Keep the Heritage Roses Alive for One More Year!

The Friends of Vintage Roses preserve America's greatest collection of old rose varieties. Our roses, located in Sebastopol, California, reside in a garden created 30 years ago to tell the story of roses.  We are very grateful to you for your support of our 2016 campaign to free our roses of blackberry vines that had swamped both garden and containers. Thanks to you, the old European roses have thrived and grown again.

Today we face a crossroads in our struggle to keep these roses alive. Rapidly we are losing plants. Despite the dedicated efforts of many volunteers, the more than 6000 plants in our garden nursery in Sebastopol, California cannot be cared for without the assistance of hired labor, and without materials to protect and nurture them. More than 3000 named old rose varieties that we tend remain in great danger of disappearing.

It takes many hands to preserve living plants. We have taken this seriously, recognizing that we must ensure that the roses are duplicated and put into the hands of other individuals and groups who will commit to preserve and share them in turn. These are the curators of our collection.

Friends from the California Coastal Rose Society who are adopting our Hybrid Tea collection.

A Partnership of Rose Conservationists

Conserving this collection of rare roses is growing into a strong partnership now counting more than a dozen individuals, gardens and groups. Yet, just as we find the stewards who are eager to help, we have lost ground in keeping all of the roses in our care alive. Plants in our nursery containers and in our garden beds are deteriorating faster than we can get them duplicated and shared. 

What a sad story this will be if, at the moment when we have found a best way to preserve them, the roses no longer exist to be preserved. Help us please. If we can turn around the condition of our mother plants in the course of one year, we will have the wherewithal to provide our partners with plants that will be our insurance. If we pass these on this year, we can inaugurate a new movement of plant preservation in America. We can save these living treasures of history.

What Your Donations Will Do

—Clear one acre of garden, amend and mulch the soil in which nearly 2000 roses live.
—Weed, repot and revive 2000 roses in nursery pots.
—Extend our misting tunnel and propagate 1000 varieties to pass on to our dozen curators across the US.

Our targeted goal for fundraising in 2018 is $45,000. We are appealing on many fronts to many donors. Our volunteers are giving their all. And we are organizing a festival of roses in our town on May 18th, 2019, to raise awareness of old roses and of the importance of conserving our living heritage and selling rare roses. It is called Rosalia.

Come visit us on Facebook and at our website  to learn more.

www.thefriendsofvintageroses.org

The Friends of Vintage Roses
3003 Pleasant Hill Road
Sebastopol, CA 95472

Pamela Temple, curator of our rambler collection with her seedling, 'Rosalia'