Anyone who grows roses?

An official Consulting Rosarian goes through classes prepared by the ARS. I am not an official rosarian but have studied roses for the past twelve years and am looked on by others in the club as an authority on OGR's and other less well known roses.

Even consulting rosarians do not know the answer to every rose question but they should have a good working knowledge of roses and how to grow them.

Lance

The qualifications for being an ARS-certified Consulting Rosarian are linked below. CRs don't need to know everything, the strength of the program is that we have a network of contacts that can help with many problems.

Now, to be a "rosarian" you just have to love to grow roses!

Here is a link that might be useful: Becoming a Consulting Rosarian

Others above have explained about ARS Consulting Rosarians very thuroughly. They are wonderful dedicated and generous people who share their time and knowledge freely to promote growing roses.

I don't think a "rosarian" is "anyone who grows roses". There are a lot of people who put a handful of Knockouts in their landscaping for color but I would not consider them rosarians. Some of them I wouldn't even call gardeners since they hire out the care of their landscaping too. I think to be a rosarian you need to be really interested in roses for their own sake not just as a part of your landscaping and have to spend your own time and energy choosing, planting and caring for your roses. It doesn't matter whether it's 1 or 100 roses. It's the love of them, thorns and all, that makes you a rosarian.

Seil,
Your explanation seems the most accurate for the question which was "What makes a Rosarian?", not "What makes a Consulting Rosarian?" I would think some knowledge of their growth, care, and disease problems/prevention would be appropriate. Being successful with growing them would be a plus.

I agree Seil :) Thorns?? The folks at the local United Blood Service see arms scratched like the loser in a cat fight and they ask the person if they grow roses like that rose guy, Dave. They have seen me after pruning for so many years they just roll their eyes and don't ask. I'm just a rose grower.... a clumsy one.

I dream about my roses...and wait in the bushes for the UPS guy in the spring...
Does that qualify? ( :

Yes (although the law might call that a "stalker"). ;-))

That's an interesting question, Pauline. I have been thinking about it after reading the article by Cliff Orent in the '07 Rose Annual entitled "The Rose Collector as Exhibitor". He was describing the different approaches to roses growing, roughly as follows:

The Rose Collector: This person has very large numbers of roses, usually displayed in a collection, rather than a garden. Some do exhibit, but mainly to display little known roses. Generally, it is too hard to care for hundreds (or thousands) of roses in the obsessive way necessary to compete for Queen.

The Rose Exhibitor: The Roses Exhibitor cares for the roses obsessively (usually hybrid teas), and often has multiples of the roses that have proven to be winners. Roses that don't show are not kept in the garden. The rose garden itself may be quite attractive, but often the roses are arranged for ease of caring for them, rather than for garden design.

The Rose Gardener: This person concentrates on a beautiful display of roses and likes to share the garden with visitors. They usually have a variety of different roses, and like to give bouquets to people. They usually have many other flowers, shrubs and trees and the emphasis is on the overall garden design, including garden ornaments and the hardscape.

Besides those groupings, of course, there are groups defined by how much time they can spend on their roses, what varieties they prefer, and what will grow in their regions. So, suffice it to say, the answer is not an easy one, Pauline, but fun to think about. As for myself, I have gone through a period of being a bit of a collector, eager to get hard-to-find varieties, but I think I am over that now. I was working then and couldn't take proper care of the roses, plus, a lot of the hard-to-find roses deserved to be even harder to find! As for exhibiting, I consider myself a "Casual Exhibitor-Gardener". I have had some success, but am unlikely to ever win Queen. I am not obsessive-compulsive enough, plus I like variety in the garden and don't have a big enough yard to get multiples of one variety. Besides, I love to have people come tour my garden and enjoy the beauty of lots of different kinds of roses. Mostly, I keep roses that will show, but not just hybrid teas. I have many floribundas, shrubs, minis and climbers. Plus, I have many other flowers. Actually, I am a Casual Exhibitor of daylilies, too, and am overcoming being a collector. If you think roses are expensive, try collecting daylilies!

I know you certainly are a Rose Gardener par excellance, Pauline. How about the other categories? Do you consider yourself a collector or an exibitor?

Interesting, thanks guys. I guess I was thinking that, to have the title of "Rosarian" probably meant that you are a master at it and extremely knowledgable, so I probably should have been using the phrase "Consulting Rosarian" which meets that discription.

So what I have found from this is that there is a big difference between a rosarian and a consulting rosarian and I know we are soo fortunate here to have so many of them, (the consulting kind) and I am pretty sure I can recognise them here and am ever grateful for their expertise and generous sharing of such.

That's a very interesting read snowheather, thank you. I have sorted myself out now, if I ever need a title, heehee!! Number 1, I am a Rose gardener, I think I have known that for a long time. I have never been to a full rose exhibition with serious exhibits. At our hort society in which I have been very active for several years, I worked on the parlour show and there were many general categories. Although I did enter some roses and did reasonably well, my main exhibits were floral arranging and in particular, rose arranging and I have had a few heavy metals and rosettes for that. It was such a lot of work and I have given all that up now. So back to being just a "rose gardener" who is also a ROSARIAN! Yeah, yeah, yeah!!!
Pauline - Vancouver Island

According to the free dictionary by Farflex, a rosarian is "a person with expertise or a special interest in the cultivation of roses.

