Featured Rose of the Month September 2004

Earth Song and her amazing hybridizer, Griffith Buck
by Deborah Haydock
Photo: Spring Valley Roses
Earth Song:  Grandiflora (hybrid tea and floribunda cross)
ARS rating 8.1
Positives:  winter hardy to Zone 4, disease-resistant, very fragrant, quick-growth and re-bloom, and downright lovely in yard or vase.

Earth Song is a deep pink grandiflora.  It makes a lovely addition to a perennial garden as its growth is upright and vase-shaped, never out of bounds, nor too wimpy.  It starts out with elegant urn-shaped buds which open in hybrid tea form, slowly and luxuriously, until they measure up to 4.5" across.  The deep pink color fades to a softer pink as flowers open, taking on a two-tone, striking coloration.  Earth Song will bloom singly or in clusters and is deliciously fragrant.  Its large blossoms beckon visitors from across the yard to sink their faces into her.   

My shrub of Earth Song died back to the ground during this last very harsh winter, though like Westerland (last month's rose) grew back rapidly and was putting out blossoms before I could say "Rose Show".  In fact, this is an easy rose to win a blue ribbon with, as her form is just so lovely.  An added bonus is Earth Song has among the longest vase life of any of my roses, especially when picked just newly opening.  The new foliage is a rich, bronzey-red.

Earth Song did get some black spot and curling of leaves (though no visible mildew) on lower branches, but her growth is so vigorous, she just laughs it off.  I happen to think her name is so very lovely, I have used it for my email address.

Griffith Buck

Speaking of names, Griffith Buck, hybridizer of Earth Song, Carefree Beauty, and many other disease resistant and hardy roses, had a penchant for unusual rose names.  Carefree Beauty was among the most mainstream, with most tending more toward backwoods endearments like "Allamand-Ho", "Barn Dance," "Buckaroo," "Freckle Face," and "Hi, Neighbor."  I just love the unpretentiousness of his rose-naming.  It makes me wonder if Griffith the man was as down-to-earth as these roses are; I certainly suspect so.

Griffith Buck lived from 1915 until 1991.  He was a horticultural researcher and breeder at Iowa State University, and despite work with corn, soybeans and geraniums, his greatest passion was rose hybridizing.  He started experimenting with roses in 1950.  As purchasing and applying chemicals and winter protection was expensive and time-consuming, Buck was primarily interested in easy-care and hardy roses.  He started breeding roses using strains of very cold-hardy roses (helped a great deal by Kordes when he was advised to use the sweetbrier hybrid, "Josef Rothmund" as his seed parent).  With this guidance, Buck's hybridizing career took flight, and over the course of his life, he hybridized approximately 90 roses.   

To find the toughest of the tough, Buck would plant roses out in an open Iowa University field without winter protection and see which could survive the 20-below-zero winters. They also had to endure the humid, sweltering midwestern summers.  He didn't purposely disregard roses which developed black spot, as he noticed that some roses could endure this condition without defoliating and others couldn't.  The roses which lost their leaves would end up too weak to survive the winters so were naturally excluded.  As an organic rose grower, I have noticed that it is not the presence of black spot but the toughness of the plant which makes the difference.  Like people, some roses can take the punches and keep on blooming with their foliage intact.  

With the sheer busy-ness of our modern lives and increased environmental consciousness, many rose growers are now discovering easy-care Buck roses.  This brilliant hybridizer, though the recipient of multiple awards, did not receive the consumer spotlight as much as he deserved, and that is now changing.  I am thankful to Professor Griffith Buck for his work, as without him, I and countless others wouldn't have the lovely Earth Song and other "carefree beauties" lighting up our lives (nor would I know what email name to use).

All Buck's roses have been lovingly categorized and preserved at the University of Minnesota and are easily found in many rose catalogs.  Sam Kedem has a fine selection, among others.