neighborhood and somebody had planted it. And naturally you walk by a rose that catches your eye because it has a great eye color. And it really stood out in that particular garden. I put my nose in and go, Oh, that's really smelly.
Farmer Fred 11:30
Said the woman who says her nose doesn't work. Yeah.
Charlotte Owendyk 11:34
Well, some days are better than other days depending on if I take an allergy pill or not.
Farmer Fred 11:39
All right, let's see if we can round up five more so that way we have a top 10. Okay, Charlotte's favorite fragrant roses.
Charlotte Owendyk 11:49
I'm going to give you a white rose. It is a beautiful white rose. It was one of the best performers this last summer. It kept on pumping out the blooms no matter how hot it was. And that was the same thing for Memorial Day. Pope John Paul II and Memorial Day were some of my best performers in my garden. And we're talking anywhere from 80 to over 100 degree heat depending on the day. So I want to say that it's a clear white blooms. And it's a has a lot of pedals because there's about 45 petals in this one, but it has a strong citrus fragrance. And it's a stunning disease resistant bush. It has beautiful dark green, glossy foliage. Whenever I see leaves that are very glossy, I know they're going to most likely be very disease resistant because they have a waxy covering and like the spores from the fungus and from the powdery mildew kind of roll off. They have a harder time getting through that glossy, waxy covering so that I know when I see a rosebush with a waxy cover. I go, Oh, this one's probably going to be good disease resistant. So it's my number three fragrant rose.
Farmer Fred 13:09
Pope John Paul the second.
Charlotte Owendyk 13:11
I actually have two of them. And I wasn't going to get another one. And then I was walking through a nursery, and they're in a pot. And it was just sitting all by itself with a couple other roses. And it was near the end of the season. So it's August, and it had at least 10 to 15 White blooms on this pot. I said that is such a good bush. I'm going to take you home with me. So I do pick up stray cats and dogs.
Farmer Fred 13:42
All right. All right. How about some more?
Charlotte Owendyk 13:45
That's why you like talking to me because I can make you laugh. Okay, Princess Alexandria of Kent. There's a whole group of roses, called English roses or Austin roses. And David Austin was the hybridizer out of England. And he loved all the garden roses because he liked the shape of the bloom. There's hundreds of petals usually and a lot of them are very, very fragrant. But many of them didn't bloom that frequently or they only bloom once a year. They'd have the spring bloom and then they'd stop or they have intermittent blooms the rest of the year. So he crossed hybrid tea and the newer modern roses which bloom all the time they're called recurrent and he came up with some beautiful roses. And one of the ones I absolutely love is Princess Alexandria of Kent. They're very large, bright pink flowers that are cupped and they don't hang down. They look up at you because the stem holding them up is very good and it's a very rounded shrub. It's been four feet by four feet in my garden and has a fresh tea fragrance that matures get with a little bit of lemon and hand have blackberries and it handles our heat really well. So that's a lovely one. I really liked that one. Let's see how about I'm going to give you Golden Celebration. I've had this one for a very long time. And I like it because that golden yellow color, it's not quite the same color. It's a richer color than Julia Child. And it's a bigger bush. But it has a beautiful fragrance and I can pick it and bring it in that the whole house smells, not just the room and it has strong tea kind of a wine, a wine and strawberry fragrance. It's just beautiful. And it's a stunning rose. Now sometimes when you have a very fragrant rose, it doesn't necessarily always last that long. And this one doesn't last that long. Everyone that I've mentioned earlier, it are all good cut flowers, but this one lasts three or four days where the other will last five or six days.
Farmer Fred 16:00
And it's a deep yellow color, right?
Charlotte Owendyk 16:02
Yep, it's just a golden yellow. Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous. Beverly is another really nice one. It's a really bright intense pink. It's more of a pink, it's a deep pink and it has more of a ruffled kind of look at the fragrance in that it has citrus. I love how these peach pear and plum you know has along with a couple of other under notes, but you're gonna have to figure that out with your own nose. And it's a beautiful rose. Instead of having a kind of a pointy tip to it, it opens up flat so it's pretty in an arrangement. And that's a lovely one. Another one and I love I just love this one.
Farmer Fred 16:44
This will be your last one. You're sure you want to make this one your last one?
Charlotte Owendyk 16:48
Well yeah, yeah. I'm going to make this one. It's called Falling in love. Okay. Because if you plant this you're going to love all kinds of roses. No. No The reason I don't know why the marketers came up with this one. But when we saw this rose we just chuckle, it's a beautiful pink rose. It can last up to seven days as a cut rose and it has the perfect spiral shape it and it's super fragrant. But when you cut it and you look at the stems is very thorny.
