Flowers

Grow the rose, the queen of flowers, chemical-free

30.09.11

Call it mission possible. Roses, often dubbed as needy divas, can take center stage in a sustainable garden.

I learned how in a phone chat with Peter Kukielski , the visionary curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden in the New York Botanical Garden. Kukielski has become a horticultural celebrity by creating a showcase of healthy, flowering plants that aren't chemically dependent. Among them is a contingent of low-maintenance beauties with strong Texas connections.

"I'm trying to bring roses back to the American gardener," Kukielski says.

He joined the garden five years ago to oversee a $2.5 million renovation. But months into the project, New York City's ban on harmful chemical pesticides in public places forced a new game plan.

"I had inherited a rose garden that had been doused with weekly sprays for 20 years," he says.

Without the chemical cocktails, many of the roses could not perform and had to go. But that daunting challenge became a rewarding opportunity to reinvent a rose garden. Today, 98 percent of the original plants have been replaced with disease-resistant types that color the garden from spring into fall. Kukielski tells the story in (Newbury Books, $34.95), a book he co-edited with Pat Shanley and Gene Waering.

Source: Houston Chronicle