Roses are a Celebration! Starting Right with Organic Rose Growing

New date! Roses, arguably the "Queen of Flowers," can be finicky, but persistence pays off! This class will be a lively, interactive demonstration/discussion on growing roses in the home garden. Appropriate whether you intend to grow one, 10, or 100 roses, for while scale matters, the basics are the same. Visualize yourself in your future spring/summer garden, picking and choosing color combinations from a plethora of blooms - it all starts now, in the dead of winter.

This hands-on workshop will cover:

Site selection and soil improvement factors
Selecting roses: types and varieties and their features, including David Austins, Hybrid teas, Floribundas, Grandifloras, and Rugosa
Getting started in the garden: Soil prep and planting, post-planting care, and initial pruning
The yearly care cycle: an almanac of rose care throughout the calendar year: what do and when to do it
Irrigation
Pruning
Pests and diseases: strategies and troubleshooting
Fertilizer overview and timing of applications
DIY: propagating roses from cuttings
Led by our own experienced rose grower and organic gardening instructor Orin Martin, this workshop takes place in the historic Alan Chadwick Garden at UC Santa Cruz. Admission to the workshop includes a free copy of the 40 page Rose Primer - An Organic Approach to Rose Selection & Care by Orin Martin.

Presented by the Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden. Members receive a 10% discount on workshop cost. Learn more about becoming a member and sign up at https://agroecology.ucsc.edu/get-involved/join-the-friends/index.html. For accommodation requests, email agroecology.ucsc.edu.