2014 Rose Introduction

Meet the New Roses!

I know you don't want to think about this, but the winter months are right around the corner.  Between the shorter days and the cold weather, it is hard not to long for the warmer days of spring.  Let Witherspoon help you get through these tough months!  Take time to curl up in your Snuggie with some hot apple cider and the Witherspoon 2014 Rose Catalog.  Now is the time to dream about your new rose garden and begin to make your plans for next year.

So grab that cider and sit with me for a while so I can introduce to you the new roses we are carrying this year.  We are excited to introduce six brand new varieties along with two varieties that have returned after a long absence!

Brand New for 2014

Happy Go Lucky
Hybrid Tea

The charming, old fashioned pure yellow blooms will brighten your day, and since it is such a prolific bloomer, your days will never be dull!!  To top it all off, this bush has great disease resistance and a moderately fruity fragrance.  (3'w, 3-5'h )

Good as Gold

Hybrid Tea

This rose is not for the faint of heart!  With daring golden orange blooms, long stems and a sweet citrus fragrance, Good as Gold is a bold addition to any garden.  (3'w, 3-6'h)

Jump for Joy

Floribunda

Luscious clusters of peachy-pink blooms will have you jumping for joy in your garden.  Not to mention, the mild apple fragrance and long lasting blooms that will certainly bring a smile to your face!  (3'w, 3-4'h)

Sweet Sunblaze

Miniature Rose

Sweeten up your life with this disease resistant mini! The flourishing double blooms are the clearest pink in the Sunblaze family, and with a slightly spicy fragrance, you will have a little sugar and spice which makes everything nice!  (18"w, 1-2'h)

Lady of Shallot
David Austin

Orange red buds open to reveal a stunning old fashioned chalice bloom with a salmon pink center and a golden reverse.  This hardy and disease resistant rose will also tantalize your sense of smell with the fragrance of warm tea and spiced apples!  (3.5'w, 4'h)



Munstead Wood
David Austin

Enjoy the mystery of this rose as light crimson buds gradually open to reveal a deep velvety crimson center!  This excellent repeater is disease resistant and has a strong fruity fragrance.  (2.5'w, 3'h)

Welcome Back!!

Melody Parfumee

Grandiflora

This grandiflora has clusters of deep plum colored buds that unfurl to reveal rich purple blooms which soften to lavender on this prolific bloomer.  These beautiful blooms paired with a strong old rose fragrance and disease resistant foliage will have you singing throughout your garden.  (4'w, 5'h)








Radiant Perfume
Hybrid Tea

If the deep golden yellow color of this roses doesn't draw you i for a closer look, the strong citrus fragrance most certainly will.  The long stems are great for cutting and the rich green foliage creates a perfect backdrop for the radiant blooms!
(3'w, 5-6'h)

To celebrate these new additions to the Witherspoon Rose Family, I am giving away a R.K. Witherspoon Rose!!

That's right...you heard me... a FREE ROSE!  I know you are wondering what you have to do to be entered into the drawing for this FREE ROSE.  It's easy... just follow our blog!  At the end of October I will enter the names of all our followers into a randomizer in order to pick a winner!  Isn't that easy?

UPDATE 10/16/2013

I have added a followers section to the top of the right sidebar so it should be easier to find where to follow the site!

The winner of the R.K. Witherspoon has been notified via email!  Congrats and we can't wait to hear from you!

Stay tuned for more giveaways!!  

This could be your rose!

If you are interested in learning more about our new roses, check out this video introducing our new catalog!

If you would like to receive a 2014 Catalog from Witherspoon

CLICK HERE

Summer Roses and Some are Roses

Summer Roses and Some are Roses

Roses in summer, such a glorious flowering occasion!  What other ornamental shrub can boast a bloom production like the rose?  There aren’t many, I can tell you.  Modern hybridized roses are such a delight in the rose garden, holding our attention and captivating us with its many attributes.  We enjoy the fragrances, we enjoy the colors, and we enjoy cutting them for a vase in the home. 

