Roses have been a great passion of mine for ten years now. I realize that is a relatively short time compared to the decades many of my dear friends have enjoyed the association. There were usually a few roses around as I grew up. My mother inherited the enjoyment of gardening from her mother and father. My grandmother and great-grandmother each had roses in their gardens in Birmingham, Alabama.

As I matured and began taking the initiative in bringing home new additions to the collection of plants, there were a few early roses. I brought home a MIRANDY and a LEMON SPICE to share space with a silvery pink hybrid tea my mom had rooted from her friend's garden. These plants thrived in spite of what I did, or more often, did not do for them.

Lavender roses took a prominent position in my interest in the early eighties. I was looking for a path to the illusive blue rose, and began collecting lavenders hoping that one would really appear blue, and I really like them. I had now idea that it was impossible using the natural abilities of the rose, but the hunt was fun.

In 1984, mom's health was very tenuous, and she expressed a desire for the climber her father had grown during her childhood. In the early 1920's, my grandfather had brought home a bouquet of the Van Fleet large flowered climber, SILVER MOON, from a friend's plant. My grandmother loved it. He rooted it and used it on a thirty foot long fence to hide his chickens and rabbits from the street at mom's childhood home during the Depression. The rose quickly devoured the fence and began arching over toward the sun, creating an arbor where mom and her two sisters played in its shade. After my grandfather was killed in 1935, my grandmother and her three small daughters took blooms of SILVERMOON to his grave every Fathers' Day.

The Los Angeles Times ran their New Roses for 1984 feature in the Home section, and I was mesmerized by the new variety INTRIGUE. The photos showed it to be the color of grape soda and the description stated its fragrance to be intense. I was hooked. The feature also listed Roses of Yesterday and Today as a source of old roses, so I called. I was assisted by a very gracious young lady who said they didn't sell what I wanted, but that Combined Rose List showed Greenmantle Nurseries in Garberville, California as the source. She steered me to Marissa Fishman and Greenmantle and gave me Bev Dobson's name and address. It was the beginning of a delightful passion and wonderful business relationships and friendships.

SILVER MOON came to engulf mom's house and was quickly surrounded by roses in every shade of purple. The gallicas CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU. and CHARLES DE MILLS were the first. REINE DES VIOLETTES soon followed as Graham Stuart Thomas said in his rose trilogy that it was absolutely the bluest of roses. So the beginning of my rose collection centered around old garden roses. I wanted the blue rose, and I wanted it badly. Looking back, I'm sure it was because it was not supposed to exist. As I had Mr. Thomas' fascinating books as well as Trevor Griffith's, My World of Old Roses, I quickly learned how many there were that sure seemed like ones I couldn't live without. There were so many unusual varieties of such incredible colors and types. The striped roses were fascinating and I knew I had to see them all. HONORINE DE BRABANT and CAMAIEUX were the original stripes in my early garden. Neither was happy. CAMAIEUX died on me and HONORINE DE BRABANT's blooms crisped in the heat so it went to live at a friend's house.I was living in Chatsworth, growing some of the roses on my patio. Mom found an article about the Homestead Acre in Chatsworth Park South and their open garden the first Sunday of every month. I drove over as it was only a few blocks from my townhouse. I met a neat couple, Candy and Dean Craig, who had resurrected the gardens surrounding the last remaining homestead house in the Valley, and were long-time Huntington Volunteers. They told me about how much they had learned and how much fun they had, and suggested I accompany them the next time they went. I had been a subscriber of the Heritage Rose Newsletter for a while, and they advertised the meeting of the local chapter at the Huntington. I went with Candy and Dean and joined, meeting many wonderful people and enjoying myself tremendously. Clair Martin was one of the interesting people there and he spoke of the Volunteers who met on Tuesday. I was very interested in learning all I could and I really wanted to volunteer, but my work schedule did not allow regular days off. Clair suggested I call him when I had a day off and would be able to come out. I wasn't too interested in dead-heading, but knew I had to learn to propagate. Clair took me under his wing and had his propagating volunteer teach me.

By this time, my hunger was voracious and I was devouring everything about roses I could get my hands on. Modern Roses was constant reading material and, combined with Bev Dobson's Combined Rose List, led to a world-wide search for all the lovelies I found listed. I had to see the ones officially described as gray, brown and green. Some were originally American, but no nurseries listed them in this country. I would simply have to import. England listed just about everything I was looking for, so I made application to the U.S.D.A. and anxiously sent my orders to Harkness, LeGrice and Gandy. My babies finally arrived and were potted up to spend their two years of quarantine. Each time one bloomed, I was thrilled. None were available for me to study anywhere I could find, and now they bloomed in my mom's yard.

About this time, my dad died and mom required quite a lot of attention. There was also the matter of her lawn. I have never been interested in mowing a lawn, but now it would be necessary. Selfishly, I made a deal with mom, and we agreed that I could do what I wished with the yard as long as I paid for it and maintained it. The lawn disappeared, and roses, scented geraniums, bulbs and perennials began to overtake the corner lot which had previously appeared as any other corner in the Valley. Someone was always stopping to look and smell the flowers. The unanimous opinion was that the new Southern California version of an English border was a vast improvement on what preceded it. This first garden produced my CARDINAL HUME seedling, PURPLE BUTTONS, which is available from Sequoia Nursery. I was in full swing playing in the mister at the Huntington, and running cuttings of everything I could get my hands on through it. I began corresponding with others who had a taste for the old and unusual and cutting exchanges followed quickly. Such incredible things were arriving and growing! I was writing to and meeting people whose names I had only heard before. Roses were blooming in my garden that I had only read of. It was exciting!

