Perhaps it is because the flower is so simple, graceful and elegant that it is so popular, especially on a day like this coming Thursday.
More than 100 million freshcut roses are expected to be sold for Valentine's Day.
That averages out to be a rose for every third person in the United States and Canada, according to Roses Inc., the international trade association representing greenhouse growers of fresh-cut roses.
What else do we know about the common rose besides its wild popularity at this time of year?
Well, how about these facts:
The rose ("modern rose" classification) is native to the United States. The oldest fossilized imprints of a rose were found on a slate deposit in Florisant, Colo. that is estimated to be 35 million years old.
George Washington, our first president, was also our first rose breeder.
There are 1,000 acres of greenhouse area dedicated to the production of fresh-cut roses in the United States.
It takes 45 to 57 days to produce a rose in the greenhouse, depending on variety, time of year, and especially light conditions.
One acre of greenhouse rose production in the U.S. is valued at about $1 million, including the value of the plants, greenhouse structure and land.
The world's largest single rosebush is located in Tombstone, Ariz. Planted in the 18th
Certainly a rose is more than just a rose, and those expensive long boxes filled with Valentine's Day roses will need some immediate attention to help them last. If you receive your rose in a box or wrapped out of water, prepare a clean vase full of flower preservative mixed according to the directions on the package.
Mix with tap or distilled water, but avoid using water from a home or commercial water softener.
If you are using floral foam in your vase, before placing the foam in the vase, saturate it in the preservative solution by allowing it to sink of its own weight in a container of the solution. Before placing the roses in the vase, be sure and remove any foliage that will be under water once they are arranged.
While holding the stems under water in the sink, cut about an inch off each stem with a sharp shear and then immediately place the rose in the vase with the solution. Choose a cool spot that is out of the sun and away from drafts to display your roses.
Occasionally, within a day or two of receiving and arranging, your roses may begin to wilt. This premature wilting usually indicates that there is air trapped in the stem preventing preservative solution from moving up the flower.
First- aid treatment is simple - re-cut the stem an inch or so from the bottom or above any damaged area of the stem and then submerge the entire rose in a basin of warm (100-degree) water.
Be sure that the stems and flowers stay submerged and in about an hour they will usually revive.
READY, SET, PLANT
At long last, the new planting season begins again during the middle of the month. The seeds for this year's garden were carefully chosen and ordered, and now wait their respective start dates for planting indoors. In addition to the annuals and vegetable seeds that will be started, I also make it a point to grow a handful of perennials from seed. Since these seeds get such an early start, many of them will develop into large enough plants that they'll even blossom this year.
This year I've chosen a delicate lavender flower known as Cupid's Dart Catananche caerulea, that will make a nice tall addition to the perennial garden.
The early start indoors and the nurtured care they'll receive for the next four months will pay off in dozens of handsome plants at a fraction of the cost of what you'd pay at the nursery. Also, the plants raised at home are always nicer than plants that are commercially raised, because they are simply given so much care and attention.
For me, that is really one of the nicest incentives about growing your own plants.
There's another strong reason to start your own seeds at home, however, and that is you have the ability to raise plants that you won't find in the garden centers.
With seeds, there is the freedom to personalize your selections. You can grow your favorite colors, select specific varieties that grow best in your climate or choose uncommon and rare plants to grow that will make your garden stand out from the mundane selections of standard flowers and vegetables that are offered for sale each year.
Of course, if I want a few dozen "standard" red geraniums for example, is it really worth the effort and devotion of precious grow space to raise them myself ? I think not. They're so plentiful and cheap enough to buy in May that it's probably not worth the time and effort to fuss with growing at home. However, if one desires the new, intensely orange-colored geranium called Orange Appeal, that's a different story. Certainly, you won't find this one for sale in any garden center, leaving the only option available - growing them yourself.
An exotic annual like Datura (D. suaveolens) makes a wonderful addition to the summer flowerbed and is something that you'll be hard-pressed to ever find for sale, let alone growing in somebody's garden. Yet for the price of a single seed packet and an early February sowing, it'll be a standout flower in this year's garden.
There's also a certain kind of satisfaction gardeners get when we start seeds and watch them evolve into fully mature plants.
When I think of "passing things down" from one generation to the next, I think in terms of plants!
The purple Echinacea that reliably grace the perennial garden with their sturdy green foliage and steadfast flower heads each year were plants I started from seeds nearly 15 years ago.
There's no reason they won't live on indefinitely, providing decades more flowering to others who will tend to them in years to come.
Make it a point to deviate a bit each year from the standard runof- the-mill seeds that you start each year. You'll end up with some surprising results (some disappointments, too) and a few rare oddities that'll keep everyone in the neighborhood guessing just what that plant is!
TULIPS ALL SUMMER?
How would you like a tulip that flowers from June to October?
What if I told you that the individual flowers last a month, and that the flowers come in colors of white, pink and red and that disease and insects don't bother it? Sounds pretty enticing, doesn't it?
Well, it exists, and it was one of the more interesting experimental flowers from last year's garden. It's called the Siam tulip (Curcuma alismatifolia) and this unusual plant is actually a tropical ginger from Thailand.
The bulbs technically are rhizomes that are hardy here in New England.
Each rhizome produced a single 3-inch tall, tulip-like flower on sturdy foliage that grew 24 inches tall. Over the summer the rhizomes naturally divided, prodding additional plants that flowered right through the summer months.
Like most bulbous plants, Siam tulips require good drainage and will benefit from a soil rich in organic matter. You can plant them in early spring (once the soil temperature has risen to 55 degrees.) and they will come into blossom within two months after planting.
Siam tulips will not benefit from an early start indoors - the plant sets buds only when it receives 13 hours or more of sun, which only occurs in most areas from June through the end of October.
Have a question for Bing? Send him a letter at Bing J. Carbone, 46 Winthrop Woods Road, Huntington CT 06484; or e-mail him at Bjcgardens@aol.com
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