The year was 1953, the month of September. This month in the city of Columbus, Ohio. The American Rose Society is setting up its new headquarters.
Its modern-style new home in the capital of the Buckeye state will be dedicated at the Society’s three-day fall meeting just a week or so away. Its current home is in Shreveport, Louisiana.
A New Home in Columbus
This move is no small matter, for since the Society’s birth in 1899, it has “lived” for the most part in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Now, for the first time, the American Rose Society will be housed directly adjacent to a rose garden of magnitude. As the newly opened civic garden is named, the finished plan for the Park of Roses calls for some 55,000 plants.
The Park of Roses: A Magnificent Rose Garden
There are already 25,000 hushes planted, which should be in fine bloom for the approaching dedication.
A section of the garden has been set aside for test plots of roses to be introduced. Here roses can be checked for color, form, fragrance, etc., and insecticides, fungicides, plant foods, methods of feeding, and mulching can be tested.
The book on rose varieties, “Modern Roses,” can be edited here with full information available at close range.
Nearby, on the park’s recreation grounds, is a field house, which will accommodate the Society’s displays, shows, and lectures.
At one point in the garden, a lookout is to be erected to permit a full view of the entire area.
The garden design, set off admirably by a background of trees and shrubs and special red cedar posts, the many choice varieties of roses, and the vast number of bushes should win this international garden fame as a Mecca for rose lovers rivaling the best in Europe.
Facilities and Future Growth
The building which the American Rose Society will occupy is of modern architecture, and the building plan allows for future expansion. Currently, the facilities are streamlined to suit society’s immediate needs.
However, the general office and the offices for the staff are adequately spacious both for now and in future years, but the storage and mailing rooms will need to be enlarged as the Society grows. In 10 years, the organization has soared from 3.500 members to almost 15.000.
Twenty-five thousand is the immediate goal, but it is hoped that in the future – within the lifetime of those responsible for this rapid ten-year rise—the organization will reach the 100.000 mark.
Rapid Growth and Impacts
It’s interesting to note that part of the rapid growth of the American Rose Society stems from the impetus World War I’s Victory Gardens gave to all horticulture. All single-flower societies have been gaining in membership, with the A.R.S. in the lead.
Garden hobbyists are learning to make their voices heard in the nation only as they increase their numbers and strengthen their organizations in tempo with the billion-dollar business that gardening now is.
Society Services and Activities
Society services include an annual survey of the newest and best varieties listed in pamphlet form and called “Buyers’ Guide.” a “Guide for Beginners” pamphlet, the “American Rose Annual,” and the monthly “American Rose Magazine.”
The magazine carries articles written by amateurs and professional rose growers, as well as features on allied subjects, and includes news of rose activities both here and abroad.
The Society also maintains an extensive lending library containing the finest old and new books on roses.
National Meetings and Awards
Two national meetings are held a year, each lasting several days and including garden visits and rose shows. In these gardens and shows, practically all currently planted old and new varieties may be found.
A recent innovation in the meeting program is a Judging School for rose judges, for this phase of the Society’s activities is quite a complicated procedure. The American Rose Society awards trophies and certificates to the best varieties in previously established classes at its shows.
These awards are determined by the Committee on Prizes and Awards, including the Nicholson Bowl, the M. S. Hershey Bowl, the Rosedale Bowl, and the Horace J. McFarland Trophy, while Gold. Local societies award silver and Bronze Certificates.
All these awards serve to stimulate competition and recognize deserving gardeners.
With garden therapy now being emphasized and encouraged generally by the medical profession, it’s well to note that the American Rose Society is also serving a useful function in that connection.
As always, it is doing its share of spreading the gospel of outdoor beauty in the home and community grounds, providing gardening information, and promoting gardener friendships.
The Junior Rose Gardening Program
The most recent new project is the Junior Rose Gardening program conducted by a committee. At a recent A.R.S. convention, the Junior Gardeners staged a program demonstration of their activities and achievements.
In my opinion, junior gardening everywhere deserves special attention from adults, for our country’s junior gardeners may gley lop-notch horticultural material – amateur, professional, scientific, and commercial.
Management and Board of Directors
While a professional staff conducts the daily affairs of the American Rose Society, the course of the various departments of program, activity, publications, membership, finance, and policies – everything that has to do with the management and development of the A.R.S. is charted and supervised by a Board of Directors.
The directors are selected from and elected by the membership and so come from all parts of the United States and all walks of economic and social life – in short, from the ranks of the country’s amateur rose growers.
Preserving the Society’s Spirit
The regional phase of the organization is being stressed and strengthened for many sound reasons. Not the least among them is the firm resolution of the Board to hold on to the intimate, friendly, personal touch which now permeates meetings.
Despite the increase from 3,500 to 15,000 members, not one whit of the “family” relationship has been disturbed. When the clan gathers, it is still one large, happy rose family.
For the preservation of this spirit, which might well have been lessened if not destroyed, much credit is due to Dr. Ray C. Allen.
For 10 years, Dr. Allen served as Executive Secretary of the Society, and it was under his professional guidance the Board of Directors so ably conducted its affairs while the Society grew by leaps and hounds.
Dr. Allen resigned from his post last April, and his former assistant. James P. Gurney has succeeded him. To Jim Gurney falls a lot of carrying on the high standards set. We are confident the work will be well done.
Honoring the Society’s History
Now that we’ve examined the immediate past and the present and scanned the future, we would be remiss if we did not look back to the history of the American Rose Society. Its founders were leaders from all fields of horticulture.
One of the most famous was the late Dr. J. Horace McFarland. who established the Breeze Hill Gardens beside his home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
His great photograph library embraces all types of plant material. but his first love – and the flower that made him a celebrity – was the rose.
Dr. McFarland traveled all over America carrying the message of the rose to people and influenced them to grow roses for their enjoyment and establish community rose gardens for their towns and cities and roadside plantings for rural areas.
Robert Pyle
Another early leader was the late Robert Pyle. A member of the commercial group, he was yet one of the most ardent advocates and devotees of amateur groups. Mr. Pyle was one of the first presidents of the A.R.S. and served as secretary for a long time.
His interest in roses extended far beyond the commercial, and it must be said that many men and women in the nursery and allied businesses are interested in the welfare of amateur groups, which is to their everlasting credit.
American Rose Society in Breeze Hill
During the years that the American Rose Society “lived” in Harrisburg, Breeze Hill was always open to members and friends wishing to see tested and established varieties. And only a short distance from Harrisburg, the Hershey Gardens in Hershey, Pennsylvania, served as display gardens.
Despite the move to Columbus, the beauty and charm of these two gardens will continue to lure Society members, and other rose loves.
Future Challenges and Opportunities
The American Rose Society has progressed far beyond the greatest hopes of its founders. Each chapter of its history has recorded excellent use of inherited and contemporary opportunities.
Our challenge and obligation is to keep the faith—to expand—to go forward.
44659 by C. Eugene Pfister