Gardening
Plant Roses in Honor of National Rose Month
The Carefree series of shrub roses, like this Carefree Spirit rose, are repeat bloomers, hardy, and disease resistant.
Photo credit: photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
Celebrate National Rose Month (June) by adding a rose or two to your garden or containers this month. Now it is easier than ever to enjoy their beauty and fragrance thanks to lower maintenance and disease resistant varieties.
Many gardeners have switched to hardier, more pest resistant shrub roses for just this reason. The Earth-Kind roses are among the easiest and most environmentally friendly roses for all to grow.
The goal of the Earth-Kind program was to help gardeners enjoy roses while limiting the use of fertilizers, pesticides and water. The Texas Agrilife Extension Service started the program by conducting field trials of 100 rose cultivars for at least four years. They evaluated the roses for outstanding performance, superior pest resistance and tolerance of a wide variety of soils from acid to alkaline and sand to clay. To earn the Earth-Kind designation, roses also needed heat and drought tolerance once established.
The effort has expanded and now the National Earth-Kind research study includes test sites throughout the United States and several countries.
A few popular roses you may recognize carry this designation. The Fairy is a dwarf polyantha shrub rose covered with bouquets of small pink roses throughout the summer and is hardy in zones 4 to 9. Carefree Beauty, hardy in zones 4 to 9, has fragrant double pink roses all season long on 5 feet tall and wide plants. It's no surprise the popular Knock OutTM rose with its raspberry red flowers and glossy green leaves, hardy in zones 5 to 9, received the Earth-Kind designation in 2004.
Evaluations continue and the list of Earth-Kind roses grows. You are sure to find one suitable to your garden design and growing conditions.
Repeat blooming, hardy and disease resistant shrub roses are another group to consider. This group of species, hybrids and varieties tend to be hardier, tolerant of a wider range of soil conditions with greater disease resistance. Bonica and the Carefree series are two that have been gracing gardens for years. Newer introductions are continually being introduced, expanding your planting options.
Once planted, enjoy your roses outdoors in the garden and indoors in a vase. Proper harvesting and deadheading will keep your repeat blooming roses beautiful throughout the season.
Cut roses for arrangements in the morning just as the top of the bud is starting to open. Make the cut above an outward facing, five-leaflet leaf. Cut flowers back to a three-leaflet leaf on young plants that may not tolerate or be large enough for more severe pruning. Remove the lower leaves, recut the stem on an angle and place it in a vase of fresh water.
Keep your plants looking their best and encourage new blossoms by removing faded flowers. Deadhead single-flower roses back to the first five-leaflet leaf to encourage stouter and stronger stems. Remove only individual flowers as they fade from roses that bloom in a cluster. Once all the flowers in the cluster are done blooming you can remove the flower stem back to the first five-leaflet leaf. Always leave at least two, five-leaflet leaves attached to the plant.
Start looking for a few sunny spots in your landscape to fill with easy care roses. They are sure to boost your landscape's beauty and your enjoyment for years to come.
Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio segments. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Which Antiques and Collectibles Are Hot Now?
It's been over five years since I shared my top-10 list of hot selling antiques and collectibles. Many of the items from that column are still doing well over five years later. Some have even gained in value while others have dropped. There are also many other items that have become valuable in the years since.
Here's my list from 2015:
1. 1960's and earlier toys, comic books and other collectibles
2. Early Chinese and other Asian antiques
3. Mid-20th century Scandinavian and other modern design art and furnishings
4. Arts and crafts and art deco design furnishings
5. 1960's and earlier baseball and other sports memorabilia
6. Advertising signs, posters, and displays
7. Gold coins and jewelry – silver coins, flatware, and hollow ware
8. Important historical memorabilia
9. Antique and classic automobiles and motorcycles
10. Paintings by listed artists
In recent columns, I've shared how hot baseball and other sports cards currently are. They would certainly move up from the No. 5 spot if I wrote the list today. Gold coins and jewelry would also move up the list. Gold prices averaged $1,158.86 per ounce in 2015. Gold is close to $1,800 per ounce as I write this column. Silver also took a big jump from when it averaged $15.66 in 2015. It's at $26.10 as I write.
1950s classic cars are items that have dipped in value since my original top-10 list. Hagerty.com's index of collectible American cars of the 1950s shows that classic 1950s cars were averaging around $105,000 in 2015. The average is now well under $100,000. This isn't a huge drop in price but is noteworthy.
A search of recent online auction results shows items selling for huge sums that I never could have imagined would be so popular when I wrote my list back in 2015. For example, a box of O-Pee-Chee Canadian Star Wars bubble gum cards with 36 wax packs recently sold for over $8,400. A Super Mario 64 factory sealed 1996 first print Red Label video game went for $16,000 in May. That same month, a 1985 pair of Air Jordan 1 size 13 sneakers in used condition sold for $24,000. In April, a 1985 Topps Garbage Pail Kids First Series # 1a Nasty Nick graded PSA # 9 brought $50,000. A Magic the Gathering Beckett graded and authenticated 8.5+ grade Alpha Mox Ruby card went for nearly $100,000. In a March online auction, a sealed Fossil 1st edition mint English Pokemon cards Wizards of the Coast booster box sold for $1.3 million. Looking back even further to when I started selling antiques over 30 years ago, I could have never imagined that I might see 18th century high boy chests selling for under $1,000 while a 20-year-old game card brought $100,000. I will be updating the top-10 list in a future column.
Our next online auction of model railroad trains, die-cast cars, and model kits will begin soon. We will be offering more 1950s sports cards in another online auction later this summer. Other events are also being planned. Visit our website for details on upcoming events: www.centralmassauctions.com.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique Auctions, Estate Sales and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111) info@centralmassauctions.com