Photos photo courtesy of Mark A. Roeder, Manchester, Iowa

"Earth Song" was hybridized by Dr. Griffith Buck at Iowa State University. Dr. Buck put his hybrid roses in a field. If they didn't survive the winter, they were tossed. For reasons apparent from the photo, Earth Song was not tossed; it was marketed. I suggest Earth Song to beginning growers for its beauty, robustness, hardiness, ease of growing, and disease resistance. From a speech Buck made in 1985, he explained, "While I didn't start to develop roses that were disease resistant, I had inherently selected for disease resistance by the manner in which I made the selections in the field. My normal procedure was to grow the seedlings in the greenhouse one year until they got big enough, and plant them out the second spring. The only attention they would get would be water and cultivation. I didn't spray for disease. If they couldn't hold on to their foliage, they wouldn't properly mature, and therefore they wouldn't overwinter well. In a sense I was selecting for those that could hold on to their foliage in spite of becoming infected with foliage diseases." People walking by my rose beds ask how I cover my roses in the winter. I answer, "I don't cover them." They look at me dubiously while I explain how to keep roses disease free which is the best winter cover, and the second best winter cover involves use of my snowblower.

2 favorite votes.