Utah Rose Society
The Utah Rose Society is the place to learn about all things related to the “Queen of Flowers.” Our members grow and care for over 1,500 roses in their personal gardens. We have the combined rose growing experience of over 100 years in our membership. “This is the place” to learn how to take care of your roses. We cover all topics on rose care from how to prune, fertilizing your roses, and how to take care of them in an environmentally responsible way. Roses aren’t hard to grow; you just need guidance, and we offer it in abundance! Eleven months a year we put out an informative newsletter that covers wide-ranging topics on roses, rose books, upcoming events, and other information valuable to you as you learn about roses and their care.
We also sponsor an annual rose show each June were you can see the most beautiful roses of all types, colors, and fragrances. Never exhibited before? We help you with hands-on classes on arrangements, rose grooming, and more. We are a fun and welcoming bunch of people who have been smitten by the history, beauty, and lore surrounding our national flower. We are affiliated with the American Rose Society and thus have available resources that a national perspective provides.
We meet at the Sugar House Garden Center on the third Thursday of each month except January. We have an annual Christmas dinner in December and periodic pot luck suppers. During the summer months we meet in various members’ gardens to share food, fun and fellowship. We hope to see you at one of our meetings!
For more information see our website.
Rose-Growing Resources
Here are some sites with useful information on growing roses:How to protect your roses in the winter
How to grow roses from cuttings
Note: Many garden books stress the need for roses to have a full day of sun. In cloudy, rainy climates like Seattle, that advice is good, but here in Utah, with our strong, high-altitude desert sun, roses do quite well with half a day of sun. In fact, the east side of a house is one of the best places to grow them, as long as it gets good morning sunlight. Many garden books also recommend adding lime to the soil, to increase its pH. This is not generally a good idea in Utah, as most of our soils are alkaline and have a pH that is too high already. Some of our heavy clay soils are also naturally high in phosphorus and potassium, so you may not need any fertilizer at all, other than compost to improve the soil health and structure. A soil test, available at your county agricultural extension office, can be very informative. Regarding winter protection, most roses usually survive the winter pretty well along the Wasatch Front without any special protective measures, but if you live in a higher, colder mountain valley, you should follow the advice in the link above, or else plant cold-hardy varieties.