THE TENNESSEE ROSEBUD - Tennessee Rose Society

Page 6 TENNESSEE ROSEBUD
Our Visit to The University of Tennessee Test Gardens
By Dr. Joseph Spruiell, ARS Master Rosarian and Horticulture Judge, Spruiell@comcast.net
On Saturday, June 5, 2010, several members of the Tennessee Rose Society took a day off from tending
their own roses to see what the University of Tennessee has been doing with roses. Mark Windham, Distinguished
Professor in the Ag school, agreed to serve as a tour guide to show us what is being done with respect
to rose culture at UT. Everyone met on the UT Knoxville Ag campus. It was a gorgeous day and our
first stop was at the Beall Family Rose Garden. This garden was a real treat; it was spectacular. It includes a
wide range of rose classes and varieties and was well kept. Professor Windham explained that the Beall
family has provided an endowment that supports stipends for graduate assistants who do much of the care
for the garden. He also indicated that unlike the test gardens we were going to visit later, the Beall Family
Garden is sprayed and given other care similar to what we might give our own gardens. If you haven’t visited
this garden yet, you need to make a point to do so in the fall. This is a public garden worth the effort to
visit.
Next we got into our automobiles and drove to the Cumberland State Park near Crossville, TN, where we
had lunch at the State Park Restaurant. The restaurant is renowned for its all-you-can-eat buffet which features
seafood, pork, chicken, hot vegetables, full salad bar, and homemade desserts. All of the food was excellent,
but my favorite was the banana pudding dessert. I had to go back for seconds and thirds. All in all,
this was another great part of the day as everyone seemed to enjoy the food and the conversations around
the lunch tables.
After “pigging out” at the Cumberland State Park Restaurant we followed Professor Windham to the University
of Tennessee Plateau Research and Education Center where the no-spray test gardens are located.
This is one of the locations where some great research on identifying roses resistant to blackspot and cercospora
leaf spot is being done by the UT team of James Mynes, Mark Windham, Alan Windham, Cecil
Pounders and James Spiers. The other locations are in Jackson, TN, and Poplarville, MS. The test garden
has 192 different cultivars under investigation at present. Four specimens of each variety are tested; so 768
plants are under investigation at present. New varieties to be tested from J&P, Weeks, Star, and Europe
were added this spring.
The main reason for existence of the garden is to find roses that will survive harsh conditions, including
lack of spraying. It was a little disturbing, at first, to see many roses that were suffering from blackspot and
cercospora leaf spot. But here and there we saw roses that seemed to be resistant, while experiencing the
same conditions as those infected with fungus. This showed us that we could grow roses today that require
little to no spraying, provided we choose the varieties wisely. And it is my firm belief that these roses need
to be used more frequently in our gardens. Of course, ‘Knock Out’ was one of the roses that showed good
resistance, as did several other cultivars in the shrub category. This gave us hope that someday roses in
other classes might be developed that can withstand harsh conditions without spraying. If this garden helps
to lead to that result, then it is job well done. However, most of us rosarians will likely continue to spray
until no-spray hybrid teas and floribundas become common.
For more information on the UT program on no-spray roses for the southeastern United States go to http://
soilplantandpest.utk.edu/pdffiles/gardensolutions/nosprayroses_2008.pdf
DISCLAIMER
The Tennessee Rose Society makes no warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. The opinions
expressed are those of the authors.