He’s happy to share

IT is clear to even accidental passersby that this is no ordinary rose garden. Broad swaths of yellow ‘Julia Child’ and pink ‘Johann Strauss’ accent a low rock wall hugging the corner of the frontyard. The leaves are a deep, healthy green, the ground an impossibly fertile brown. An archway leading to the backyard is laden with more fragrant blooms, nodding to those who pass underneath. In the rear of the yard, the mauve blossoms of ‘Barbra Streisand’ soar nearly 6 feet in the air to a backdrop of pastel pink ‘Pearly Gates’ climbing up and over a courtyard wall.

The median between the sidewalk and the street -- that underused spot for so many of us -- is dotted with rosebushes in full glory, with splashes of columbine, lupine, diascia and viola.

It is as though a fine artist has rendered each stroke of leaf, blossom, blade of grass and speck of mulch. In fact, one has.

The landscape is the work of garden designer Dan Bifano. His not-so-private private rose garden of 125 plants on about one-third of an acre in Santa Barbara is modest compared with the five-acre-and-up estates he designs and nurtures for the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Michael Eisner and, yes, Streisand.

The accessibility of his garden fulfills part of Bifano’s responsibility as a master rosarian, a title that in his case comes with more than 20 years experience. A master rosarian, according to the American Rose Society, “exemplifies knowledge of roses and their culture [and] shows a strong and demonstrated willingness to share this knowledge with other rosarians and the general public.” Until the number of master rosarians jumped last year, Bifano was one of only three in the society’s Pacific Southwest region.

“The idea of my garden is, anybody can do this,” he says on a bright morning as the garden comes into the first bloom of the season, the palette of pink, apricot and lavender exploding across his canvas.

The majority of his collection is in the frontyard, open for anyone to see and enjoy, which is one way he shares his knowledge with the public. Neighbors sync their pruning with his. Signs dotting the beds identify the plants. Another sign invites passersby to stop and smell the roses, which, thanks to the proximity of two retirement homes, happens frequently.

“People come up with their walkers,” says Bifano, who has an endearing, almost childlike enthusiasm for roses.

“Look at that face,” he says, cupping a flower in his hand. “It’s way cute.”

FOR Bifano, roses come naturally. When he was 9 years old, he and his family moved to a home in Montecito that had been owned by a retired UC Santa Barbara botanist.

“I took to the roses and have been with them ever since,” Bifano says.

He has gained fame outside of rosarian circles with appearances on Oprah’s show, where she refers to him as “Dan the Rose Man.”

“People recognize me in the grocery store now,” he says.

A cocktail has been named after him, though don’t ask your local bartender to mix this one up. The Dan Bifano is a custom organic mix of alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, fish meal, blood meal, chicken manure and worm castings -- stirred, not shaken.

The exact amounts of the fertilizer ingredients are a well-guarded secret, but the concoction is available for sale at Island Seed & Feed, in Goleta, Calif. Bifano willingly turned over the recipe so that he didn’t have to mix the stuff himself.

Organic rose gardening may sound difficult to gardeners accustomed to chemical fertilizers and insecticides. But, if done properly, an organic approach can ease the burden and improve the plants’ output, Bifano says.

“I used to be out here every week feeding my roses liquid this, granule that,” he says. “I never knew what an organic material was.”

Now he feeds them in March and won’t feed again until September, except for a sprinkling of fish emulsion now and again.

To combat insects, Bifano recommends another organic substance: water.

“Everybody’s worried about putting water on roses,” he says. “One of the best ways to fight off insects, particularly aphids, is to spray your roses hard, and it washes them off.”

His technique: thumb-on-end-of-hose spraying. On this day, ladybugs are nibbling at aphids on some of his buds.

“Keep going, guys,” Bifano says, though he adds that buying and releasing ladybugs in your garden is futile. “They’re going to go fly to your neighbors’.”

Whether the subject is pests, fertilizers or favorite rose varieties, Bifano’s passion never seems to wane, even after a lifetime spent tending his garden and others’.

“Roses continue to reward me with color and style and texture and fragrance,” he says. “Look at this, look at the way this is cupped, the placement of the petals.

“It looks like every one is placed for a reason.”

Just like the roses in his garden.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

For budding rose gardeners

For anyone just starting a rose garden, Dan Bifano has some recommendations on the types of plants to try first:

What’s easy: “The newest varieties are hybridized first for disease resistance,” Bifano says.

What’s pretty: Bifano suggests sticking largely with floribunda and grandiflora roses, which yield blossoms in greater numbers than the ever-popular hybrid teas. “I’m a greedy gardener,” he says. “I like a lot of bloom.”

What’s his favorite? Asked to name his favorite rose, the man who helped Barbra Streisand choose the rose that bears her name must be diplomatic. “If I have to choose a rose that’s my favorite, it’s usually the one I’m walking by,” he says, though he does admit a particular fondness for ‘Color Magic,’ a hybrid tea.

-- James Gilden