 Following his return from National Earth-Kind Specialist training in late September 2007 Bob Shearer (shown on the right) shared some of his experiences with Keith Hansen. Keith suggested that Bob might be interested in heading up the Earth-Kind rose trial project that had been started earlier this year in Tyler. At that time the location of the beds had been determined and the area had been sprayed to kill the grass and weeds, but nothing further had been done. The trial beds are located in Lindsey Park on the west side of Tyler.
Bob accepted the job and began to put together his plan. During October meetings were held with the principal suppliers (of roses, compost and mulch) and plans were made with the City of Tyler Parks department to understand their participation.
On November 5th the Tyler Rose Garden crew tilled the beds and only two weeks later the roses had been planted and mulched.
With Bob Shearer’s guidance, the plans and execution of them were carried out quickly and with great concern for doing them ‘by the book’.
The National Earth-Kind trial gardens must each have 30 varieties of roses, with 3 specimens of each. Many, but not all, of the rose varieties in the trial are Griffith Buck (a deceased breeder from Iowa) whose program goal was to create cold hardy and disease resistant roses. The trial is national in scope for not only disease resistance, but also cold hardiness (not an issue here). The others are available in commerce and/or are current Earth-Kind rose in Texas.
These ninety plants are put into the beds randomly and after the initial watering in to get them started, they will be watered only when the soil dries out to one inch depth using a manually controlled drip irrigation system. No fertilizer, herbicides or insecticides will be applied. Their progress will be reviewed regularly over the next three years. Dr. Steve George, who developed this program is very precise in his requirements and Bob Shearer has been careful to make sure this test plot complies.
Special thanks go to Craig Reiland and his Rose Garden crew whose help has been invaluable. To the City of Tyler Parks Department who have allowed the use of the park and their people and equipment to assist us. Suppliers of the roses was Chamblee’s Rose Nursery. The compost material came from Vital Earth Resources and the mulch from Trendsetters Recycling Services. Thanks to each of them
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