Be an Advocate for Roses

Advocacy is defined as “public support or a recommendation for a particular cause or policy”. It’s no secret that I have long been an advocate for roses. Whether it’s traveling on a national speaking tour speaking to rose societies on remaining relevant in the social media age or standing in the baking sun at a local garden center showing a crowd of interested rose lovers just how easy it is to grow a rose or speaking out when legislators try and remove a historic rose garden from our midst, I believe we must be advocates for the things in our lives we love the most.

I want to encourage you to become an advocate for roses. June is National Rose Month. Here are a few ways you can become an advocate for roses:

• Help someone in your neighborhood plant a rose. Sometimes all it takes is an offer to help and that one act of friendship could create a world of change in that persons life. The bloom of a rose is empowering and if we can help place a little knowledge and know how into someones life, we’ve done a good thing.
• Join a local rose society. We all need advice a local rose society is ground zero for the mother ship of rose societies, the American Rose Society. Both are ready to help you with knowledge and information on growing roses. Check out Rose.org for more information.
• If you’ve been growing roses for a while, why not volunteer at a local garden center to teach a class on growing roses? If your not a public speaker, remember I was a shy introverted kid growing up who was too scared to raise his hand in class. Ha. If I can do it, anyone can. You don’t have to be perfect, Lord knows I am not, you just have to be genuine.
• The #1 thing I do that has spread the love of roses to those around me is to share my blooms. Cutting a few blooms and delivering them in a jelly jar will do a world of good for a downtrodden soul. Give it a try.

 

It was a great honor to receive a tweet from Helena Mayor Mark Hall last week telling me that I was on the cover of the June issue of Shelby Living Magazine! This magazine is a popular business and lifestyle magazine.  The folks from the magazine had visited my garden but I had not idea I was their cover guy! What an honor! What a great way to kick off National Rose Month!  

 

How will you become an advocate of roses? I’d love to hear all the creative ways you share your love of growing roses with the world around you.  Leave your comments below. Many thanks and happy rose month!