GARDEN TOURS : Rose Grower Opens Vast Collection to the Public : Common hybrids will be uncommon as Sandy Gaal shows her ‘passion’ for old breeds, English, miniature and climbing varieties.
The most popular flowers in Western civilization, roses, will be at their Sunday-go-to-meeting best this weekend at Gaal’s Little Acre, which may be a little acre but is full of big roses, small roses, miniature roses and roses of every color imaginable. Sandy Gaal, the rose lady, will be leading tours Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Roses have been known as the “queen of flowers” since the poet Sappho put that jacket on them over 2,500 years ago. There are references to roses in Homer and Herodotus, but not just the Greeks were into roses. Specimens have been found in Egyptian tombs, and Confucius wrote about the roses in the Peking Imperial Gardens. The Romans are credited with popularizing roses throughout their empire, and rose growing became a lucrative industry.
In the Dark Ages and Middle Ages, while the population of Europe was busy dying from the plague, dying of starvation, dying of overwork or dying in a crusade, monasteries kept rose culture alive.
In the 13th Century, Englishmen died in the War of the Roses involving the House of York and the House of Lancaster, whose emblems were a white rose and a red rose, respectively.
Modern rose culture arose around 1800 and is commonly said to have begun with the Empress Josephine’s passion for roses. Her collection at the imperial chateau Malmaison began in 1804, while Napoleon was off fighting with everyone, and grew to include 250 different roses gathered from widely scattered geographical areas. A number of these species, a type of Old Garden Rose, are still grown today.
Hybrid tea roses are the ones most commonly sold at nurseries and supermarkets today, but at the Gaal spread, these easy-to-find varieties are mostly absent. To the untrained eye, a rose is a rose is a rose, but not to Gaal.
“There’s all kinds of roses here,” she said. “Old Garden Roses or OGRs, English Roses or David Austin Roses, miniature roses and climbing roses. OGRs are older breeds of roses that have been around for hundreds of years, while English Roses have only been around since the 1980s, so they’re two totally different classifications.
“English Roses have the charm and fragrance of OGRs but also the repeating qualities. Each plant is unique and has its own personality. But to me, OGRs are more charming, the flowers have more petals--they just have more character.”
In addition to the roses and organically grown vegetables, herbs and fruits, the Gaal homestead is fairly ablaze with color as lobelia, penstemon, nicotiana, hollyhock, alstroemeria and many other bloomers are doing what they do best.
From a modest beginning, the roses at the Gaal place have proliferated. “When we moved here 12 years ago,” Gaal said, “there were three roses. Now, there’s over 200. It really took off about five years ago when I went to a Celebration of the Old Rose in the Bay Area, and I was hooked. I just love roses. It’s hard to verbalize, but I just have a passion for roses.”
Also, the intrinsic, stress-reducing value of gardening is well known. According to Gaal, anyone can grow roses, even apartment dwellers.
“As long as you have full sun, anyone can have a rose garden,” she said. “It’s not difficult, and it will bring you a great deal of satisfaction. There’s even a variety that will grow in the shade. There’s also patio roses that will grow in tubs for apartment dwellers. Gardening keeps me in touch with nature. It’s very peaceful to me and, aesthetically, it’s very pleasing.”
Gaal promises “a lovely day in the garden” to those taking her tour, which also offers a variety of rose books, handmade crafts and antiques. Also, catered sandwiches, drinks and homemade snacks will be available. There’s a small animal menagerie and a bunch of happy cats. And not surprisingly, lots of roses will be for sale.
“The roses come from a number of growers and we’ll have a large variety of OGRs, Austin roses, modern roses and miniature roses,” Gaal said.
“The cost depends on the individual rose, but they’re between $10 and $20, with the miniatures slightly less.”
Gaal, a specialty garden designer, obviously knows what to do with roses, but living where she does is also important. According to the gardener’s bible, the Sunset Western Garden Book, Zone 23 “. . . is one of the most favored gardening climates in North America.”
Tourists are amazed that fuchsias grow outdoors in this zone, and ranchers are enriched because citrus and avocados do so well. But roses will do well throughout Ventura County.
“It’s an ideal growing climate for not only roses, but just about everything else. About the only thing I can’t grow are peonies because it’s not cold enough, but they actually have tree peonies at Green Thumb that will grow here,” Gaal said.
Whether or not Dr. Peter Gaal, a cardiovascular/thoracic surgeon, ever promised his wife a rose garden is unclear. His mission, however, is as apparent as the fragrance of a Jacques Cartier Old Garden Rose.
“I don’t have much to do with it,” he said. “I just pay for it.”
Details
* WHAT: Second annual Rose Garden Tour and Sale.
* WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
* WHERE: 11617 Telegraph Road, west of Santa Paula.
* HOW MUCH: $5 (adults), free (under 16).
* CALL: No phone.
* FYI: Directions to Gaal’s Little Acre: California 126 to Wells Road, north to Telegraph Road, head east for about a mile. Park on the street.
