Web Resources

by Sue Hopkins, Past-President Heritage Roses Northwest
(and Rainy Rose Society member)

Did you find a new computer under the Christmas tree or make a New Year‘s resolution that this is the year you‘re going online?Perhaps you‘re determined to make 2010 a year of cataloging your roses, learning more about rose culture, or talking with people in Great Britain, France, Japan or Australia about roses? Maybe you‘re planning a trip or you simply want to see photos of other rose growers‘ gardens. Have you figured out how to Google and now you wonder how to make use of being friended onto Facebook? These are only a few of the myriad reasons that more and more rose fans are going online. I‘ve compiled some of my favorite sites to get you started. Here are friends old and new, inspiration and education, beauty and a wider world. All of these websites offer links to other websites and before you know it, you‘re off on your internet gardening adventure. If you come across Barking Dogs Garden or SeattleSuze, you‘ve found me, so stop by and say hello or if you‘re shy, just have a look. Have fun!

Online Encyclopedia: 1) www.HelpMeFind.com: The worldwide rose, peony and clematis database of descriptions,photographs, nurseries, gardens, references and more, compiled through individual gardener contributions and maintained by a staff of expert volunteers. Free access to some portions of database, but because it only lives through volunteerism, your best support is $24 or more annual membership. Invaluable. 2) For pests and disease in the garden, check out Baldo Villegas‘ Bugs (www.sactorose.org/rosebug).

Garden Communities: 1) www.Gardenweb.com Antique rose and rose forums The long-established website now owned by      I Village is the largest on the Web and caters to gardeners, designers, cooks, pet owners, and photo galleries. The Antique Rose Forum is the busiest of all online rose forums.
2) www.Gardenbuddies.com: An international group of like-minded gardeners covering multiple plants and topics, with forums that are particularly strong on clematis and roses.
3) www.Greatrosarians.com: The website of Clair Martin, curator of the Huntington Rose Garden and founder of Great Rosarians of the World awards. 4) Facebook (www.facebook.com) is like the old corner store in a small town. Everyone you know pops in on a pretty regular basis, you exchange a piece of current news or opinion and take pleasure in seeing their faces, but you probably don‘t have time for a cup of coffee and a chat. On FB, you can join a group of like-minded people who care about gardening or roses (ARS has a page, as does the spanking new American Rose Exhibitors Society), send a virtual rose (even upload one of your own photos), or just share a thought or a laugh. It‘s a light and easy way to be part of a larger community of rose lovers without being overwhelmed by a need to say or do anything. You can contribute a little or a lot – your call.

Rose Organizations: 1) American Rose Society www.ars.org -Membership includes a monthly magazine, an annual, and fourspecialty journals. 2) Royal National Rose Society of United Kingdom www.rnrs.org -a look at what‘s happening in the U.K. 
3) Heritage Rose Foundation www.hrf.org - several forums that include frequent visits by experts Heritage Rose Group www.heritagerosegroup.org and locally, Heritage Roses Northwest 4) www.heritagerosesnorthwest.org -websites withinformation about how to join local and national clubs.

Intriguing blogs: 1) Designer and Author, Carolyn Parker‘s blog www.rosesfromatoz.com. 2) Heirloom Gardener, the gardening adventures of a NJ mother www.heirloomgardener.blogspot.com. 3) Roses and Stuff, a gardener‘s blog from Sweden, written in Swedish and English www.rosorochris.blogspot.com. 4) Paul Barden‘s blog on hybridizing roses www.paulbarden.blogspot.com.

Photographs: 1) Roger‘s Roses www.rogersroses.com the free website of Roger Phillips‘ rose photo collection.

2) Paul Barden‘s Beyond Old Garden Roses www.rdrop.com/~paul.

Mail-Order Nurseries:
1) Northland Rosarium www.northlandrosarium.com of Spokane, WA carries roses proven to flourish in the PNW.
2) Rogue Valley Roses www.roguevalleyroses.com on a hilltop in Medford, OR has a burgeoning collection of roses in all classes. The owner, Janet Inada, is a longtime Rosarian and speaks frequently to rose groups.
3) EuroDesert Roses in Morongo Valley, CA www.eurodesertroses.com offers roses from Cliff Orent‘s personal collection of European, American and Australian roses of all classes with an emphasis on rarities. 4) Palatine Roses www.palatineroses.com in Ontario, Canada offers the beautiful Freelanders and Fairy Tales as well as many more moderns by Kordes and Buck.
5) Vintage Gardens in Sebastopol, CA www.vintagegardens.com offers the largest selection of roses in the U.S.A., including many difficult-to-find old hybrid teas and floribundas as well as polyanthas and Old Garden Roses. 6) Chamblee Roses www.chambleeroses.com located in Tyler, TX has some of the best prices on the largest plants, many with multiple canes.

Some of the forums and websites require you to sign on as a member, establish a screen name and a password. There is usually no cost involved and security is high within the sites, meaning that you‘re unlikely to be bothered by scammers. I have had no trouble at all with personal information being given away without my permission, other than Facebook. Facebook is now implementing privacy boundaries that you control according to your desires, not theirs. If you have concerns, ask a friend for more information or ask people who are also on the site. There will always be people who are very helpful and will walk you through the steps needed to reach your own comfort level. What you‘ll find is that many of the people you thought had abandoned gardening have simply become busier and are taking advantage of the opportunity to sit at their desks or in their easy chairs and chat about roses from a comfortable spot in their own time at their own pace. It‘s a virtual breath of fresh air.~