Monday, August 4, 5:00-7:30pm – Jim Sproul, “Hybridizing New Roses”

Diane Summers rose
The August meeting of the Nashville Rose Society will be held on Monday (Note the day!), August 4, 2025, in the Massey Auditorium at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens. Our speaker is Dr. James (Jim) Sproul. Jim will be joining us virtually to discuss his experiences growing roses from seeds and hybridizing new roses.

Jim is a recently retired family-medicine doctor who enjoys having more time to focus on his family and on his rose breeding program. He has been growing roses from seeds for 40 years. Early on he planted seeds from open pollinated rose hips that he gathered from his neighborhood and local rose gardens. It wasn’t long before he realized that a greater range of seedlings would be possible by purposefully crossing one rose with another.

PowerPuff Pink rose
Jim’s goal is to produce novel rose seedlings that also have good health. Named roses that he has hybridized include ‘Honey Dijon’, ‘Brick House® Pink’, ‘Candy Sunblaze’®, Heather Sproul’, the Eyeconic® series and ‘Thrive!’. Mentored by Mr. Ralph Moore, he has a great love for miniature and Hulthemia (a wild rose species from the plateau of central Asia) roses. His first named rose to combine these traits is ‘Diane Sommers’. His newest rose introduced by Star Roses is ‘PowerPuff™ Pink’.

Save the date! The 2025 Nashville Rose Show will be held on Saturday, September 13 at Cheekwood.

The Cheekwood Estate and Gardens is located at 1200 Forrest Park Dr, Nashville, Tennessee 37205. The meetings are free to guests, as is admission to Cheekwood for meetings. Simply tell the gate attendant that you are there for the Nashville Rose Society meeting.

We look forward to seeing you at our August meeting!