Save the Ramblers

I am so excited to finally be able to share this news with all of you.

This past Friday, I attended the Save the Ramblers project kick-off at the American Rose Society Center in Shreveport, Louisiana and finally met, in person, the legendary Claude Graves. Claude is a relentless warrior for the conservation of Anne’s ramblers. He has put together a workable project and excellent team of partners which includes the Shreveport Master Gardeners to help in this endeavor.

Claude asked me to arrive a little early so he could take me on a tour of the nurseries. We jumped in the golf cart and he whisked me away. The grounds were beautiful. The roses were in full bloom and with it the fragrance swirled around us with every dance of the breeze. We went past the J. Horace McFarland Plaza; the Gardens in Time, stopping briefly to enjoy the garden circle with the older heritage roses that the Heritage Rose Society has developed; the Secret Garden, Claude’s “pride and joy” with nine different ramblers scrambling up and over a fence; and arrived at the first of two nurseries which house the offspring of Anne Belovich’s Rambler collection.

It was like seeing the offspring of old friends. The roses are in rows, a grid of 20 by 10 rows, in the first nursery and 12 by 10 in the second. Claude said he learned from experience to give room around each rose for proper and efficient maintenance. Because of the cost and work necessary to keep so many roses, every three years the larger roses will be rotated out and new cuttings will be started. These larger roses that are rotated out will go to public gardens who request them – for free! They will need to pay for postage and handling.

I really like this. So many public gardens that go in are a bit of a disappointment to the public because gardens are built for the future. It takes a while for things to fill in. Getting larger, more mature, 4 – 5 year plants can be cost prohibitive. Not in this case. This is just one of many points which highlight how much thought went into this project.

After dinner and during the presentation, Claude laid out the goals of this project.

First, is to re-educate the American pubic and gardener of the value of the ramblers. These are the original climbing roses that were in the great gardens of the world. They are once bloomers, but in the time of their bloom they produce more flowers – a much larger display – than the continual bloomers do during the entire year. The ramblers are very hardy roses if they are selected to match the area they will go to. Once they have developed strong roots, they need little water. Each has their own growth habit. Everyone has room for at least one rambler.

And, I would add, they each come with great stories.

Second, is to get the ramblers into public gardens as mentioned above.

Third, in order to get the roses in as many backyards as possible the ramblers have to be available for sale…be put back into commerce. There have been several discussions with rose nurseries. The roses must be grown from cuttings developing their own root. No seller will get the same rambler and for each rose sold, a $5.00 donation will go back to the Save the Ramblers project to fund the maintenance of all 320 -350 of Anne’s Ramblers in the nursery at the American Rose Center.

Last year, Heirloom Roses became the first seller to partner with the Save the Ramblers project. They will include three of Anne’s roses in their 2025 catalogue for the 2026 season. These are Casimir Moule, Gardenia, and Lady Banks. All of these are stunning roses. The roses aren’t blooming right now at Anne’s Gardens, but I was able to look through Anne’s slides and found the following pictures to share with you so you can see how magnificent these roses are.

Gardenia has a fragrance that is reminiscent of green apples, which surprised me the first time I bent over to smell it.

Dinner, the presentation, and the company were so delightful. I meant many new people and some who I have “known” for quite a while through Facebook. The evening ended with a very touching celebration of Anne’s 100th birth year, complete with cake.

Anne was born on October 5, 1924 and fully intended to celebrate her 100th birthday. Therefore, we are celebrating with her memory and the American Rose Society, the Save the Roses project, and the many people she touched who will join us to help us in Anne’s Gardens in Stanwood, WA and the public who will come visit when we open the garden this summer (dates and times to be announced soon).

The reason I was able to go to Shreveport to meet Claude and participate in the Save the Ramblers kick-off, is that the Indiana Envirothon State Competition took place on Wednesday. The Envirothon is near and dear to my heart as it is a natural resource learning competition for high school students. Taking care of our environment is a necessity and I find working with these young people gives me so much hope for our future. The students go through a regional competition where the winners from each go on to compete at the state level. State, territory, and country winners compete at the international NCF-Envirothon which will be held in New York this summer. Next year it will be in Alberta, Canada.

It is always good to be back home in Indiana. The wildflowers are amazing this year. Our blueberries are also in bloom and even though the wild multiflora roses are invasive here on the fringes of The Hoosier National Forest, they will burst into flowers giving the understory a spectacular lift. This species rose demonstrates the hardiness and climbing ability that multiflora spp. possess.

I’ll leave off today with pictures I took of the outer circle area at Anne’s Gardens before I left for the Midwest. The ramblers in this area are looking really good this year. No blooms yet. That won’t be until the middle of June at the earliest. The spinosissimas will be first.

Happy gardening!