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Give a new rose bush this Valentine's Day


Celestial Night is a new floribunda rose, intoduced by Weeks Roses.
(Photo: Courtesy Weeks Roses)
Local rose societies host annual auctions Feb. 7 and 14

This Valentine’s Day, why give your sweetheart one bouquet of roses when you can give her or him a whole bush?

Just in time for winter planting and Valentine’s Day gift giving, two local rose societies will host their annual rose auctions, featuring new and rare roses. It’s an opportunity to pick up the perfect gift for the rose lover in your life while also supporting these clubs.

Sierra Foothills Rose Society hosts its sale on Thursday, Feb. 7, at Maidu Community Center, 1550 Maidu Drive, Roseville. On Valentine’s Day itself, the Sacramento Rose Society holds its auction Feb. 14 at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento.

Both auctions start promptly at 7:30 p.m. with registration open at 7 p.m. The public is welcome; cash or checks only.

Highlighting the auctions will be new introductions from
Weeks Roses . That includes the intensely purple floribunda Celestial Night as well as two other distinctive floribundas: Easy to Please (a bluish pink) and Frida Kahlo (red with splashes of gold and white). Also new from Weeks are Take It Easy , a big, bold red grandiflora with a surprise (the underside of petals are light pink); and Easy on the Eyes , an unusual peachy-pink shrub rose with purple “eyes.”

Besides those new introductions, the auctions include dozens of hard-to-find roses donated by noted local growers Baldo Villegas and Duane and Melody Carlson. The selection varies at each auction.

Details: www.sactorose.org .

- Debbie Arrington


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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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