Farmer Fred 17:27
Oh my. Well still, be careful.
Charlotte Owendyk 17:33
Except the big prickles ,but they're farther apart.
Farmer Fred 17:37
Master Rosarian Charlotte Owendyk's top 10 fragrant roses: Secret, Julia Child, Memorial Day, Firefighter, Francis Mielland, Pope John Paul the second, Princess Alexandria of Kent, Golden Celebration, Beverly, and Falling in Love. Serve them in a salad soon.
Charlotte Owendyk 18:00
In a Botanical restaurant.
Farmer Fred 18:04
why not? Charlotte Owendyk is with the Sierra Foothills Rose Society. Some great fragrant roses there. Thank you for your efforts in this behalf, Charlotte.
Charlotte Owendyk 18:12
It's been a pleasure and I love talking with you, Fred. Oh, we have fun. Yes, you do. All right.
Farmer Fred 18:18
Thank you, Charlotte.
Charlotte Owendyk 18:19
Well, okay, bye bye.
Farmer Fred 18:25
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Farmer Fred 20:21
We'd like to answer your garden questions here on the Garden Basics program. For that we bring in the big gun, retired college horticultural Professor Debbie Flower is with us. A lot of ways you can get your question into us, you can pick up a telephone and call us 916-292-8964, 916-292-8964. Please, no matter how you contact us, do tell us where you are. That helps us better answer your garden questions. SpeakPipe. speakpipe.com You can just leave a message there. You don't need a telephone, you can just yell at your computer. When you go to speakpipe.com/garden basics, that works. It's really easy. And let's see what else. Well, you can send an email to Fred at farmerfred.com. You can leave a message at the Get Growing with Farmer Fred Facebook page. Farmer Fred on Twitter, or Farmer Fred Hoffman on Instagram. The choice is yours. So Debbie, we have a lawn question coming up here. Are you ready?
Debbie Flower 21:21
I am. All right.
Shirley 21:23
How can I get an old lawn leveled? It's full of bumps and it's hard for old people to walk on. Appreciate your answer. Thank you.
Farmer Fred 21:34
That by the way, was Shirley with the bumpy lawn. Well, we don't know what is the source of those bumps. Right? If it is, worms, more mounds, that's pretty easy. Take a rake to them.
Debbie Flower 21:47
Right. And nightcrawlers, if you've got a fisher person in your house, you might go out and collect nightcrawlers. they're a worm like object. I don't know if they're technically classified as a worm, and they are notorious for making lumps in lawns. It could just be the type of grass she has. If it's a total fescue lawn, then that's a clumping grass, where the clump is the high spot and the low spot between is where there's no grass growing, it looks green all the way across. Because the blades have fallen over and filled in the empty spots. It could be tree roots, that would be the most difficult one to address because you could harm the tree by harming the roots. Other than that, I can't think of reasons. Do you have any other reasons?
Farmer Fred 22:36
The only thing I could think of maybe they're gopher mounds or mole mounds, but again, you could rake the soil smooth. Let's go back to the idea that it might be a clumping lawn issue, that the variety of lawn may be such that they're kind of a stiff lawn that forms in clumps, there are some fescues like that, I think so issues like that as well. That would almost take probably aeration and overseeding.
Debbie Flower 23:05
With overseeding with something that is a running grass, not an clumping grass. She says it's an old lawn. So my my guess is it's not due to the clumping grass because people when you mow a fescue, it causes it to do what's called tillering or making that clump bigger and bigger and bigger. And if that happens over many years, then eventually there are our blades of grass almost everywhere. So I would probably not choose that as my number one suspicion. Worms or nightcrawlers are what came to mind first for me. Tree roots that would be unfortunate. My thought is pick a path. If you want to get, let's say, from the driveway to the front door or whatever, and have that potentially tilled, leveled and maybe make it into a path with decomposed granite or some kind of very fine gravel. Or if you can go all the way and have it paved or steppingstones even. Yes, I did that in a lawn. My last house, which was a fescue Blue Grass mix, which is very common around here. And then Bermuda grass, of course moves in. And I just took large flag stones and laid them right in the grass. I didn't prep it at all. I didn't till it at all. I just laid these large stones right in the grass. And it worked. I could mow right over it. And I could walk on the on the stones easily.
Farmer Fred 24:28
What size were these stones?
