Learn About Vintage Roses Jan. 13

Gregg Lowery, curator for Friends of Vintage Roses, will be the speaker at the Jan. 13 meeting of the Windsor Garden Club. Lowery will speak about the organization and the 5,000 vintage rose specimens they are caring for, researching and cataloging in Sebastopol. Meeting begins with refreshments and social time at 6:30 p.m. at the Bluebird Center, 25 Bluebird Drive. (Corner of Bluebird and Old Redwood Highway, just west of the Windsor Palms shopping center) in Windsor. Speaker begins at 6:45 p.m.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Lowery and Phillip Robinson, with the assistance of others, developed a collection of more than 5,000 vintage roses on property in Sebastopol.

The roses came from gifts of plant material from then still-existent old gardens or small nurseries in the United States, from cuttings propagated from old plants discovered in California and other states at abandoned homesteads, old cemeteries and the like, and by purchasing and importing cultivars no longer available elsewhere from specialized nurseries abroad.

The Friends of Vintage Roses was formed to help maintain, study, care for and propagate the 5,412 named cultivars. The group holds rose sales, propagation and pruning workshops, and other events throughout the year. Come learn about vintage roses, the Sebastopol rose sanctuary and its varieties, and the Friends of Vintage Roses at our January 13 meeting. As always, it's free and open to the public.