Island Pearl
Island Pearl
Rose News New Introductions
Island Pearl
Island Pearl

~ ROSE NEWS ~

The Nursery will still be open for business in the spring of 2010
GOOD NEWS FOR ALL OUR ROSE CUSTOMERS
(AND NEW ONES) FOR 2010!!

The Old Rose Nursery is now owned and will be operated by the new owners, Daren and Maija, who have moved from Vancouver and who will be continuing the nursery for spring sales.  Carol and Tony Quin are retiring but live nearby and will be assisting with the transition.  

Watch for new messages from them on this site as well as their updated availability list with some new introductions for Spring 2010!

We are now members of
The Vancouver Island Gardens Association
(VIGA)

Click to enlargeOur cottage garden-style display garden, now containing more than 1000 rambling, climbing and shrub roses which are the "mother plants" from which we take cuttings for the "own-root" roses we sell in our nursery.  However, since we were invited to join the new Vancouver Island Gardens Association (VIGA), we have expanded the rose garden and hired more help to maintain it for public viewing.  We are also on the VIGA website (VancouverIslandGardenTrail.com) and in the new "Garden Trail" Tourism British Columbia publication showing all 20 Vancouver Island gardens which are open to the general public.

We are therefore welcoming travellers coming to Hornby Island, which is located in the Georgia Strait about half way up the east Coast of Vancouver Island, to visit our rose garden during its blooming period to enjoy the fragrance and splendour of the roses and setting as we do every day. The peak period for the rose display garden is mid-May through mid-July.

Our summer hours are Wednesday to Sunday from 1 to 4 pm or by appointment.  However, as our hours and days of opening may vary and it becomes hot and dry, if you are making the ferry trip over just to visit our garden and nursery. Please phone ahead to confirm our days and hours of opening. (250-335-2603).

Click for larger image At the recommendation of VIGA, in order to cover the additional costs of maintenance and expansion of the garden for public access, we will be asking for a small entrance fee this summer, but this will be refunded with your rose purchase  (one admission per rose).  We hope you will enjoy wandering through the garden (most plants are labelled) and viewing the waterlily pond, surrounded by tall gunneras and iris.  (Sorry we cannot accommodate dogs, and small children must stay in the company of their parents.)  

 

climbers
Rose Climbers in our Display Garden  


Fragrant Old Favourites and Classic Favourites

This year we are well stocked with classic and modern climbers"Antique 89", "All Ablaze", "Dublin Bay", "Fourth Of July", "Alchymist", "New Dawn", and " Sky's The Limit" - wonderful repeat flowering roses. We also carry many antique wonderfullly fragrant old garden roses - Gallicas, Albas, Damasks, etc., and the healthy newer and very fragrant David Austin English Roses.

Roses out of stock for the season (Sorry!)

Regretfully, many of the roses listed as "sold out" are not available at this time (perhaps they will return in fall or next spring). We regret that we sometimes underestimated quantities to propagate, and some varieties, such as "Mermaid", Veilchenblau", "Zephirin Droughin" and "Lady Hillingdon" etc. are difficult to propagate. We're working to do better for next year. Please check our web site periodically and if we have what you are looking for then we can reserve plants for you for fall or next spring. Keep asking!

Ordering and Pricing

To order roses for shipping, please see 'How to Order' in the left-hand menu and visit our catalogue or availability list on this site.  

Thanks and happy rose growing! ........Carol and Tony Quin

"Dear Carol and Tony,

I want you to know how pleased I am with the roses, thirty-eight altogether, that I bought from you this spring. I did exactly what you suggested I dug big holes with a lot of compost added to the soil and I have been watering a lot (one deep soaking every three days). By the early summer they had doubled their size and had such fragrant and huge flower heads that I thought they had gone mad! By now, the shrub roses are 3'-5' tall, and the climbers are around 8'. The non-stop bloomers are La France, Francine Austin, Graham Thomas, The Alexander Rose, Wenlock, etc. Others also bloomed for me nicely this first summer.

I also bought some roses from several other places; some of them are grafted on expensive root stocks R. laxa from England. I find that all the grafted roses in my garden started much slower {varying from weeks to months} and have been blooming much less profusely than the ones on their own roots. For instance, roses grafted on the laxa roots started their growth more than a month behind own root roses, and they have been blooming noticeably less than own root Austin Roses and Old Garden Roses."

Yixi Zhang
Victoria BC

The Nursery will still be open for business in the spring of 2010