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How
Do We Measure?
I once had customers, a husband and a wife, who were very avid rosarians. But strangely, the husband chose varieties with soft colors and a more dainty character. His wife, on the other hand, told me she liked her roses big and bold, even gaudy in color. Thus, each rose garden is a reflection of one's own taste and likes and is often a window into ones personality. I read an account some years ago about two men in England whose hobby was to breed daffodils. Both were businessmen and getting along in years. It so happened that both men died about the same time and a bulb merchant acquired their stocks of daffodil bulbs. But, even though the bulbs became mixed together it was said that each breeder was so different that one could tell by the bulbs and the flowers they bore which came from each man. Unwittingly, each breeder had stamped something of himself in the bulbs he developed. As for myself, I like roses in a wide range of colors, growth and blooming habit. I like them small and dainty such as the miniatures, but on the other hand I also like many of the big roses, all shapes, sizes and colors. While many of the hybrid teas are attractive, even beautiful in their own way, they are not my favorites. There are so many other beautiful roses that are of more interest to me than most hybrid teas. I sometimes refer to the hybrid tea (especially some I see at rose shows) as "a cabbage on a stick".
In my rose breeding, over a span of some sixty plus years, I have worked to develop the miniature rose as we know it today, as well as working with numerous other varieties and species. Of special interest to me have been some of the old tea rose varieties, hybrid perpetuals, hybrid multifloras and wichuraianas. At Left: One of the new Bracteata Hybrids, 'Precious Dream' In more recent years I have been working with stripes, moss and rugosa hybrids. And to make things even more interesting, I am working with crested moss rose hybrids, R. bracteata and even the most difficult of species, Hulthemia persica. I have now flowered a few third generation hybrids (and looking to the fourth generation). My goal is roses with red (or dark) centers, similar to my Halo™ varieties, but of even more intense or vivid centers and in larger sizes. To do this we have been crossing some of the Halo™ varieties with a Hulthemia hybrid. But Hulthemia , like many species and other rose varieties, especially some climbers, are once (spring) flowering. I now have one Hulthemia hybrid that repeats all the way to fall. The tendency to mildew seems to be inherited in most Hulthemia hybrids but in time I am sure this can be overcome. So how do you measure a rose? Not with a tape measure or a ruler, not by size or color, it comes down to the simple thought, "Do I like it?" NOTE:
For 2002 Season.
At Right: A Miniature with quilled petals, also bred from R. bracteata called 'Star Dust'. These are a FIRST, so we invite you to be among the first to try them in your garden. They will be available in very limited quantity for the first season. And there are other unique and different kinds coming up soon - all the result of over 20-30 years of original and innovative breeding.
Yesterday, God gave me So
today I look for roses, Ralph Moore 7/1/01
More than 60 years of experience and dedication have gone into making the roses here at Sequoia Nursery. You will find that we offer some of the most unique and beautiful shrubs ever bred.
SEQUOIA
NURSERY VISITORS ALWAYS WELCOME DURING NURSERY HOURS |
We
talk of roses, rose gardens and rose shows but how do you measure
a rose garden or a rose? It is not the size or the number of bushes,
or the varieties that you have that really makes a rose garden.
A rose garden is more that all of these things. In most cases, a
real rose garden, whether it is one bush, a hundred, or a thousand,
really should be a part of you. 
