Rose Breeder  

Listing last updated on Wed Aug 2024

Mendocino, California
United States

Joyce Demits (d. July 25, 2017) was one of the founders of the Heritage Rose Garden at the Mendocito Botanical Garden.

[From Rose Letter, November 2017, p. 27:] For more than forty years Joyce and her sister Virginia Hopper scoured the countryside of Northern California, especially Mendocino County, searching for and finding abandoned known or mystery roses, some of which they were able to identify. According to Gregg Lowery, it was their efforts that brought mystery roses to the awareness of many Californian rosarians...The sisters founded Heritage Rose Gardens nursery, then went on to establish the old rose garden section of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden in Ft. Bragg. When the sisters’ joint business venture ended, Joyce opened Tanglewood Farms to continue selling old and mystery roses. Joyce was an early member of the Heritage Rose Group. She died, following a stroke, on July 25, 2017.