That's me, and you, and you and you etc. : who of course would not be very good ones if we did not have the resources of consulting rosarians, books etc. Thanks Salita.
Pauline

You are so right, Karl, being successful at it is half the fun and all of the satisfaction!

Dave, I too spend all summer with scratches and scars from head to toe. I rarely even notice it now unless they start to hurt or someone else points them out.

Susan, that definitely qualifies you! I'm waiting on pins and needles for my orders to come and they're not due until the end of April here!

Snowheather, that's a great article by Cliff, who is a huge collector of roses himself, coming in at somewhere around 5,000 roses! I'd have to say I'm a Rose Gardener. I do exhibit at 2 local shows each spring but I don't choose my roses for exhibition reasons. Just what takes my fancy. The only double I have is 2 Double Delights and that was an accident as I thought the first one had perished and replaced it only to find the first one was tougher than I thought and had sprouted out new basal breaks.

Welcome to the ranks, Pauline!

Here is my hubby's definition of a Rosarian (which he often calls me--LOL)

His definition------"anyone who knows more about roses than the person he is talking to !!!!!"

LOL LOL LOL

Florence

Here are my somewhat warped definitions of the different categories of gardeners who grow roses:

A Consulting Rosarian is a specific title endowed upon somebody who has gone through the troubles and rigours of completing the ARS classes. He/she has excellent knowledge of rose growing, but may not necessarily be the most knowledgeable rose grower in North America. What is important is that they know how to get the right answers to any rose growing question that may ever be asked.

A rosarian is somebody who thinks, rightly or wrongly, that he/she knows how to grow roses. But the title implies a certain degree of skill in growing roses successfully, without the benefit of an officially sanctioned course to test his/her mettle. The real life test of the rightful entitlement is if other gardeners look up to him/her for rose growing advice. Hence, it is unlikely that somebody will declare himself/herself to be a "rosarian", unlike someone who has ARS certification who can justibaly call himself/heself a Consulting Rosarium. The title is likely to be bestowed upon him by his peers. It has nothing to do with the number of roses he/she grows in his/her garden, although, the number is usually higher than your average neighbourhood garden.

A rose lover is somebody who thinks he/she loves roses. Being able to grow roses is not a prequisite to this title. Some of them would love to grow roses, but never got round to it. However, there is a rose lover in every rose gardener, rose collector and rose nut - of course! Otherwise, it would be a senseless obssession.

A rose gardener is somebody who incorporates roses prominently into his/her garden design, but does not allow roses to dominate the garden. He can't - he has too many other plants he wants to grow too. He or she does not meet the criteria for the title of rose collector or rose nut, but may well be looked upon by others as a rosarian.

A rose collector is somebody who grows more roses than other plants in his/her garden. To a rose collector, territories occupied by any other plants can be usurped for newly acquired roses. They are the first to get their hands on rose catalogues and the first to get their hands on new introductions. Part of their collection is likely to be rare and unusual roses seen in nobody else's garden within a 100 mile radius, maybe more. A rose collector is not necessary a rose nut, and vice versa. They are, of necessity, true rosarians.

A rose nut is somebody who grows more than a thousand roses. He/she eats, sleeps and breathes roses. To a rose nut, other plants are side hobbies. They order compost by the truckloads. If you search carefully, there is usually a minitractor in their yard. How else can anybody grow more than a thousand roses and not break their backs? They are skilled at propagating roses - often, tending to prefer T-bud grafting to cuttings. They hybridise. In fact, so highly skilled are they, and so devouted to the art of growing roses, that the title is not at all derogatory. Rather, it is a title applied with reverence, and well earned by only a few amongst us. They are highly admired, well respected and in some cases, worshipped by others. We depend upon them for sage advice and for inspiration. He/she is the ultimate rosarian, ARS certification or not. They are Rosarians with a capital "R".

Oh.....and any of the above can exhibit roses. Rose exhibiting is not an exclusive club. It's just that the more rose you grow, the more likely that you exhibit good roses.

I had trouble finding this thread, but want to bring it up since I have been thinking about it since I first saw it.

I like all of the definitions, but I especially like the one that says the title of "rosarian" is endowed upon a person, but not a term he uses himself (herself).

I am a school teacher by profession. I don't feel possessive about the title of teacher since everyone teaches. Some teach in Church, some in the home, and most teach at work. Many people teach music, sports, and just about anything. However in an educational setting I would not think that other teachers would claim to be a teacher as they made their point in a discussion (an example might be a school board meeting). In that setting I think that only the certified school teacher would claim that title.

If someone had a question, and were to ask me as a rosarian, I would probably smile and answer the question, and move on in the conversation. But in a Rose Society meeting, a rose show, or in a location where I am representing the Rose Society, I would speak freely with people, but would never allow them to call me a rosarian - I would point to a person nearby, and say that he/she is the consulting rosarian.

