Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

International rose expert returns to Sacramento



Stephen Scanniello explains pruning techniques while entertaining rose fans at the Historic
City Cemetery in 2019. He'll be back in the area starting Thursday.
Scanniello leads two pruning workshops Saturday, presents preservation talk Thursday



He’s back! World-renowned rose expert Stephen Scanniello returns to Sacramento this week to inspire local rose lovers and share some of his vast knowledge.

On Saturday, Jan. 11, he’ll lead two pruning demonstrations at Sacramento’s Historic City Cemetery heritage rose garden. He’ll also make a free presentation about his preservation work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 9) to the Sacramento Rose Society at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park. On Friday, he plans to visit the Woodland Public Library’s rose garden.

President of the Heritage Rose Foundation, Scanniello is a leader in preservation efforts around the globe. Curator of the New York Botanical Garden’s Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, he also is in charge of the revival of Connecticut’s Elizabeth Park, the nation’s oldest public rose garden. He’s written several books as well as created scores of gardens for private clients.

The cemetery garden is what brings Scanniello west each winter.

“This is my fifth trip to prune at the cemetery,” he said by phone from his New Jersey home. “It’s a working weekend. I’m looking forward to it.”

Scanniello adores the cemetery rose garden, a living library of about 500 antique and old garden roses – many found nowhere else.

“I think it’s one of the most interesting rose gardens and collections of roses in the world,” he said. “There’s not anything like it on the East Coast. To me, it’s incredibly refreshing to see these roses growing in what appears to be a safe place.

“It’s an amazing collection, a real treasure,” he added. “Roses grow so perfectly in Sacramento. They don’t have the disease issues we have (on the East Coast). They don’t have to contend with winter weather like we do. … Letting roses grow to their full capacity is wonderful to see.”

No reservations are necessary to attend Thursday’s talk at Shepard Center; the public is invited to attend. The center is located at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento.

For Saturday’s pruning events at the cemetery, attendees should get tickets ($10 donation) in advance. At 9 a.m., Scanniello will show how to prune large climbers – including some of the cemetery’s giants. At 1 p.m., he’ll tackle shrub roses. The cemetery is located at 1000 Broadway, Sacramento.

Tickets and details:
www.cemeteryrose.org .



Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

Local News

Ad for California Local

Garden Checklist for week of Feb. 2

During this stormy week, let the rain soak in while making plans for all the things you’re going to plant soon:

* During rainy weather, turn off the sprinklers. After a good soaking from winter storms, lawns can go at least a week without sprinklers, according to irrigation experts. For an average California home, that week off from watering can save 800 gallons.

* February serves as a wake-up call to gardeners. This month, you can transplant or direct-seed several flowers, including snapdragon, candytuft, lilies, astilbe, larkspur, Shasta and painted daisies, stocks, bleeding heart and coral bells.

* In the vegetable garden, plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers, and strawberry and rhubarb roots.

* Transplant cabbage and its close cousins – broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts – as well as lettuce (both loose leaf and head).

* Indoors, start peppers, tomatoes and eggplant from seed.

* Plant artichokes, asparagus and horseradish from root divisions.

* Plant potatoes from tubers and onions from sets (small bulbs). The onions will sprout quickly and can be used as green onions in March.

* From seed, plant beets, chard, lettuce, mustard, peas, radishes and turnips.

* Annuals are showing up in nurseries, but wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting. Instead, set out flowering perennials such as columbine and delphinium.

* Plant summer-flowering bulbs including cannas, calla lilies and gladiolus.

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!