Newsletter Articles
A Rose Is A Rose
By Richard Flowers, ACCNP-Green Thumb Nursery-Ventura
Robert Frost poemed, “The rose is a rose and was always a rose”. But the theory now goes that the apple is a rose, and the pear is, and so is the plum, I suppose. The dear [Lord] only knows what will next prove a rose. ”You could also add that an apricot is a rose, a blackberry is a rose, a nectarine is. and so forth. A rose may not be what you think of as just being the regular rose but instead an enormous amount of common plants actually have rose flowers and they are in fact related to the rose. The family the rose belongs to is called the Rosaceae family. This tremendous group of plants may surprise you.The Rosaceae family of plants occupies nearly 3,350 species in 122 genera and includes not only the ever popular rose you see everywhere but many important fruit bearing plants that we all are familiar with.
I encourage you to go out in your garden and analyze the flowers of your peach, apricot, plum, strawberry or blackberry. These plants share common characteristics that can help you identify them. Most notably, the flower parts tend to occur in sets of five. When you look at a flower you can count the number of petals, sepals and stamens this will help you determine that it is in the rose family. These flowers are actually individual roses, but not exactly like the traditional roses like Mr. Lincoln, Iceberg, Double Delight or Peace. These delicious fruits are actually related to the rose. Have you ever cut a Fuji, Anna, Pink Lady, or any variety of apple in half crosswise? Inside you will find a five-pointed star! The points are made from the seeds nestled inside five ovaries. As the seeds grow, they form a star. The five-pointed star inside an apple is an example of the pattern of fives that helps to distinguish the rose family.
The Rosaceae group of plants is one of the major families for fruits in the temperate world including pears, cherries, and almonds. The many scrumptious and mouthwatering fruits like Mid-Pride Peach, Santa Rosa Plum, Panamint Nectarine, Beverly Hills Apple, Willamette Raspberry are relatives to the fragrant and showy rose bushes like Queen Elizabeth, Honor, First Prize, and climbing Josephs Coat.
Most plants in the Rosaceae family provide copious amounts of early pollen and nectar for bees. They are excellent pollinators for fruit trees and berries. Without the honeybee these plants attract, how else could you get delicious fruit? Peaches, plums, almonds, and cherries are hosts for butterflies. So when you are out in the garden or want to add additional, useful , and highly decorative plants to your landscape, consider rosaceous plants. For a perfume fragrance use any number of our outstanding selection of roses like Barbara Streisand, Perfume Delight, and Angel Face. You may want to add a climbing plant to a special area like a Zephirine Drouhin climbing rose. Consider adding fruit to the mix with a number varieties of delicious plum-apricot crosses called Pluots and Apriums. You may want to have a brambling shrub or vine that will provide tasty raspberries or blackberries. For the butterfly lover, consider anything in the rose family.
Now is the perfect time to buy roses and fruit trees because they are dormant and during this time, transplanting them will endure less shock. We have an excellent selection of quality dormant roses and fruit trees to choose from while supplies last. So
plant a rose, any rose or those related to the rose they will sure be a winner for you.
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