July 2017 Westmont Garden Club Meeting

The Westmont Garden Club held its monthly meeting on Saturday, July 29, 2017.  The meeting took place in Denton, TX.  David Wood served as tour guide for the outing.

The first stop on the tour was at Gemini Peach and Rose Farm.  The owner of the farm, James Herbison, greeted garden club members under the shade of two large trees. 

                                                                                                

One of the trees is an American Elm and an arborist has dated the tree to be about 250 years old. The other large tree had muscadine grapevines growing all through it.   

Mr. Herbison started the tour of the farm by talking about roses and the rose gardens he has established. He said that he had over 1,000 hybrid tea roses and 600 hybridized roses.  

                                   

His roses have won numerous prizes at the Dallas Rose Society and the Fort Worth Rose Society.  Many of his roses have been awarded “Best in Show”.  He explained that during the competition judges examine each rose for imperfections.  The awards are in 3 categories named:

                                      Yellow

                                      Red

                                      Blue

Then out of the top ten blue winners, three are selected and awarded the designation of:

                                      King

                                      Queen

                                      Princess

Mr. Herbison said that at the last rose show in Fort Worth, 7 out of the top 10 roses were ones he had grown and entered into the competition.

When asked if roses were judged on fragrance, he said there is only one category on fragrance because it was hard to judge how a rose smells.  Often the first rose sniffed lingers in the nose and it would often mask the smell of the roses that followed.

He did say that he grew various colors of roses.  His rose “Veteran’s Honor” was dark red and was a recent winner at one of the competitions.  He then shared his tips for successful rose growing.  First is that 50% of success in growing roses is to grow them in elevated beds.  The other 50% is to select a good variety of rose and of course adequate water is required.  When asked about the type of dirt he used, he said that he used a sandy loam and amended it with dyno-dirt which he obtains from the local water department.

www.cityofdenton.com/dyno

He has 8 elevated beds of roses.  They each have an irrigation system.  He also spreads bark chips on top of the soil.  Another question for Mr. Herbison was how long it took to “deadhead” all his roses.  He said that it usually took about 2 weeks. 

After the tour of the rose beds, several members then visited his glass greenhouse where he has test plants in progress of growing. 

Mr. Herbison also grows tomatoes and had two large beds still producing tomatoes.  He had a pail full of ripe tomatoes for us to select a few to take home with us.

He then spoke to the members about his peach tree orchard.  He has about 140 trees with 13 varieties.  The first peach to ripen is Indian Queen. It is usually ready to pick the last of May or the first of June.  A peach tree will live to about 20 years. 

After expressing our thanks and appreciation to Mr. Herbison for such a wonderful tour of his gardens, the members then drove to the Denton Farmers Market.  There were numerous vendors set up in the market area featuring various types of artwork, prepared food items, beverages and fresh fruits and vegetables.

sorry, The Travelling Toe's finger is in the photo

The group then made a quick tour of the historic Bayless-Selby House.  Linda Turner, with the Denton County History and Culture Office provided insights and details about the house and its previous owners. 

The garden members then drove to the Oakmont Country Club for lunch and more conversation.  The meeting ended with members expressing thanks to David for providing such a special day in Denton.