Rose Society to hold clinics this month and in March

“It’s hard to top a rose,” said Carolyn Bolt, a master rosarian with the Charlotte Rose Society, describing the flower’s beauty.

The Charlotte Rose Society is a nonprofit organization formed in 1953 to provide education, information and assistance related to roses.

Its master and consulting rosarians are volunteers trained and tested on their knowledge of roses.

Bolt is helping organize the society’s free annual spring pruning demonstration and clinic at McGill Rose Garden near uptown Charlotte from 9 a.m.-noon Feb. 16.

Anyone interested in growing roses – the national flower of the U.S. – can attend, including novices. Participants will learn the best time for pruning and how far to prune.

“You don’t have to know one thing about roses,” Bolt said.

Participants should bring gardening gloves and pruning shears if they have them. The event will offer hands-on activities for those who want to try their hand at pruning.

For those who cannot come to the Feb. 16 demonstration and clinic, there will be another opportunity to learn to prune: 6:30 p.m. March 18 at Wedgewood Church, 4800 Wedgewood Drive in south Charlotte. Rosebushes will be for sale at the March meeting.

Bolt knows roses, having belonged to the society for about 23 years.

About 130 rosebushes, with names like “Leading Lady,” “Irresistible,” and “Whirlaway,” grow in the front yard of Bolt’s south Charlotte home, where she lives with her husband, Frank.

A sign painted with German words beckons visitors. In English, it reads: “Come into the garden – my roses are happy to greet you.”

Bolt says she first became interested in roses when she planted a rose garden for her mother in the Chicago area in the 1960s. Bolt enjoys cultivating roses but does not exhibit them.

Bolt, who was born in Iowa and grew up in Illinois, said she could not grow roses there of the same height and size possible here. “We can grow some beautiful roses in Charlotte,” she said.

Charlotte Rose Society has about 90 members and meets 6:30 p.m. the third Monday of the month at Wedgewood Church.

Jack Wright of Mooresville is Rose Society president and a master rosarian. He got started growing roses because he “just liked the looks of a rose,” he said by phone.

He said he didn’t know how to care for roses at first, which meant watching them deteriorate.

“I love roses, and I love to exhibit roses,” Wright, 73, said. Now he competes for national awards and has come to appreciate many kinds of roses.

It is a passion he shares with others through the society’s projects.

“We love to spread the joy of raising roses,” Wright said.