Rose Expert to Speak at Garden Club Gathering November 12

If you have even a passing interest in smelling a rose, just enjoy seeing a beautiful rose, or have a deep passion for roses, you will not want to miss November’s speaker, Gregg Lowrey, Curator of the Roses, and Co-Founder with Phillip Robinson of The Friends of Vintage Roses (TFofR).

The meeting takes place in Burlingame Hall at the first Congregational Church, 252 West Spain Street, Sonoma. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation at 7:15.

Since the early 1980s, Gregg Lowrey (and Phillip Robinson) have searched out old gardens, small nurseries, old homesteads, and old cemeteries to save and propagate over 5,412 documented cultivars of old roses. Their passion evolved from operating their Vintage Gardens Nursery in Sebastopol, CA for over 25 years, into the non-profit The Friends of Vintage Roses also located in Sebastopol, CA. Rosarians world-wide consider TFofVR collection to be “one of the most comprehensive multiple class collections of old roses ever assembled.” The collection includes of note, the Hybrid Perpetuals, Bourbons, Gallicas, Hybrid Chinas, Teas, Noisettes and Chinas. The rose collection has provided DNA for scientific research world-wide including for researchers from Japan, France, and the United States. The collection has provided roses (cuttings, plants etc) for gardens such as the University of California at Berkeley Botanical Garden, San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, Hearst Castle, Hampton Park in New York as well as gardens in Japan, Paris, Germany and the United Kingdom. TFofVR hosts annual sales and has an extensive collection of printed rose resources.

In addition to serving as Curator of the Roses, Gregg hosts the podcast, Naked in the Roses – A Global Rose Podcast.

Gregg Lowrey is a force for rose preservation. He is a teacher with deep knowledge, passion and expertise, a sought after lecturer world wide and one of the most highly respected rosarians anywhere. He believes that roses’ living beauty and fragrances make life more beautiful.

Please make every effort to meet Gregg in person. Meanwhile, visit The Friends of Vintage Roses website to learn about TFofVR and enjoy reading past issues of the TFofVR newsletters for in depth historical, architectural, scientific and cultural information on roses: thefriendsofvintageroses.org.