Grooming Roses for a Show by Don Ballin

GROOMING ROSES FOR A SHOW

BY

Don Ballin

How many times have we met a lady for the first time when she was working in her garden or in a casual situation?  Then, when we saw her the next time, she was all spiffed up and ready to go out on the town.  Did we notice a difference in her appearance?  You bet!!!!!.....and that difference is called grooming!  Oh boy, can it ever make a difference.

The same holds true for your roses.  You can bring all that potential beauty to the eye of the beholder, at its peak of perfection, if you do it right.  Here are some thoughts on what and how to do it for your consideration.

CREATE A MOCK SHOW AT HOME

1) Cut a stem with a promising bloom.  The bud should have its sepals down, petals 

Beginning to unfurl, and when you squeeze the fattest part of it, feel soft…if you 

feel what almost feels like a marble in the bloom, it is not ready to cut.  Once you

have brought the bloom inside the house, (and I strongly recommend you bring a

container of water with you outside for the newly cut stem) recut the stem under

water, taking about an inch off.  There are two schools of thought on this proce-

dure; some very well known exhibitors do not feel this is necessary.  I am a 

believer that it is.

2) Refrigerate your bloom for a day or two.  Place a protective cap (I use light

weight plastic baggies) over the bloom, securing the baggie with a twist tie

around the neck.

3) Once you remove the bloom from the refrigerator, see how long it takes to open.

A) While you see how long it takes to open, try removing the 3 outer guard

Petals so you can not discern they are missing.  This is done by grasping

the petal as close to the petal hinge as possible and moving it back and forth

slowly and gently until it separates from the calyx tube.

B) Manipulate the petals with your fingers to see how they recurve or fold

back in the most natural way.  If the petals won’t respond, wait until

they warm up or lose a little substance; then try again.  This will give you

an idea of how that variety will react in the future.

C) By doing these things, you can determine how long before the show you 

need to remove this variety from the refrigerator.

The general rule of thumb is the thicker petalled varieties with a higher petal count will take longer to open than those with fewer and/or lighter petals.

GARDEN GROOMING

Several weeks before a show:

1) Stake any crooked stems or any which might be damaged by an adjacent stem.

2) Shade opening buds.  There are many different types of shading materials.  There are Mortis Frames, which are professionally manufactured in England, not easy to 

find (or, frankly, easy to handle, but they work very well.)  Some people use the 

top ¾ of 1 gallon plastic milk jugs clipped on to heavy duty stakes, some create

translucent corrugated plastic sheets cut to a specific size and attached to poles.

I use wax paper bags, securing them with twist ties around the neck of the possible show bloom.  Shading and protecting the bloom will enhance the color, 

allow for greater petal extension, and hopefully protect it from the elements (including livestock.)

3) If time allows, foliage can be cleaned before cutting.  If not, it would be wise to have  this job completed before you get to the preparation room where your time should be spent positioning stems in bud vases and grooming the flowers themselves.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

The tools you use can vary from nothing but your fingers to a collection so vast that it requires its own carrying case.  Often, you’ll mistake rose groomers for fisherman because so many of us lug all this stuff around in a tackle box or something of the like.  Over the years I have accumulated a wild array of improbable items, but every now and then they come in handy.  My tackle box kind of looks like this:

Lots of Aluminum Foil: for positioning stems in the vase so they stand up straight

Lots of Cotton Balls or PomPoms: for inserting between petals to keep them open during the grooming process

Lots of Q Tip Cosmetic Applicators (getting more difficult to find):     same use as cotton balls, but you don’t need a tool to insert as you do with the cotton balls

A few Argyle knitting needles:       to move petals gently without marring them

A few manicuring scissors:          A couple of different sizes and styles for trimming petals if need be

A Deckle Edge Scissors:                for restoring serrations to the damaged leaves

An Xacto knife or scalpel (or both):            great for removing excess growth at leaf axils on petal stubs when they don’t break away cleanly from the calyx tube

A few tweezers (again, different sizes and styles):    for removing unwanted growth, placing cotton balls between petals and other various uses

A few stamp tongs:     same as tweezers, but they are long enough to reach in to the center of a bloom and pluck out a damaged petal at the petal hinge

A small, soft bristled water color brush:     for removing dirt specks and livestock from the petals without marring the blooms

A pruning sheers:     to recut stems if necessary

A small sharpening stone:     for the scalpel and sheers

A rubber stamp and stamp pad (or a self inking stamp) with your name and address so you can fill out entry tags more easily.  Preprinted, self-stick name and address labels also work well.

To explain all the techniques in a short article is impossible, so I strongly recommend if you have been bitten by the exhibiting bug, you call someone in your area that is as crazy as me and bring some stems over to be shown what to do as well as how to do it.  Oh yes, be sure there are rose blooms on the stems.

Just remember, it is often not the best grown specimen that wins, but the one that is best groomed.