I am what Cactus Joe calls a Rose Gardener. I have about 260 roses, and love my garden. All of my expertise relates to what I need and want to make my garden pretty to me. Questions about soil, insects, fertilization are limited, and to accept a title of rosarian would make me feel uncomfortable.

Sammy

Well said Sammy. Gee I hope you know that I was not serious. I would never call myself a Rosarian and I do not feel that I am, one bit. But I would for sure call myself a "rose gardener" as that is what I believe I am, first and foremost. Rose gardening is my passion.
Pauline

Cactus Joe---I loved your definitions-----

Pauline---thanks for asking this question.

Florence

I consider myself a Rose Lover as opposed to a Rose Gardener. The latter would imply that roses are the only thing I grow; t'ain't so. They are just the plants that I love the most. I think to be a Rosarian a certain number of years of experience should have passed. A seasoned warrior so to speak. The experiences of someone who has grown roses say for only 5 years will be different then someone who has grown roses for 20 years. I didn't get crown Gall for instance until I'd been growing roses for over 10 years. Also I've seen fads come and go. However there is always something to be said for "youth". There have been some rather serendipitous moments in my gardening years coming from the fact that I didn't know I couldn't or shouldn't "do that".

I always thought a rosarian was something to do with the catholic church. similiar to knights of columbus or something. But i don't know if it has something to do with rosary beads maybe? or perhaps just a catholic rose lover.

Did you really think that? You must associate with different people than I do. That is not one of the definitions. Did you think it was someone who made or sold rosary beads?

I only have roses in my garden and hybridizing is my hobby....o, and one cristmas tree. What am I?

I am a CR, and I would not be offended by any avid rose lover and grower calling themselves a "rosarian". There is a difference between the "official" ARS designation of "Consulting Rosarian" and a person being a "rosarian". Heck, even if I wasn't a CR I would still consider myself a rosarian.

Oh, yes, Diane, but what if the person claiming to be a rosarian gave bad information to someone as he/she claimed the title. Wouldn't you be a little miffed that the person did not defer to you, a person with formal training?

Sammy

"Formal" is generous... :-)

If the person was passing themselves off as a "Consulting Rosarian" and was not certified, then yes, I would be annoyed. If the person was giving advice based on their own experience, then that's their experience. And if you have 10 CRs in a room and asked them a question, you'll get 12 answers anyway. Part of my advice is based on what I learned in CR school, but most of it comes from my experience (a lot of trials and a lot of errors) and from what I learn by networking with others. I have heard a lot of "experts" give rose growers bad advice. If I happen to overhear it, I'll go up and say, "Well, here's how I have handled that problem..." That is, if I've had the problem.

I've given bad advice (heck, I've done bad things in my yard and will continue to do them). I can't get bent out of shape about it. I can only try to help if I am asked.

For len511- there are the rosicrusians which are a spiritual order.

Would a true "Rosarian" be someone who is interested in all facets of rose growing? One who wants to learn as much as possible about them and grows and enjoys a wide variety. I don't think one needs to be a consulting rosarian or have anything to do with the American Rose Society to be a Rosarian. Would "David Austin" be considered a "Rosarian"? IMO Rosatimo could call him/herself a "Rosarian". JMO.

OK, I love words, so I looked this one up in the OED. This is a modern word, as I suspected. The earliest use of it they could find was in the 1860s. Len was correct - Sammy you were wrong - one definition of it IS from the Catholic Church relating to the rosary: "R.C. church - a member of the Confraternity of the Rosary". Example of use: " a rosarian asks prayers of the conversion of her three brothers".

The other definition is the one we are mostly talking about here, of course. It also first showed up in the 1860s. It is "one who is interested in the cultivation of roses: esp an amateur rose grower". Note, no requirements for expertise! First quote using it they could find was: Hibberd Rose Book, pg 12 "To furnish the rosarian with an intelligible key to the catalogues [of roses]".

Jackie

I'm with Jackie, just someone who has a passion for growing roses.

I wonder what kind of rose person I am? There are no consulting rosarians or rose exhibitors in Sweden and never have been. The word rosarian is not known. I think of myself as a rose gardener first as the overall design of my garden is most important to me, how to place my 200 roses to advantage among other plants. I grow species, OGR's and modern roses and up to 12 bushes of some.

But I have a wider interest in roses than in just my own limited collection. I write about historical roses in our rose society journal and answer questions from members on a wide variety of rose topics. I have 80 rose books and have visited many large collections in Sweden and abroad, the SJHRG for instance. I was a member for five years of a team that investigated unknown roses brought by the public at events all over the country. We had been trained to recognize most common varieties by a botanist, the curator of Sweden's largest rosarium.

A rosarian is typically a gardener who spends more time on their roses than all the other plants.

My definition is a little looser. If you know the names of the varieties and what subgroups they belong to that you grow, you're probably a Rosarian.