I saw this in the Tyler paper last week. A&M is looking for Texans to do a field test on some roses that they want to add as EarthKind. You don't have to be experienced with roses to do this. They should require minimal care. For more information and a list of nurseries you can go to their website.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/earthkindrose
Shirley
A&M Rose Research Project seeks volunteers
Shirley, I went through the site, but didn't find a reference to the field test. Can you give us a bit more from the newspaper article? It seems like a good project to try. Thanks! Yuska
Shirley, do you know if they have a particular zone in mind for their study. They can use me as a tester!
Carolyn
This sounds like a really interesting program. I'd like to know more about it.
Same here I would also like to know a little more about that - a rose for this area would be great.
The roses that they've chosen are Arethusa, Jaune Desprez and Maggie which are winter hardy throughout the entire state. Bon Silene and Comtesse du Cayla are winter hardy except for Amarillo and the northern Panhandle.
Yuska, I'm not sure why the info isn't on the web site. The person in charge of this project is Dr. Steve George, Tx. Cooperative Extension horticulturist based at the Texas A&M Univ. System Research and Extension Center in Dallas. How'd you like to answer the phones for him?
This was in the Tyler Morning Telegraph, Gardening section on Thurs. Oct. 13th. In the spring they're going to do a national research program which involves 30 roses available to all 50 states!
Interesting. sure would like to be part of this research. I participating in a program testing chemicals on fruit trees and it was fun.
I have the climber Jaune Desprez, which I bought at the suggestion and encouragement of a die-hard rosarian and I have been dissappointed. Has been very slow to grow but I will say it is extremely disease resistant. It is possible its sluggishness was due to unsufficient watering this year. Dunno. Because it is healthy I won't yank it out, but I am not sure I would recommend it. I also saw a display JD at Vintage Rosery in Needville, TX and it also looked like a leggy climber. Had I seen that display prior to buying, I wouldn't have selected JD. Oh well, maybe next yeat it will surprise me.
I wonder if they are referring to the Earthkind Rose Brigade?
Dr. George was a guest speaker at The Arbor Gate in Tomball a couple of years back (or was it just last year?) and he was telling us about it. He started the Earthkind designation thing. He explained that the roses they wanted us - regular garden people - to try out, are roses that first came through their trial. The first year they plunked it in a hole in the ground and watered it. Yrs 2 & 3 they were not given anything. Anything. They got whatever water fell from the sky, no sprays, no fertilizers. What they wanted us to do was choose whatever rose or roses we were interested in from the list of possible Earthkind roses, purchase it (sorry, no free roses), and then test them in our gardens for three years. They ask that you site the plant correctly - full sun and good ventilation - and do not spray it for anything, not for bugs or disease, not even organic sprays. Just do what you would otherwise do normally, fertilization/feeding included. The whole idea is to see which plants are truly carefree, grow and thrive without needing special intervention to perform well. Then you log on to their website once a yr for three yrs to report how the plant did for you.
I mention it in my Garden Diary, March 20, 2004: http://davesgarden.com/journal/d/t/maggiemoo/16/
That's pretty much the same thing the article said. I guess I thought there was some kind of sign-up that you did. Guess I'll start looking the roses up and decide what I want to try.
Shirley