Debbie Flower 24:30
Probably 18 inches by 18 inches. Something I could handle. Right?
Farmer Fred 24:34
Well, that and it's wide enough for you to walk on or move a wheelbarrow over. Yes, yeah, right. And they met each other, they were joining so it wasn't like it went kathunk, kathunk... if you're rolling a wheelbarrow.
Debbie Flower 24:47
Right, You would need them right close to each other. Yes, right.
Farmer Fred 24:51
That's that may be the answer. Now if it is tree roots, well, obviously a rototiller is going to have issues with that. And I have seen tree roots that have surfaced around trees, and even shrub roots that have surfaced. If you're walking nearby, they could be considered lumpy. And yes, that might be an issue where you do want to do the stepping stones away from them.
Debbie Flower 25:17
Yes, the tree roots are at the surface for a reason. It's typically due to light, frequent watering, and the roots need to grow where there's oxygen and water. If you water, let's say, daily for 15 minutes or something there, then the water is only going to be in the top of the soil surface and the tree roots therefore have to grow there, that can't be changed. Now the roots aren't better, there are not going to be moved. You could possibly, and I am not an arborist. So take this with a grain of salt, you can possibly put sand over them. Something that drains extremely well, allows oxygen in and allows the water in, if you needed to level to get past one with a pathway, let's say.
Farmer Fred 25:58
The one issue I have with either a sand walkway or a decomposed granite walkway was a problem that I came up with when we lived at our old place and we put in some decomposed granite walkways. Gophers really like them.
Debbie Flower 26:13
Oh, really.
Farmer Fred 26:14
And you don't know that there is a gopher burrow there until you step on it when it's wet, and it collapses under your foot. Okay, so that's if you have gophers. I would kind of sway you away from DG or or sand in that regard.
Debbie Flower 26:30
Okay, I didn't know that gophers like them. I guess it's easy to dig.
Farmer Fred 26:35
Yeah, it's easy to dig. And if they're trying to get from point A to point B and it's in the way, they'll just go through it. Yeah, so there's that. Alright, so yeah, I'm hoping for your sakes surely I hope it's just mounds that you can rake and smooth that that would be the easy solution.
Debbie Flower 26:55
Right? Sounds like you're gonna need some grandson or some labor some strong arms to help you fix this problem.
Farmer Fred 27:03
And by the way, if you suspect it is tree roots, call in a consulting arborist to give you some ideas about what to do and what would be safe and what wouldn't be safe. And you can find an arborist near you in fact, specifically a consulting arborist near you. by visiting the International Society of Arboriculture website, treesaregood.org . you can just put in your zip code and up will pop a list of arborists and consulting arborists who can then be checked out and and hired, if you wish. So that is one idea for you there Shirley. Thanks so much for the question. And Debbie Flower. Thanks for helping out and answering listener questions here on Garden Basics.
Debbie Flower 27:44
You're welcome Fred.
Farmer Fred 27:51
We’ve talked on the Garden Basics podcast, back in Episode 114, and in the Farmer Fred Rant blog page about the benefits of crop rotation. It’s not just something for farmers. Every backyard or front yard food garden can be improved by not planting the same vegetables in the same spot, year after year. In Friday’s Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter, we get graphic about how to rotate your crops in a particular order, for maximum benefit to your crops and your soil. The graphic part, by the way, resembles a bicycle wheel. Or, a pizza garden, if you will. You’ll want to save the step by step diagrams to guide you along on your pursuit to better vegetable production and increased soil fertility. It’s in the newsletter that goes beyond the basics, the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, Beyond the Basics newsletter, out Friday, June 3rd. Find it via the link in today’s show notes, or visit our new website, Garden Basics dot net . There, you can find a link to the newsletter in one of the tabs on the top of the page, also, you can listen to any of our previous editions of the podcast, and read an enhanced transcript of the podcast episode you are now listening to. That’s at Garden Basics dot net, where you can also link to the Garden Basics newsletter, Beyond the Basics, and it’s free. Look for it on Friday, June 3rd. Take a deeper dive into gardening, with the Beyond the Garden Basics newsletter. Find it at garden basics dot net. Thanks for listening and thanks for reading.
Farmer Fred 29:29
Garden Basics With Farmer Fred comes out every Tuesday and Friday and is brought to you by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Garden Basics is available wherever podcasts are handed out. For more information about the podcast, visit our website, GardenBasics dot net. That’s where you can find out about the free, Garden Basics newsletter, Beyond the Basics. And thank you so much for listening.