The garden and fun continued until Christmas of 1989 when necessary bypass surgery rendered mom a paraplegic and her house unusable. The house had to go and the garden had no home, so I was making arrangements to find new homes for the roses. To my great fortune, my sister and brother-in-law applied to the Homeowners Association of the planned community in which they own a home. They proposed that if the Association would like a rose garden utilizing a piece of unused, undeveloped land, and only costing them water, they had someone who would supply it. After much foot-dragging, permission was granted and the ordeal of moving three hundred fifty canned roses, mostly in ten gallon cans, began. I was blessed to have friends with the time, energy and desire, as well as a truck, who greatly assisted in its transfer, eleven miles away, from downtown Granada Hills to a canyon bottom in Newhall.

The site was uneven and covered in builder's rubble and gardeners' trash. A rented tractor and a weekend enabled me to transform the hillside into a useable location. Sharon VanEnoo organized a group of friends to come up and assist in the beginning of the planting. Bob Spangenberg, June Grose, Judy Miller, Jerri Owens, Larry Blumberg and Jennie Jewel and Sharon arrived on a Saturday morning, and we began putting the roses in the ground. The break was especially enjoyable as June brought a home-made chocolate-rum cake which we savored under the oak tree on the edge of the golf course. From the beginning, this has been a joint effort with a lovely, hard-working, treasured friend, Jerri Owens. Without her help and camaraderie, it surely wouldn't have the scope or range it does. It probably wouldn't even exist, as it is a large collection requiring much more time than one person could create.

I had become interested in older hybrid teas some time earlier. There was great interest in old garden roses and they certainly were in no danger of being lost. There are many old hybrid teas however that are genetically important and interesting as period pieces, that no one seemed to have any interest in. These were, and are, endangered. Many were originally included in the Pernetiana class: roses descended from Pernet's SOLEIL D'OR, the cross of R. Foetida and a hybrid tea. These are the source of the brilliant, flame colors and the fruity fragrances we enjoy in today's roses. I collected as many of them as I could obtain, intent on preserving them and generating as much interest in them as possible.

So, the collection in the canyon began with the transplanted three hundred and fifty bushes. Over the four years since its birth, it has grown to nearly two and a half times its original size. I have continued collecting and trading old, rare and unusual roses; searching out obscure sports and varieties; trading seedlings with other amateur hybridizers and creating new roses of my own. Several years ago, Ralph Moore taught me to bud roses and I have used this knowledge to reproduce many roses shared with me through cuttings and budwood, and to isolate sports of the roses in the collection. We have been honored by visits from Ralph Moore; John Walden, Assistant Research Director of the Jackson & Perkins Somis Research Facility; and Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix to photograph unusual roses for their The Quest For the Rose, BBC book and television projects.

As it exists today, it is a collection of roses and limited other plantings. There really isn't any formal design; varieties have been placed more by type and color and along genealogical lines rather than to complete a "garden" plan. The collection resides in this guard-gated, private planned community through the generosity of the Homeowners. In order to enhance the beauty of the community, more attention has been paid to its appearance from the top of the facing canyon wall and from other distances, rather than from close inspection. It contains all single hybrid teas I have been able to find; all "coffee roses" obtainable from Great Britain in 1985-1986 when I was able to import, and from this continent to the present; the majority of the best mauve roses for hot climates; many old and new historically and genetically important hybrid teas; unusual sports; all striped sports of hybrid teas and floribundas available in this country to date; many striped and unusually colored as well as genetically important roses bred by Ralph Moore, including many "breeders" he has so generously shared with us; selected old garden roses that appeal to Jerri and I; a limited selection of species, including the beautiful, yet seldom seen R. STELLATA MIRIFICA and R. MINUTIFOLIA; the three garden hybrids of R. Persica bred by Harkness and Cocker, and two bred by Mr. Moore; and many other old and new roses which appeal to us.

Newhall is located in the mid-desert, across the Santa Clarita Valley from Valencia and Magic Mountain, just north of the San Fernando Valley. The canyon where the collection is located can have an annual temperature variance of over one hundred degrees. Winter lows have dipped to fifteen degrees, while summer temperatures have soared to one hundred fifteen. The soil is virgin native adobe and alluvium, greatly amended with copious amounts of horse manure. This is our mulch of choice and we attempt to use as much as time and energies permit. The soil is highly mineralized, only needing the addition of organics to unlock its fertility. All irrigation is done by hand, and there has been very little spraying done during its life. The hillside is north-facing and contains no shade, save the lone oak tree located off its border on the private community golf course. There is abundant wild life complete with road runners which eat the snails; hawks; eagles; owls; the occasional gopher; ground squirrels; many quail; coyotes; evidence of a mountain lion; and hundreds of jack and cotton tail rabbits. The latter do a great deal of damage to the roses, and, unfortunately, attract gopher, king and rattle snakes. There is no electricity nor phone, but there is a hose bib and a chemical toilet for the community gardening staff. The roses basically fend for themselves, being fertilized once or twice a year, and watered once or twice a week as time permits. Disease is usually allowed to run its normal course as the weather often cooperates, turning hot and dry, putting an end to the symptoms. The wind is nearly ever-present and is, at times, quite strong.

As the collection is in a private community, it is usually only seen by the residents and the few guests who are invited. Being comfortably nestled in the bottom of the canyon, most of it is hidden from sight from the highway, and only if you know where and when to look, hence it is a bit of a secret. Standing in the middle of over twelve hundred roses under the clean, clear, nearly always blue sky, this truly a hidden sanctuary.