North Carolina, United States - ( Zone: 7a )

Rhea Worrell Rose Bio

I grew up the Chicago suburbs, and attended college in Wisconsin, California and New York. I have a BA in Human Relations, a BS in English and an MAT in English Education. I have been married since 1976 and have two grown sons. In my twenties, I felt a mystical kinship with roses, through reading and art, though I had never grown them. I was fascinated by their ubiquity, beauty, sensuality, spiritual significance and healing properties.
All my art and poetry was signed with a stylized rose icon or with the pseudonym rosa rugosa.

After moving to upstate New York in 1989, I became an avid gardener, but became enthralled with roses only
after attending a presentation by Lily Shohan, Northeast Regional Coordinator of the Heritage Rose Group in
early 1995. Lily was showing slides of her tour of English rose gardens. I had previously grown veggies and annuals, but I reached a new level of fascination and obsession with old-fashioned roses and perennials.

I began to inundate myself with the study of roses through research, discussion, and visits to private and public gardens. I was an active early member of the Centrally Isolated Rosarians, a group of heirloom rose gardeners in Ithaca, New York, and began writing on the subject. I soon realized that gardening in Zone 4 had its limitations, and longed for a milder climate.

In the summer of 1996, I was fortunate to be able to move to central North Carolina and have become a “virtual rosarian.” I have been privileged to encounter several prominent rosarians through the internet, including Charles Walker, Cheryl Netter, Steve Jones, Marilyn Young, Fredric Thurber, Jeremy Buckley and the regulars at alt.garden.roses, all of whom have taught me much about roses.

From April 96 to July 97, I was the Garden Editor of CyberMom Dot Com -- a webzine for parents of young children -- for which I wrote a variety of gardening articles. I then wrote a series of articles on OGRs for the American Rose Society website, plus articles on rose fragrances, groundcover roses, rosehips, and deerproofing my garden. The series on the Old Garden Roses for the American Rose Society has brought responses from rose-lovers all around the world.

In 2000, I planted around 40 roses around our house in the woods, battling drought, deer, shade, and heavy clay. Most survived, some I donated to friends, and some actually thrived! The most successful roses in that garden were Alister Stella Grey, Crepuscule, Ispahan, Jaune Desprez, Mutabilis, Paul’s Lemon Pillar, Rosa gallica, Rosa roxburghii, Rosa laevigata, Sombreuil, The Fairy, and White Pet. My new home has more sun and I’ve started over again. My current rose collection includes, Alister Stella Gray, Alchymist, Ballerina, Duchesse de Brabant, Jaune Deprez, La Biche, Lamarque, Mme. Antoine Mari, and Mrs. Oakley Fisher… and I plan to add several more!

It’s 2008, I downsized and now have about 10 roses – that’s about 90 short of what I’d like!

Very experienced (45 years)

Author, Photographer

Last visit: More than a year ago