THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410120068
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ROBERT STIFFLER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Gardener Johnnie Brown says it's all in the way he talks to the roses that accounts for the dazzling beauty of the 90-plus bushes that bloom in the front yard of Alice Miles' Bay Colony home in Virginia Beach.
Miles' roses are at their largest and most beautiful in October, and she gives all the credit to Brown, who has been tending her garden since 1957.
``It's a funny thing about a rose,'' Brown said. ``You have to talk to them. I come in the morning and say, `Good morning, ladies. You look mighty nice today, but you do need a shower.' Or maybe I'll say, `You look really nice this morning, ladies. Hold your heads up for you're going to get a bath this morning.' ''
When he leaves in the afternoon, Brown gives his roses a farewell greeting, saying, ``You ladies have a nice day today. I'll see you tomorrow.''
The 64-year-old Brown is a native of Bethel, N.C., and came to Virginia Beach in 1938 as a truck farmer on the Frank Whitehurst Farms.
In addition to sweet-talking the roses, he follows a tried-and-true rose-care regimen.
Brown plants Jackson and Perkins mail-order, bare-root roses. He advises: ``Dig a million-dollar hole to put in a 50-cent plant. It's the hole that counts.
``I put pine bark in the hole and work it up until I make a real soft soil. Their roots are mighty tender, and the soil needs to be nice and soft so it can receive the roots.''
Brown uses no fertilizer when planting, but starts fertilizing in March. He digs a curb around each rose and puts down a handful of 8-8-8 fertilizer. Then he waters enough to dissolve the fertilizer pellets and feed the roots.
He fertilizes established bushes twice a year, in April and May. Every January he prunes the plants and puts pine bark mulch over the entire bed.
Brown sprays every seven days with Orthene and Funginex, but, he adds, ``If I get a lot of rain, I use baking soda in the water. It sticks better to the leaves and helps keep them from getting a lot of blackspot.''
He uses an electric atomizer-type sprayer. ``You need to clean the sprayer often and hold the sprayer on each bush at least 30 seconds, making sure to get the undersides of the leaves coated real good,'' he says.
When it's time to do some deadheading, Brown tells his roses, ``We're going to do some surgery today or tomorrow.''
His recommendation for using roses in the house is to always cut them in bud form and put them in warm water to open up indoors.
Whether you believe in talking to your roses or not, it surely works for Johnnie Brown. He grows some of the most beautiful roses in Hampton Roads. MEMO: You can view hundreds of prize roses today from noon to 5 p.m. at the
Tidewater Rose Society's 49th annual rose show in the Norfolk Botanical
Garden auditorium. Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, rose authority from
England, will be there this afternoon to autograph her book, ``Rose
Gardens - Their History and Design.'' The show is free, but normal
admission to the garden applies ($2.50 for adults). ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
GARY C. KNAPP/Staff
``It's the hole that counts'' when planting roses, recommends
gardener Johnnie Brown.
by CNB