Gardening on the Moon ( GOTM )

Copyright (C) Suntex Communications, 2009. Reprinted from the October 28, 2009 issue of SEEDS with permission of the publisher .

“Earth-Kind” is one of the most prestigious plant designations bestowed by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. It is based on years of extensive field research conducted by Texas A&M horticultural experts. Only a few, very special cultivars (i.e. “varieties”) possess the extremely high levels of landscape performance coupled with the outstanding disease and insect tolerance/resistance that are required in order to receive this designation.

The Earth-Kind Rose Research Program (Phase I) started in the early 1990s with a sponsorship from the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association to find roses suitable as low maintenance landscape plants for Southern gardens. The identification of disease-tolerant, low-maintenance roses that would be handsome shrubs, even without blooms, and provide the extra benefit of flushes of fragrant blooms was of primary importance.

Phase II of the research program, which is funded by the Houston Rose Society, is designed to identify a collection of low-maintenance roses meeting the Earth-Kind criteria that will grow beautifully in every state in America.

Earth-Kind Rose Research (Phase I and II) continues to be conducted by horticultural scientists with Texas AgriLife Extension and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at the Texas A&M Research and Extension Center in Dallas, Texas. Hundreds of rose cultivars have been evaluated in this monumental research project.

In order to receive the coveted Earth-Kind designation, test cultivars must pass two very demanding hurdles. First, they must do well in multi-year, randomized, replicated research plots at Texas A&M in Dallas. Second, they must perform equally well in statewide and national field trials. Research protocols require the selected rose cultivars to be evaluated on these criteria:

* Grown on their own roots.
* Be salt tolerant.
* Be tolerant of poor soils.
* Be tolerant to a wide range of soil pH values.
* Be heat, drought, and wind tolerant.
* Be tolerant to rabbit injury.
* Be winter hardy without protection.
* Perform at high levels with no commercial synthetic or organic fertilizer and with no applications of fungicides, insecticides, or miticides on the plants.
* Require no deadheading.
* Require little pruning.
* Perform with greatly reduced supplemental watering.

It was not expected that the test plants would never get blackspot or be damaged by insects. The criteria required that the plants not be significantly impacted by the presence of such conditions. In order to receive the Earth-Kind designation, roses under evaluation could not drop more than 25% of their leaves more than once a year. Earth-Kind Roses may experience minimal leaf drop, but have the ability to quickly shrug off the disease and/or insect damage without intervention.

Currently 19 roses have met these criteria:

* Belinda’s Dream
* Caldwell Pink
* Carefree Beauty
* Climbing Pinkie
* Ducher
* Duchesse de Brabant
* Else Poulsen
* Georgetown Tea
* La Marne
* Marie Daley
* Madame Antoine Mari
* Mutabilis
* New Dawn
* Perle d’ Or
* Red Knock-Out
* Sea Foam
* Souvenir de St. Anne’s
* Spice
* The Fairy

All 100 roses currently being evaluated can be seen in the The National Earth-Kind Trial Garden. The garden is located on 2.5 acres in beautiful Gussie Field Watterworth Park, 2610 Valley View Lane, Farmers Branch. This four-year research study consists of 100 cultivars replicated four times for a total of 400 plants. The experimental design utilized in this flagship study is by randomized complete blocks which is considered the strongest design possible for field research. Although the focus of the Earth-Kind program has been on roses and landscape management, trials will soon expand to include Earth-Kind perennials and Earth-Kind shrubs.

If you live in an area that has a climate similar to that of Texas, you may want to subscribe to the newsletter at http://www.promit.com/subscribe.aspx?lid=2

Gardening on the Moon, gratefully acknowledges Suntex Communications for permission to reprint the article.

The original article and newsletter can be seen at this link:
http://www.texasgardener.com/newsletters/091028/default.htm