Lake Superior Rose Society

History 

The Lake Superior Rose Society began in 1996. Our group activities have included: member garden tours; road trips to garden nurseries, public and private garden tours; the annual mid-winter banquet; July potluck picnic; annual wholesale plant orders; monthly meetings that include educational briefs by LSRS Consulting Rosarians, monthly programs of interest, and additional topics relating to rose growing. The members share information through personal anecdotes. We also host an annual Rose Fest and LSRS Rose Show each year in mid-July. In 2004, the Lake Superior Rose Society hosted the American Rose Society, North Central District Rose Show. We host fundraising activities to help defray costs of this non-profit society.

Service to Community

The members of the Lake Superior Rose Society also serve the community through education and outreach by volunteering time in the Leif Erikson Rose Garden (LERG). These tasks include raising the roses in April, deadheading the spent blooms during the summer months, and helping in the final pruning and winterizing of the roses in October.  We are happy to teach new rose-growers the proper ways to prune roses and to provide winter protection; come to the rose garden to watch, learn, and practice with our member-volunteers!

Projects 

After receiving a grant in 1998, the Lake Superior Rose Society members wrote information for 10 topics and had the information commercially prepared for the LERG. Four of the signs are displayed at any one time, and the messages in the signs are rotated through the seasons. A grant in 2004 from the G Kendall Smith Fund of the Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation, allowed the Society to add additional signage to the Rose Gardens, and supported the 2004 North Central District Rose Show and Convention sponsored by the LSRS. These shows promote rose growing to the public and showcase the beauty and diversity of the many rose classes that exist and may be grown in Minnesota.  Recent G Kendall Smith Grants have allowed us to help rebuild the Old Garden Rose and Shrub Border at the rose garden, adding a sitting wall, benches, and perennials; improve signage at the garden, publish a color brochure with Rose Garden map and history, and enhance our rose show and Rose Fest in July.

Evaluating our roses and giving the information to the American Rose Society for their Roses in Review program helps to ensure northern input into the ratings published in their annual Handbook for Selecting Roses. 

Affiliations

The Lake Superior Rose Society is an affiliate organization of the American Rose Society, and of the  Minnesota State Horticultural Society's Eighth District.                  

Membership 

There are approximately 30 individual members of the LSRS who grow roses and enjoy learning and sharing their knowledge and experiences with each other and the public.

 Join us!

All this and so much more! It is fun and rewarding. Meet new people and enjoy learning more about roses. For more information, contact a Society officer, or attend to one of our meetings on 3rd Wednesdays of  March, April, May, September and October at 6:30 pm., usually via Zoom but sometimes in person for special hands-on programs.  Please check our website/calendar for the most recent information. To request a link to attend a meeting contact our Co-president at [email protected] .