My great mother om my father's side was Rae Dering. One of her broithers was a dering, I believe Mike. He wasm one of the largest rose growers in the US and owned a house in Scapoose,Oregon that was grandiose and that I visited when I was very young. The company, Peterson and Rose sufered 3 freezes in a row, and Derings two sons ran the business in the ground, owning private airplanes in the early 1950's. The house in Scapoose---with it's own private duck blind---was purchased at the foreclosure sale by the owner of, then, the bank of Regon. All their patents, they were hybridizers, were also bought at the foreclosure sale. He died penniless in Arizona in the 60's, I believe. It may have been the 70's.

My father, Rae Dering's (then married to Keith C. Bishop) son, Kieth C. Bishop Jr.(1924-2004) worked for 'Uncle Mike' budding roses when he was a kid. After my father, The Keith C. Bishop Jr. mentioned above, returned from the second world war and then the Korean war, he was a salesman for Mike Dering, and was a 'jobber' driving around selling the Dering roses in California and other spots. When Mike went broke he moved his family to the Santa Clara Valley in California. My dad used to tell tales of how he sold the Dering roses to department stores and nurseries in California and, after Mike went broke, how he described how his two worthless kids wrecked the company.
In the bankruptcy of the Dering company another company that was dragged into the Dering Rose bankruptcy was a company owned by Mike Dering and Alonzo W. Dering, his brother, and they sold 'gates' to farmers throughout the northwest. Alonzo, "Dub" Dering, I knew well and he felt he was screwed because he had to pay 50k---a lot of money in the 1950's---as a part of the Dering bankruptcy.

My father always said that Mike Dering was a brilliant rose grower and hybridizer and that it was a shame all his rose patents were sold as a result of the bankruptcy. He said his Uncle Mike would often travel to Europe in the late 40's and early 1950's to Paris, etc., and was a real big shot in the rose business.

I remember him and his house in Scapoose that was really opulent for the time.

If anyone has any questions contact me, David Bishop, at xxxxxx@comcast.net.

I may have pictures, certainly I have pictures of my grandmother, Mike's and the oldest sister of the Dering brood, and 'Dub' Dering. I may have a picture of Mike in the mix.

I'd be interested to know anyone that knows anymore or who might be related to me!

David Bishop
Saratoga, California