ALWAYS IN BLOOM FLORIST

Seen at the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas. There are many old, interesting buildings to see there.

The History of The Antique Rose Emporium

by G. Michael Shoup, owner of The Antique Rose Emporium

The beauty and hardiness of a rose called 'Mermaid' first got me hooked on antique roses in the late seventies, and my fascination with and unbounded appreciation for them has been growing ever since. I didn't start out as a rose lover. To my thinking, roses were just one bush with a thousand different flowers. Master's degree in horticulture in hand, I started in the nursery business in 1976 as a grower of woody ornamentals for the landscape industry and retail centers here in central Texas. But I soon lost interest in the overused and, for this area, "exotic" plants I was working with (ligustrum, pittosporum, etc.) and began to look for plants native to Texas that might fill the same niche.

On our forays to hunt native plants, my staff (which numbered two at the time) and I also started finding everblooming roses surviving without any apparent care in rather desolate surroundings. This was an enigma to me, for I had never thought of roses as something that could endure the notorious extremes of the Texas climate without a gardener's care.

'Mermaid' opened my eyes. In 1982, while taking an unaccustomerd route back to the nursery after a delivery, one of my co-workers chanced upon a huge rose covering a chain-link fence. He made an unauthorized "rustle," brought back flowers and cuttings, and urged me to go see it. It was surviving, indeed, performing spectacularly, in a completely neglected setting, and my first thought was that there must be a landscape niche for such a specimen. A rosarian identified it for me, but I could not find 'Mermaid' anywhere in commerce. Soon, it and the other survivors we stumbled across over the next couple of years became the foundation of the Antique Rose Emporium.

It wasn't until 1984 that we discovered that an organized group of the Rose Rustlers existed in this part of Texas. Joining the rustlers opened up a whole world of new varieties. We went out on rustles, swapped "found" roses and talked alot about what would and would not grow. I began to think of old roses in terms of classes and to expand our collection by seeking out more varieties in the classes I knew offered proven survivors.

At the nursery we gave our finds household names like "Old Gay Hill China" (for the town where we found it) or "Highway 290 Pink Buttons" (found on Highway 290 outside of Houston) to help us remember where we found them. We got help from other rosarians, botanical gardens and literature inour struggle to identify the found roses. Many of them had once been in commerce, in some cases as many as 150 years ago, but only a few still were. As our collection grew, we created a catalog to publicize these great roses that survive in Texas and provide an alternative to ordinary nursery shrubs. Those were our initial criteria: survival and usefulness. Then we realized that old roses are far more wonderful than that. They have delightful fragrance, are resistant to pests and disease and exhibit a splendid diversity of form. Yes, and they flower, too. These roses fit to a T the niche I had originally had in mind for Texas native plants.

Public response to our offerings was growing so fast that it was decided to create a display garden to show off our collection in its best light and to try to get visitors hooked on the virtures of old roses. We started the display garden in 1985 with a cottage garden and a small formal planting. The garden has grown considerably. We've combined Texas native plants with roses much as a pioneer gardener might have done here in the 1850s (but on a much larger scale.)

Our goal has been to give credibility to these plants, and we find ourselves part of a recent upsurge of interest in antique roses. We know from personal experience and from letters and comments of many repeat customers that there is no way one can begin to appreciate the versatility of these roses until after a few seasons of working with them. Nothing we say here will substitute for the benefits of hands-on experience. But we hope to answer enough questions and generate enough enthusiasm to launch you into the world of old roses with confidence. Be aware, however, that these are captivating plants, and once taken with them you're never likely to be the same.

Happy Rose Growing!

Seen at the Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas.

The History of The Antique Rose Emporium

by G. Michael Shoup, owner of The Antique Rose Emporium

The beauty and hardiness of a rose called 'Mermaid' first got me hooked on antique roses in the late seventies, and my fascination with and unbounded appreciation for them has been growing ever since. I didn't start out as a rose lover. To my thinking, roses were just one bush with a thousand different flowers. Master's degree in horticulture in hand, I started in the nursery business in 1976 as a grower of woody ornamentals for the landscape industry and retail centers here in central Texas. But I soon lost interest in the overused and, for this area, "exotic" plants I was working with (ligustrum, pittosporum, etc.) and began to look for plants native to Texas that might fill the same niche.

On our forays to hunt native plants, my staff (which numbered two at the time) and I also started finding everblooming roses surviving without any apparent care in rather desolate surroundings. This was an enigma to me, for I had never thought of roses as something that could endure the notorious extremes of the Texas climate without a gardener's care.

'Mermaid' opened my eyes. In 1982, while taking an unaccustomerd route back to the nursery after a delivery, one of my co-workers chanced upon a huge rose covering a chain-link fence. He made an unauthorized "rustle," brought back flowers and cuttings, and urged me to go see it. It was surviving, indeed, performing spectacularly, in a completely neglected setting, and my first thought was that there must be a landscape niche for such a specimen. A rosarian identified it for me, but I could not find 'Mermaid' anywhere in commerce. Soon, it and the other survivors we stumbled across over the next couple of years became the foundation of the Antique Rose Emporium.

It wasn't until 1984 that we discovered that an organized group of the Rose Rustlers existed in this part of Texas. Joining the rustlers opened up a whole world of new varieties. We went out on rustles, swapped "found" roses and talked alot about what would and would not grow. I began to think of old roses in terms of classes and to expand our collection by seeking out more varieties in the classes I knew offered proven survivors.

At the nursery we gave our finds household names like "Old Gay Hill China" (for the town where we found it) or "Highway 290 Pink Buttons" (found on Highway 290 outside of Houston) to help us remember where we found them. We got help from other rosarians, botanical gardens and literature inour struggle to identify the found roses. Many of them had once been in commerce, in some cases as many as 150 years ago, but only a few still were. As our collection grew, we created a catalog to publicize these great roses that survive in Texas and provide an alternative to ordinary nursery shrubs. Those were our initial criteria: survival and usefulness. Then we realized that old roses are far more wonderful than that. They have delightful fragrance, are resistant to pests and disease and exhibit a splendid diversity of form. Yes, and they flower, too. These roses fit to a T the niche I had originally had in mind for Texas native plants.

Public response to our offerings was growing so fast that it was decided to create a display garden to show off our collection in its best light and to try to get visitors hooked on the virtures of old roses. We started the display garden in 1985 with a cottage garden and a small formal planting. The garden has grown considerably. We've combined Texas native plants with roses much as a pioneer gardener might have done here in the 1850s (but on a much larger scale.)

Our goal has been to give credibility to these plants, and we find ourselves part of a recent upsurge of interest in antique roses. We know from personal experience and from letters and comments of many repeat customers that there is no way one can begin to appreciate the versatility of these roses until after a few seasons of working with them. Nothing we say here will substitute for the benefits of hands-on experience. But we hope to answer enough questions and generate enough enthusiasm to launch you into the world of old roses with confidence. Be aware, however, that these are captivating plants, and once taken with them you're never likely to be the same.

Happy Rose Growing!