HomeMy WebLinkAboutAncient Roses Tell Tales from the Past-1994 Ancient roses tell Education
tales from the past
❑A student Rose Club Lee.
"They can actually see a rose
raises flowers that have that was alive a hundred years
roots in the Renaissance. ago, so it makes history come
alive,'Ellman said.
B Beth Taylor The old garden roses are regain-
By Y ing popularity. Many enthusiasts
OF THE ssnnnsr STAFF scour old cemeteries and aban-
doned estates in search of heri-
tage—Arose is a rose is tage roses, then graft clippings
onto their own bushes.
a rose. Two of Ellman's students, Re-
Except at Keeth Elementary becca Thomas, 10, and Katherine
School, that is, where it can blos- Wrobleski, 9, have started their
som into most anything. A history own rose gardens at home.
lesson, an exercise in creative writ- Ten-year-old Adam Loving
ing,a science project,original art. grows animated as he describes a
Fifteen of Elaine Ellman's gifted Scottish horticulturist's adventur-
students have joined her after- ous trip to the Orient to bring
school Rose Club. The children roses to Europe in the 1800s.
have planted a garden at their "A guy named Robert Fortune
school featuring several rose vari- was sailing to China to get a new
eties. rose," Adam said. "He ran into
These are no ordinary roses. some pirates and they had a big
They are heritage roses, which war. He defeated the pirates with
hold centuries of history in their guns. But when he got to China,
showy petals. Unlike the hybrid the king wouldn't give him any
tea rose found in floral arrange- roses.But the peasants did."
ments and most home gardens, So interested were the students
heritage roses date back to the in the rose's colorful history, they
15th century and earlier. created a timeline called "Bloo-
Ellman,who grows dozens of va- min' History" to display in their
rieties of heritage roses in her media center. It traces the story of
home garden, was surprised to the heritage rose, which is be-
find that her students were fasci- lieved to have started 35 million
nated by roses. years ago,when dinosaurs roamed
"I had no idea this would be of the earth.
interest to children," she said. Native Americans planted roses
"Then I found out how interested to decorate their campgrounds; pil-
they were in the history. We've Brims cultivated them for cooking
been able to tie in every aspect of and medicines. In France, Empress
the curriculum to roses." Josephine had the first formal rose
The students write stories about garden,the Malmaison Garden.
roses, research the history of var.- Few heritage roses would grow in
ious roses and make hats and holi- Florida until about three years ago,
day ornaments out of roses. when horticulturists at Florida
And, of course, they tend their Southern College in Lakeland
garden. Fortunately, heritage grafted them onto a nematode-re-
roses are much hardier that the sistant root stock. Now, interest is
newer varieties. The children oc- picking up. Ellman is the incoming
casionally fertilize their flowers, vice president of the Central Flor-
but they use no chemicals. Mulch- ida Heritage Rose Society, which
Mg, weeding and deadheading — meets at the Lakeland college.
removing wilted blooms—are the Ellman hopes the children's in-
main garden chores. terest in roses will endure.
One of their bushes, an Old "We hope these roses will be 9 ti/-.2 S'
Blush, is descended from a plant around so that when they gradu-
more 9-/
than a century old. An Old ate from high school, they can
Blush bush appears in a picture of come back and see the roses that
the surrender of Gen. Robert E. they planted."