A REVIEW OF THE 2004
PACIFIC NORTHWEST DISTRICT MEETING & ROSE SHOW
Hosted by the Fraser Pacific Rose Society, Coquitlam, B C
26 - 28 June 2004
By Brenda Viney, Helene Pizzi, TRN Correspondent, Canada - West
EDITORS NOTE: Our apologies to Brenda Viney - and to our readers - for the lateness of this article's inclusion in the eJournal (and the following Notice). Another result of poor timing we hope to have rectified at last. While the timeframe is a bit removed, we trust there's plenty of interest in what Brenda shares of this event nonetheless:
The Pacific Northwest District of the American Rose Society holds an annual Rose Show and Meeting/Convention every year in one of its member cities in Oregon, Washington or British Columbia. This year, the host city was Coquitlam, British Columbia, 20 minutes east of Vancouver, under the auspices of the Fraser Pacific Rose Society. A three-day get-together and two-day rose show gathered together rosarians from both sides of the border. It was wonderful to meet the acquaintance of the many visiting Americans…the camaraderie and support shown by them for their fellow rose growers was indeed a pleasure to behold. Not only did they attend the convention but they brought buckets of quality cut roses with them to enter into the rose show – a welcome relief to us locals after an unusually hot, dry spring saw our first flush of blooms finished before the Rose Show.
Convention co-chairs, Corinne Brown and Reiko Meagher, did a splendid job in organizing the three-day event. A Friday night cocktail party, hosted by Archie & Nancy Watson started off the festivities followed by an early wake-up call on Saturday morning as exhibitors readied their blooms for judging. A good showing of blooms resulted in top awards going to both Canadians and Americans. A lovely buffet luncheon in an adjacent hall capped off the morning’s activities. A District business meeting and a PNW Judging Audit meeting were both held in the afternoon.
Saturday evening’s banquet was an excellent affair at the Executive Inn in Coquitlam. A delicious dinner was enjoyed before the riotous Des Kennedy regaled us with tales of sex in the garden and taught us all about Rosarian Raunchiness. Presentation of various trophies and prizes followed with an early end to a long, delightful day.
The following two days were spent on day-long bus tours. Sunday’s tour took us to two stunning rose gardens in Maple Ridge – Bill & Reiko Meagher and Ted & Corinne Brown. The quality of both gardens was outstanding. The Meagher garden is on a small lot that includes space on their obliging neighbors’ properties with a lovely assortment of roses. Driving up to the one-acre Brown garden was a sight to behold. An absolutely breathtaking array of some 800+ roses grows along lattice walls, into trees and in raised and free-form beds everywhere. Onwards to world-renowned Minter Gardens, we enjoyed a delicious buffet luncheon in the Trillium Restaurant before touring the gardens. As tour guide, Brian Minter, advised, the plantings in the garden change with the seasons so there’s always a reason to come back to visit to see something new and exciting in the plant world. It also helps that Brian runs a cutting-edge nursery where the brightest stars for the year can be found. A beautiful layout of ‘garden rooms’ at Minter Gardens enchants you as you wend your way from one vista to another. The large rose garden is one of the best in town and the gardens are totally wheelchair accessible.
On Monday another bus tour took us to Kanaka Roses in Pitt Meadows, where they grow roses in greenhouses for the cut flower market. The roses are all grown in pots on their own roots. We had never seen so many roses stripped, cut to length, bundled and packaged for shipping – we weren’t even aware that such a facility existed in the Vancouver area! It was a most interesting visit and nice to see another avenue of rose growing. After lunch at the Silver Springs Brewery in Mission, we visited Classic Miniature Roses in Sardis and were warmly welcomed by the Wilson family who has a long history with rosarians in Vancouver. Their mainly tried and true roses are extremely healthy and vigorous with old favorites such as Cupcake, Rise’n Shine and Snowbride.
A delightful weekend was had by all and particularly so because we were all in the company of so many knowledgeable rosarians from throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Do You Have a Picture of this Rose?
Do you, like us, get the above question relatively frequently? You look in your favourite reference books, then, after looking at your collection of rose journals say “I don’t think so”. We have solved your search problem if you have, or have access to, the (British) National Rose Society or Royal National Rose Society journals. We have published three items which should help you. These are acid free paper copies of Indices of both the Articles and the Illustrations for the period 1910 to 2002 and a CD-ROM with a search engine of both databases. Both databases have very general classifications which we hope to improve with the next edition. The critical introductory pages are tri-lingual, English, French and German. The paper copy of Articles is sorted only by date and page. The Illustrations start with Rose Name, then People then Other (Advert, Arrangement, Art, Example, Flower, Garden, Misc., and Plants). This is the order that we felt was most useful for finding an illustration when using the paper copy. The CD version works with Windows 98 or later operating systems.
Attached is an order form. Please note that there is $5 extra needed for delivery outside North America and payment by money order in Canadian funds is preferred.
Ordering
Additional copies may be obtained from the authors. Please note that the CD includes both databases and is compatible with Windows 98 and higher format.
Prices (Canadian Dollars)
Print copies of each database
(Articles or Illustrations)
CA$15 each, CA$20 outside North America
CD (both databases)
CA$20 each, CA$25 outside North America
Ordering.
Print, Articles…………..#………..$each…………….$total……..
Print, Illustrations.……..#………..$each…………….$total……..
CD (both databases)..….#………..$each…………….$total……..
$total……..remitted
Payment
Money Order (must be International money order outside Canada), contact to query for other types of payment.
Contact
Email: theelliotts@shaw.ca
Postal mail: The Elliotts
3125 Qu’Appelle Street
Victoria BC V9A 1V5
CANADA
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