Durham man’s rose wins top award at show

When Harold White entered a tall, pink Hybrid Tea in the Eastern North Carolina Rose Society's show at Twin Rivers Mall, he said he knew someone would have to bring in a pretty good rose to beat him for the best-in-show award.

The show's judges decided Saturday that no one had a better flower than White and presented him the Queen of the Show award for the top entry. White, who is from Durham, also won the third place award, the Princess of the Show, for a pink Mavrik rose.

"I was fortunate," he said. "That's a good rose. In this business, you're always fighting weather, bugs and deer. And the deer like the best roses. They don't go toward the mediocre ones."

Several hundred people went toward the center of the mall Saturday to look at the winning roses that were on display. Many bent over to smell Lyman and Carolyn Johnson's pink fragrant rose. The sweet-smelling flower won the society's "most fragrant" award.

The people also had a chance to view several hundred roses that did not win awards. Those roses will be sold for $1 a stem, said society member Lenna Easter.

"That will be a sell for all the public to help the society pay for the show," Easter said. "And it's a good time for the children to come in to get a rose for Mother's Day."

Easter said the rose show was the ninth for the society, which began in 1995. She said the show is scheduled for May because roses in the New Bern area first bloom around this time.

"A good rose will have a pointed, swirled center, shiny leaves and no bug holes," she said. "There's usually a six- or eight-week cycle for growing, between the beginnings of growth to the pruning point."

Roses of all different colors and sizes were on display at the show. Some floated in bowls of water. Six red roses filled a wooden box. Easter said the box design was for roses that had attractive heads and ugly stems. A group of pink, red and yellow roses were attached to a painter's pallet.

Max Armstrong of New Bern said the society chose a nice group of roses for awards. Armstrong said he has been growing roses for 60 years.

"I was a horticulturist when I was 16," he said. "The key to roses is that you can't just put them in the sand. You need to start with really good black soil, and you need them in the sun. Then, in February, cut them back to eight inches and start over again. Someone did a good job with these."

Matt Tessnear can be reached at 635-5673 or at mtessnear@freedomenc.com.