Kern’s Love Affair With Roses
Kern’s Love Affair With Roses
Kern’s Love Affair With Roses
No doubt writer Gertrude Stein had never been to Wasco when she penned perhaps her most famous of quotes: “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” Otherwise, she would have noted that not all roses are created equal.
The iconic flower, especially revered in coming weeks as a symbol of love, friendship and just about anything else, will still be beaten around the bush by the annual misconception that all floral roads lead back to Wasco.
They do and they don’t.
North Kern’s fields of bare-root rose plants have earned the distinction of everything from America’s “Rose Country” to its self-proclamation of “Rose Capital,” which it shares with other rose meccas like Portland, Ore. And Tyler, Texas. And rightly so. The cash value of one of the county’s larger crops tops an estimated $38 million annually.
Yet, to the surprise of many, the thornless long stems wrapped in cellophane and in vases inside floral cases waiting to play cupid do not trace their roots to Wasco’s fertile fields, but rather faraway lands like Ecuador and New Zealand. “Every February we get a lot of calls from people about purchasing roses,” said Vickie Hight of Wasco’s Chamber of Commerce. “Of course we tell them they can Purchase the bare-root plant at nurseries which will bloom all year.” Beautiful as the petals of the Hybrid Teas, Floribundas and tree roses are, their importance is secondary to the century-old local bare-root rose industry whose profit comes not from the stems, but from the thorny plants. “Our industry differs from the cut flowers because we are producing the flower for the bush itself,” according to Steve Rubio of Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower. “We’re interested in the plant itself.” Roses have a long and colorful history, extending back 40 million years as fossil wild roses have been found in rock formations in Colorado and Oregon. Garden cultivation of the plant began some 5,000 years ago, likely in China. During the Roman period, roses were grown extensively in the Middle East and were used as confetti at celebrations, for medicinal purposes and as a source of perfume. Roses were in such high demand during the 17th century that royalty considered them legal currency. In 1986, Congress passed a joint resolution naming the rose as the “national fl oral emblem.” President Reagan signed it into law a year later in the White House Rose Garden.
The land that was once barren desert around the North Kern cities of Wasco, Shafter and McFarland is now regarded as the birthplace of the bare-root rose industry in the United States. Perkins Rose Farms was the first company to root itself to the region when it came to McFarland in 1908. Idyllic climate, soil and growing season coupled with available water and labor were ingredients for a sweet success that has endured for a century.
The Wasco area, considered to be the best growing area for roses anywhere in the country, contains soil that is a light sandy loam that drains well, critical to the nurseries during harvest. Since roses cannot tolerate high levels of salt in the water, the area’s high quality water from nearby wells and canals is ideal. So too is the climate – as many as 325 frost-free days a year – as well as the Tule fog which helps keep the newly planted cuttings from drying up and keeps the roots of newly harvested plantings damp.
Every winter, as with the just-completed harvest, the two-year-old plants are dug up, packaged and shipped around the world. If you receive or purchase a bare-root plant in the coming months, chances are it came from the fields of North Kern.
A rose variety budded to a rootstock now will be ready for sale in two years.
In the past, Wasco has been responsible for the majority of the bare-root roses produced and sold in the United States. Today there are eight major commercial rose-growing nurseries in the Wasco, Shafter and McFarland areas, producing 15 million rose plants annually. Chief among them is Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower, which began farming here in 1938. More than four million of their bare-root All-American selections, Hybrid teas, Grandifloras and miniature plants, container plants, dormant plantable pots and liners are sold to nurseries, garden centers and select Mail order outlets nationwide.
Several years ago, Oprah Winfrey commissioned Weeks to create the Legends Hybrid Tea rose that recently became available commercially and has become one of Weeks’ most popular. The Legends rose boasts monstrous, many-petalled ruffled blooms of rich ruby red.
Close to three dozen of the specialty rose are planted in Winfrey’s Montecito, Calif. Garden.
Each May, the area’s rose fields, more than 1,200 acres in production, are ablaze in a Technicolor explosion of hues. Although Mother’s Day eclipses Valentine’s Day in terms of bare root sales, the National Gardening Association believes the plant deserves a coveted spot alongside the long stems and is a better expression of love. “With the bare root you have an opportunity for people to have the plant bloom year after year,” said Association president Mike Metallo, who intends to give his wife a bare-root rose plant this Valentine’s Day rather than the traditional bouquet of roses. “Why spend a lot of money on rose stems when you can give the gift of bare-root roses which can be grown in virtually any environment?” For much less, Metallo said, the gift of a bare-root plant is a gift that keeps on giving. He recommends the plant be purchased from a reputable supplier, ensuring its care from packaging and delivery.
Metallo also cautions gardeners to pay attention to where the plant will eventually live. “Make sure you get a bare root variety that is designed for the specific temperature zones where it will be planted.” While Stein’s initial rose reference was to a person, her prose unknowingly served as a timeless reminder of the beloved flower that has never gone out of style, especially in Kern County
Copyright 2011 The Bakersfield Californian