The Rose King.....

The Rose King....
Some of you all love to garden and work in your yard. The following is written by Paul Odle, Sr. who lives in the Lawton - Ft. Sill Veteran's Center. I found it interesting, both for the history of things around Enid in days past.. and his knowledge of roses... Enjoy!!

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The Rose King


This morning very early a very special daughter came out to have breakfast with me and brought me the most beautiful Mr. Lincoln Rose’s. The Rose were a very dark red almost black color with the greenest leaves, the rose buds and the leaves were so perfectly shaped that you could imagine that an artist very carefully painted them. The Red roses were surrounded by breath taking tiny white “baby breath?flowers. The Bouquet was professionally arranged in a pure crystal vase. As I glanced at the bouquet of breath taking roses I could hear them quietly whispering “I love you dad!?

The rose brought back many fond memories to a time and a place where we lived when this same special daughter was about two years old. The City was Enid in the County of Garfield in the beautiful state of Oklahoma, the year was 1959 or 1960, and I had bought my first house at 725 Malone Street.

Malone Street was a short Street two blocks long lined with big tall beautiful tree’s with lots of pretty birds singing their little hearts out. At that time it was a nice quiet place to live. I loved living there.

At that time in my life I worked for a Company by the name of Evans Cut-Rite Drug; they were the only discount store in North West Oklahoma at that time. They would bring in a couple of cases of bare route rose bushes, two cases of shrubs and two cases of trees. I stared putting them on the shelves and people were picking them up out of the cases and buying them, we were sold out in two hours. We had purchased these number one plants from a nursery in Shenandoah, Iowa. I called that Company and doubled the order. Every time I sold out in a few hours I would double the last order. That year we sold more rose bushes, shrubs, and trees than had ever been sold in that store. At that time I knew very little about bare route plants.

Mr. BILL LABARTHE of Pond creek, Oklahoma sold us the plants and he also sold us Alaskan Fish Emulsion a plant fertilizer that would not burn your plants. Old Bill was quite a Character, he owned and operated the Movie Theatre in Pond Creek, and he tested roses for several big Nurseries?in the US. He lived on Main Street. BILL had a rose garden in his front yard. BILL LA BARTHE and I become good friends. He taught me everything he knew about roses. And he helped me plant my first rose garden. He also gave me the name of a book that told you everything you needed to known about planting and caring for roses. I bought that book and read it. I had that book until Dec. 17,2003 when I moved to the LAWTON/FORT SILL VETERANS RETIREMENT CENTER.

It was not two long before I had a Rose Garden of two hundred different rose bushes. I was asked to talk to Garden Clubs about growing roses. One year I was voted ROSE KING OF GARFIELD COUNTY and was presented with a jacket with a big Red Rose on the back with rhinestones out lining the Rose, above the rose it said PAUL ODLE and below the Rose it read ROSE KING OF GARFIELD COUNTY. I was very proud of that honor and that Jacket.

Every home I ever owned I landscaped the front and back yard and I always had a Rose Garden with two hundred different rose bushes. All of my roses had different names and I knew their names.

DEAN SHIRLEY the Professor of Botany at PHILIPS UNIVERSITY, Enid, Oklahoma and his wife Mrs. Shirley and The Botany Professor of Oklahoma University, Norman Oklahoma and his wife who was President of the American Rose Society for this District would come once a year to tour my gardens. In the 1970’s and 1980’s busloads of Garden Clubs from all over the state would come tour my gardens. Roses have always been a big part of my life. I still like to have my life ROSEY. “Life is just a bed of Roses.?lt;/P>

Good soil preparation is the most important thing to growing rose’s or any other plant. If you do this to your ground long before you purchase your roses and plants you will have lots of big blooms. Steak out your rose garden in a spot that will get the morning sun. Dig down three foot deep throwing your dirt to the side and removing any grass or weeds. After you have your garden dug up to three feet deep; lay a layer of small pieces of rock in the bottom of the hole. Then put a layer of soil over the rock. Add a layer of dried peat moss over the dirt. Then add a layer of dirt over the peat moss. Next add a layer of sterilized manure over the dirt. Add a layer of dirt and then a layer of cottonseed hauls. Keep repeating this dirt, peat moss. Dirt, Sterilized manure, dirt, cottonseed hauls, dirt until your garden is at ground level.

The months of January, February, and March is the time to plant bare route plants after March you need to plant potted roses, shrubs and trees. When planting roses you want to plant them two foot a part, digging a hole 1 ?Ft deep throwing the dirt into a wheel barrel, the hole needs to be 1 ?foot across. Make a mound in the center of hole, with pruning shears cut the roses back to 6 or 8 inches being careful to cut the stem just above a thorn, cutting it on a slant. If you want the plant to grow out slant the cut out, if you want the plant to grow in cut the stem above the thorn facing inward.

Take a hold of the plant by the knot (Heart) sitting the knot on top of the mound of dirt spreading the routes around the mound, pat dirt on top of the routes, fill hole up with water, when all water has drained out of the hole fill up hole with dirt, water the dirt in and then mound up dirt around the crown/heart and wet down with water, so that your rose bush dose not freeze. Before planting bare route plants you should soak the routes in a tub or bucket of water. Potted roses is a different story, you dig a hole deep enough for the pot making sure that the crown is growned level. You Carefully remove the pot without disturbing the dirt around the plant. Fill the hole in with dirt and water the plant in good. If you want to mulch the top of your rose garden SUGAR CANE HAULS make a beautiful ground cover.

By Paul L.Odle, Sr.

Lawton/Fort Sill Veterans Center