The year of the rose
Dick Balfour
'Brighten Britain with Roses' is the slogan of 'The Year of the Rose', which marks the centenary of the Royal National Rose Society and the theme is 'Plant them, give them, wear them'.
The National Rose Society was founded at a meeting in London on 7 December 1876, chaired by Canon Reynolds Hole, who became the' first President and, later becoming Dean Hole, remained President until his death in 1904; the Society's highest award, the Dean Hole Medal, is named after him. The Society soon became the leading authority on the rose and membership grew slowly at first and then steadily, reaching a peak of over 115,000 in 1967.. Since then the need to increase the minimum subscription from 10s. 6d. to 1 and later £1.75 and now £.3 has affected membership. The Society was granted the title 'Royal' in 1965, the year in which the Queen Mother became Patron.
Its offices and extensive gardens are at Bone Hill, Chiswell Green Lane, St Albans, where the best of the old and modern roses and the newest varieties, in the Society's three-year trials, can be seen by members free and by others at a charge of 35p—over 30,000 roses in 1,650 varieties. Members also receive the Rose Annual and other books and free tickets for the Society's (and other) shows, so membership is very good value and a subscription taken out now will last to the end of 1977: The idea of calling 1976 the Year of the Rose came to me after a Rose Dinner Dance in 1974, the second year of my Presidency of the RNRS, and gradually the interest of others was aroused. A committee was formed, a publicity officer appointed and with limited funds provided by the three sponsoring organisations, the RNRS, the Rose Trade and Horticultural Trades Associations and the support of others, the campaign was launched at a press reception in September 1975. It was never intended that it should' be a lavish campaign with heavy advertising; we hoped that we could achieve our aims with the support of the press. TV and radio and this is what has gradually been happening, thanks especially to the horticultural press and local radio. It has involved—for myself and others—a lot of .articles and letters, telephone calls and interviews for radio, but what better way of spending my retirement since last October from being Chief Accountant of the Bank of England than sitting in the garden typing about roses (with gardening breaks, of course)?
Our aims are to encourage all who love roses to plant more in their own gardens and in the gardens of homes for the elderly, the blind and the handicapped and to persuade their local authorities to set aside space for small gardens of roses and other scented flowers and foliage plants, where people could sit and relax in peace; to give rose bushes for such gardens and as presents to friends and for weddings, Christmas and anniversaries and to give them as cut flowers either from their own gardens or from a florist to friends and relations, the sick and the depressed—there is no better tonic than sweet-smelling roses—and to wear them whenever possible and especially on such days as St George's Day. This is a campaign in which all can play a part and at no great cost; and yet the pleasure they will give to others will be'great.
There have been many special events during the year and for many, especially the hundreds who came from as far away as the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, South Africa, as well as Israel and most countries in Europe, the highlight will probably have been the four-day International Rose Conference in Oxford. Our programme covered the rose in art and history, growing and showing, protection and photography, breeding and feeding and, perhaps more surprisingly, eating and drinking roses, for our rose recipe session dealt with cooking and making wine with roses. No doubt the glass of rose-petal wine at 9.15 a.m. added to the hilarity of the audience and prompted the quip from an Irish journalist, as Domini Gregory likened the effect of elderflower wine on ladies to that of oysters on men, 'systemic of course'.
For Mrs Rose Dixon of East Molesey, a centenarian rosarian, the highlight must
surely have been being brought to the Centenary Summer Show on 2 July and meeting the Queen Mother, a few days after her hundredth birthday; her father had ; named her Rose to celebrate her birth at the time of the Rose Show in 1876 and he would have been proud to have seen her still in full bloom!
A few days earlier on 30 June, rosarian and other philatelists will long remember the set of four beautiful roses tamps, designed by Mrs Kristin Rosenberg and issued by the Post Office to mark the centenary. On that day thousands of people in or near Trafalgar Square, from many distant lands or as they walked to their office, people in shorts or saris, were given a rose buttonhole bY students from two agricultural colleges and girls from Agriculture House on behalf of the Year of the Rose-10,000 roses from the rose fields of Wisbech. Some were at first reluctant, expecting to have to pay. 'How nice to be given something free in these inflationary times!' and, from a policeman as he pinned on his rose, 'Makes a change from demonstrators' were two of the remarks we heard.
The Scouts presented roses to the Lord Mayor of London and the LadY Mayoress and others at St Paul's Cathedral as he planted the last rose tree in a new rose garden there, provided by the RNRS and the rose trade, on St George's Day. That day was also marked by gifts of roses for buttonholes to editors, newscasters, disc jockeys, Nationwide and Pebble Mill.
Lovers of floral art have had manY occasions to enjoy the international exhibits at the Summer Show, the outstanding arrangements at the Lakeland Show and the 'Roses in Art and History' exhibition at the conference, with portrayals of roses from the Volcanic Age through to the centenary and the Year of the Rose, including painting, music and poetry. Many new roses have been introduced this year with names commemorating people, places, products, etc—Ann Aberconway, City of Portsmouth, Goya and Glenfiddich, Lakeland and English Holiday, Norwich Union and Victoriana. Many of these and others have been planted at Springfields, Spalding, where the British Association of Rose Breeders have planted over 5,000 roses in a new garden opened bY Princess Alice in July. Anyone in that area should try to visit these gardens in the summer and see the bulbs there in the spring. . Success in the best Rose cities/towns and best Rose villages competition run speciallY this year in England, Scotland and Wales Will be commemorated with prizes of roses.
I shall remember all these events, but especially the many people I have met during the year, often just because I have been wearing a rose, a talisman to interesting conversations and a good way of enrolling new members of the RNRS, to which all rose-lovers should belong. I hope that many of those who read this will be encouraged, to play their part in 'Brightening Britain with Roses'.
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