Choosing Two New Roses, Filling Our Huge Reservoir

After the movie shoot, Pedro and I took all our Ambience and Granada roses to the Rose Auction here in Mississauga and managed to get premium prices for all of them. Buyers were impressed with the extra long stemmed beauties, making us think that perhaps we’ll make a “mistake” with Iguana Juice Grow once more in the future.

I was ready to bid for a batch of Granada rooted seedlings, when Pedro stopped me. “No, my dear Jill, there is a tradition in our family. When we harvest a greenhouse completely, not leaving a single rose, we have to choose new varieties.”

“But we were so lucky with our Ambience and Granada Hybrid Teas,” I protested. “It seems foolish not to grow the same variety again!.”

“Whether or not it seems foolish, we must respect family tradition,” said Pedro, and I melted with the sentiment that he included me in his family. After all, I’ve been waiting for him to ask me, but so far there are no marriage plans on the horizon.

So we looked around the auction, and ended up buying a batch of Hybrid Tea Rose Midas Touch, a hardy yellow variety, and another Hybrid Tea, Voodoo, an orange-red blend, a very dramatic mixture.

I questioned growing a yellow rose, since they’re not meant to be grown in cold climates. However, Pedro convinced me that in our climate control Glasshouse it doesn’t matter that we happen to be located in Canada.

Voodoo grows best in the cool of Spring and Fall, it doesn’t like hot, dry summers. “We’ll keep the temperature down and make sure that there’s adequate humidity,” said Pedro.

Voodoo’s parentage can be traced back to Camelot, First Prize, Typhoo Tea, and Lolita, and it was an American Rose Selection in 1986. Rose patents are only valid for 20 years, so we don’t have to pay royalties on this one.

Also possessing an expired patent, Midas Touch was an American Rose Selection in 1994, and it’s supposed to be easy to grow and tolerant of different climates. Both of our new varieties are disease resistant. Of the two, Midas Touch is the more prolific.

Pedro saw how sad I was saying goodbye to growing Granada and Ambience again, so he promised that after a year, we could go back to our original multi-hued selections. “The tradition allows going back, but only after a reasonable time.”

By that time I’ll be in love with Voodoo and Midas Touch and not ready to give them up, either. However, the seedlings were actually cuttings grafted onto disease resistant rootstocks, and they looked quite sturdy and full of healthy vigor.

“Were you serious about feeding them extra organic fertilizer to make their stems grow tall?” I asked Pedro. He said he would think about it, but that he doesn’t like the idea of the Roses growing too close to our High Pressure Sodium lighting fixtures.

We treated all our fledgling Roses with No Shock, in order to minimize the effects of being transplanted. We placed them in the coco coir medium in our multi-bucket hydroponic ebb and flow system, and Pedro mixed up the first batch of nutrient solution for the young newcomers.

Don’t forget that our Glasshouses are huge (125 feet by 40 feet) and that our 2000 bucket ebb and flow system covers 5000 square feet in each greenhouse. Each bucket is fertigated by our ebb and flow system with 2 gallons of nutrient solution four times a day, then the liquid retreats into our 5000 gallon reservoir.

The Advanced Nutrients Nutrient Calculator calls for 19.8 Liters of Iguana Juice Grow to be poured into our pre-mix tank, along with 14.1 Liters each of Humic Acid and Fulvic Acid, 5677.53 mL of Carbo Load Liquid, 46.7 Liters of SensiZym.

Week 1 calls for 17 Kilos each of Piranha, and Tarantula, as well as 25.5 Liters of Voodoo Juice. We also have to pour in 31.2 Liters of Seaweed Extract along with the same amount of Organic B. Didn’t I tell you that Advanced Nutrients products are delivered to us by the truckload?

But we have our prize=winning Roses to show for it!