We know these modern roses as hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas, miniatures, climbers, and landscape or shrub roses.  The first hybrid tea rose was introduced in the late 1800s and was bred by crossing hybrid perpetual roses with tea roses.  These new roses shared the traits of both parents in ways that made them a popular new class of roses and therefore created the dawn of the 20^th century love affair with the hybrid tea rose. 

Popular names such as ‘Mister Lincoln’, ‘Peace’ and ‘Garden Party’ awaken memories of our grandmothers’ rose gardens from the 50s and 60s.  These types of roses were among the elite in the home garden and remain a standard in the floral industry today for their strong stems, tall buds and long lasting vase life.

Summer roses are fun to use in so many creative ways in the home.  In mixed bouquets with your favorite summer perennial and annual flowers, roses are a perfect foundation for your centerpiece.  And, your roses will probably outlast any of them in the vase, with few exceptions. 

The summer rose never tires of its efforts to continuously produce bud after bud.  They may be smaller, in some cases, due to heat and dry periods, but they press on nonetheless.  With a little help by way of fertilizer you can rely on their 30-35 day bloom cycle.

But not all roses are equal.  There are many other types of roses in the world that charm us in different ways.  Take for example the old garden roses, the roses that existed before the introduction of our modern day treasures.  Their ephemeral blooms captivate us in a different way, enchanting us for just a short period of time until they bloom again the following year.

You may have heard of some of these roses, no doubt.  They are known as Gallica, Damask, Noisette, Moss, and Bourbon roses, to name a few.  And to be fair not all will bloom only once per year; some indeed produce multiple flushes of flowers and quite vigorously to boot. 

To me these are the most romantic of all roses.  Some have strong, heady fragrances and the most enchanting blossom styles.  Styles which include the globular shapes of the Cabbage rose, or the cupped or quartered blooms of the Bourbon rose.   They are the roses of Monet and Renoir in all their romantic artistic beauty.  

Lovers of old roses have a different point of view about roses.   When the craze of perennial gardening hit in the 1990s home gardeners desired the English gardening style and often old roses were a part of that design likeness.  Innovators using old roses in English gardens, such as Graham Stuart Thomas, were among the most influential in English garden design.  Gardens had this overgrown exuberance full of lush foliage with a diverse plant palette.   There was a longing here in the US for a particular look and style that was fashionable making old roses still popular in modern times. 

Not only are these roses handsome and unique but they are also useful.  Rose hips in particular a source of vitamin C.  Syrups, oils, jams, perfumes and other products are produced from using the flowers and buds.  Check out this article on enjoying Roses in the Kitchen if you would like more information!  

While there are profound differences in the types of roses around the world, one thing remains constant: roses charm us in one way or another.  

Roses In the Kitchen: All About Edible Roses!

Roses in the Kitchen

 

Roses are wonderful flowers that are often enjoyed in vases on kitchen tables as a centerpiece, but they can also be used to create unique and beautiful dishes.  Roses have been enjoyed for centuries in many different cuisines and cultures.  Eastern countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey use roses as often as they do other herbs.  Asian countries such as Japan and China also use roses in their cooking.   In more recent years, roses have become increasingly more popular in upscale restaurants around the United States.  Using roses as an ingredient in your kitchen is an easy way to enjoy new flavors and dishes.

 

 

 

Roses have a sweet flavor with subtle undertones like fruit, mint, and spice.  Flavor profiles depend on the type of rose, its color, and the soil conditions in which they have been grown.  Flavors tend to be more pronounced in darker colored varieties.  Choose a rose that has a pleasant fragrance.  If the rose smells good, then it is more likely to taste good.  No fragrance, no flavor! 

 

 

 Sprinkle petals on desserts or salads to add vibrant color.  Use petals in ice cubes to dress up drinks.  Create syrups, jellies, perfumed butters, sweet spreads, rose honey, rice pudding, custards, baklava, tea cakes, scones, cookies, frosting, and ice cream.  Dried rose petals can be combined with other spices and added to herb blends (In 2012 the International Herb Association designated the rose the official herb of the year).  Rose petals can also be used to make rose water or to flavor alcoholic beverages such as rose flavored vodka. 

 

 

Follow these simple guidelines when choosing which roses you will be eating!

1)        Never use pesticides or other chemicals on any part of the plant that produces blossoms you can eat.

2)       Do not eat roses that you purchase from a florist, nursery, or garden center.

3)       Never harvest roses that are growing by the roadside.

4)       Identify the flower exactly and eat only edible flowers and edible parts of these flowers.

5)       Use roses sparingly in your recipes due to the digestive complications that can occur with a large consumption rate.

6)       Wash all roses thoroughly before you eat them.

7) Or purchase rose petals or hips from an organic herb supply store like Rose Mountain Herbs.

 Good choices for “kitchen” roses are old garden roses and Rugosas, these roses are hardy, disease resistant and do not require spraying with any chemicals.  They also have great fragrance and produce wonderful rose hips in the fall that are full of vitamin C and great to use in tea. 

 

 

 

 

The best time to harvest roses is mid-morning after the dew has dried, but before the heat of the day.  Petals will keep for up to a week if you store them in a refrigerator.  Be sure to remove the bitter white portion of the petal. 

Below are some delicious and easy recipes to try at home.  Enjoy your new adventure with edible roses!

Rose Petal Jam

 

1/2 pound pink or red edible rose petals
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 1/2 cups water
Juice of 2 freshly-squeezed lemons (approximately 1/2 cup)

Clip and discard bitter white bases from the rose petals; rinse petals thoroughly and drain.  Place rose petals in a bowl and sprinkle enough sugar to coat each petal. Let set overnight.  In a saucepan over low heat, place remaining sugar, water, and lemon juice; stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in rose petals and let simmer 20 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil; continue boiling for approximately 5 minutes until mixture thickens and the temperature on a candy thermometor reaches 221 degrees F. or until a spoonful dropped onto a cold plate jells and holds its shape. Remove from heat.  After boiling, transfer the jam into hot sterilized jars. Fill them to within 1/4-inch of the top. Wipe any spilled jam off the top, seat the lid, and tighten the ring around them. Cover, label, and store in a cool place.  Makes 1 pound of jam.

 

Rose Petal or Rose Hip Tea        

2 cups fresh fragrant rose petals (about 15 large roses) or ¼ cup of dried rose hips 

3 cups water
Honey or granulated sugar to taste

Clip and discard bitter white bases from the rose petals; rinse petals thoroughly and pat dry.  In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, place the prepared rose petals. Cover with water and bring just to a simmer; let simmer for approximately 5 minutes, or until the petals become discolored (darkened).  Remove from heat and strain the hot rose petal liquid into teacups. Add honey or sugar to taste.  Makes 4 servings. 

Instant Rose Honey

 Whip this up to put on muffins or serve with fresh buttermilk biscuits at breakfast. 

3 c. fresh rose petals
¾ c. honey

Put the rose petals in a food processor and pulse until well chopped. Empty into a dish, add the honey and mix well. Serve immediately. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to 5 days.

 

Rose Tea Sandwich

Cut prepared angel food cake into half-inch thick slices. Spread softened cream cheese on each slice of cake. Next, layer half the slices with lots of rose petals—mixing colors if you have them. Press the halves together to make sandwiches. Cut the sandwiches into smaller shapes and serve with rose tea.

Rose Salad Vinegar

Gather enough fragrant rose petals to fill a quart jar—pushing down a bit to fit plenty of petals in the jar. Completely fill the jar with white wine vinegar or Champagne vinegar—making sure all of the petals are covered. Cover the container with plastic wrap and set on the kitchen counter. Give the container a little shake or stir once each day for 4 days. On the 5th day, strain out the petals and discard them. To the liquid, add 1 level tablespoon of brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Store the vinegar in the refrigerator for up to a month. Use rose vinegar on any summer salad. It’s also good on grilled seafood.

 

Hosting a garden party?? 

Freeze some miniature roses in your ice cubes!

Three Cheers for Edible Roses!!