Category: Speaker Presentations

Dr. Mark Windham – “Holistic Rose Care”

The Medley of Roses – 2026 ARS Convention & Rose Show was honored to have as one of our speakers Dr. Mark Windham. Dr. Windham was a Distinguished Professor of Ornamental Plant Pathology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. For the last 14 years of his career, Mark worked toward developing management plans for Rose Rosette Disease (RRD), studying the virus’s mite vector, and searching for disease resistance. He was part of a multistate team that discovered genes for resistance to RRD in roses.

Most recently, on October 4, 2026, at the Medley Convention he received the 2026 American Rose Society Gold Medal of Honor. His presentation is entitled “Holistic Rose Care”. He graciously shared his presentation with us to post on the website.

A rosarian must be a nutritionist, soil scientist, pathologist, entomologist, and expert of many other professions to successfully grow healthy, vibrant roses. Often actions we take to solve one problem leads to other challenges. In this presentation, he explores a holistic approach to rose care to maximize rose health and vigor without breaking the bank or robbing us of our most valued commodity: time.

Click here for the presentation.

The following are the handouts for Dr. Windham’s presentation:

Rose Diseases

Rethinking Blackspot Management

Rose Garden Oddities

Rose Insect Pests

Rose Rosette Disease

Early Detection of Rose Rosette Disease

Foliar Diseases

Downy Mildew

Rose Diseases: Identification and Management

Diagnosis of Ornamental Plant Diseases

Howard Carman’s “Propagating Roses From Cuttings” Presentation

Howard Carman, ARS Tenarky District Director
On Sunday, July 12, 2026, our special guest speaker Howard Carman shared his experiences with propagating roses from cuttings, hybridizing, and the journey that turned a hobby into a lifelong passion for roses. Howard is kind enough to share his presentation with us.

Click here to see Howard’s presentation.

Howard has lived in Big Spring, Kentucky his entire life and began growing roses in 1997 after being inspired by the Kentucky State Fair. What started with a few roses quickly turned into a lifelong passion that led him to join both the Louisville Rose Society and the American Rose Society. Over the years, he expanded his garden to more than 200 roses, built a homemade greenhouse, became a horticulture judge in 2004, and today still grows around 125 roses including hybrid teas, floribundas, shrubs, miniatures, and minifloras.

One of Howard’s Seedlings
Howard is a past president and current treasurer of the Louisville Rose Society and currently serves as the Tenarky District Director, beginning his term in 2024. His love of roses has also led him into propagation and hybridizing, with two roses now registered with the ARS — the miniature “Miss Paula,” a sport of Miss Flippins, and the miniflora “Anna Mae,” named in honor of his mother.

Spenser Thomas, Great Big Plants video presentation

Spenser Thomas, soil-health focused product manager at Great Big Plants

The meeting of the Nashville Rose Society on May 3, 2026, featured a video that Spenser Thomas, soil-health focused product manager at Great Big Plants, has recorded for us on Nashville specific soil health and nutrient management. Spenser is the soil-health focused product manager at Great Big Plants, where he specializes in developing biologically supportive inputs designed to improve plant performance from the soil up. His work centers on compost extracts and soil-based solutions that enhance nutrient efficiency, root development, and overall plant vitality.

Spenser has recorded a Nashville specific soil health and nutrient management presentation that will be shown at the May meeting. Click Nashville Rose Society Great Big Roses & Flowers to view Spenser’s presentation.

With a deep interest in both flowering plants and high-yield vegetable crops, Spenser works to help growers achieve healthier growth and more consistent performance by optimizing the underlying soil system. His approach prioritizes long-term soil health over short-term synthetic feeding, focusing on practical, results-driven outcomes for home gardeners and enthusiasts alike.

Spenser is particularly focused on making soil science more accessible to the public. By helping gardeners understand the complex interactions between biology, organic matter, and minerals, he aims to provide the tools necessary to cultivate stronger, more resilient plants through a “soil-first” philosophy.

Spenser’s products are available on his website Great Big Plants and on Amazon.

Jeff and Cindy Garrett – Disease Resistant Rose Study

The Nashville Rose Society was honored, once again, to have Jeff and Cindy Garrett as our guest speakers at the August 11, 2024, monthly meeting. In addition to focusing on how to participate in the annual ARS Roses In Review program, Jeff discussed the work that he and Cindy are doing to test and evaluate disease resistant, specifically blackspot, roses in their garden.

Jeff and Cindy moved to their current home on Lake Chickamauga in 1989. Over the years they have continued to develop their landscape to its current capacity of just over 350 roses. Jeff and Cindy have allocated some of that space in their garden to test select varieties of roses in large pots. They change some of the varieties each year. They do fertilize and water, but do not spray for disease. Each year they evaluate which roses are most disease resistant.

Jeff and Cindy have both served their local society, the Tri-State Rose Society of Chattanooga, as President on numerous occasions. Currently they are editors of their local society newsletter, “Basal Breaks”. The Garretts have been honored with the Bronze Medal from their local society.

Click here for Jeff and Cindy’s presentation on Disease Resistant Roses – Fact or Fiction!

Here you will find a list (pdf) of roses in Jeff and Cindy’s test garden.

July 10, 2-4:30 – Susan Lyell Young, “Old Garden Roses” with YouTube Garden Tour

Susan Lyell Young spoke to the Nasvhille Rose Society on July 10, 2022. Click here to view her garden tour with Volunteer Gardener on Nashville Public Television (NPT).
________________________________

NOTE! The July meeting of the Nashville Rose Society will be held on July 10, 2022. It is moved to the second Sunday of the month due to the July 4th holiday. The meeting will be held in the Potter Room at Cheekwood Estate & Garden.

Susan Lyell Young, owner of Restoration Rose
Our speaker, Susan Lyell Young, will discuss the development and hybridization of roses and her efforts to collect them from cemeteries and old homes in Louisiana and California.

Susan is a native Nashvillian. She lives in the Belmont area in the home her grandfather built in 1928. She has been gardening all of her life and growing roses for the last 10 years. She does not use chemical pesticides or fertilizers and believes that Mother Nature finds the perfect balance when left alone to do her thing.

Susan is on a mission to encourage folks to grow roses in their gardens. Not the roses seen at big box stores nor the modern roses that require endless pampering but the antique and heirloom healthy hardy shrubs that have been grown in gardens for hundreds of years. She has traveled all over the country collecting rare varieties so that she can propagate them and get them into the hands of interested gardeners and public rose gardens, preserving the DNA of these fragrant garden workhorses for future generations of admirers and hybridizers.

She estimates she has grown and loved more than 1500 roses over the years but she is particularly fond of the roses bred for Southern gardens — the Teas, China’s and Noisettes. Her home garden has roses and all sorts of their companion plants.

In the spring of 2019 Susan launched her line of clean beauty products infused with the organic roses she grows. You may find her rose goodness at www.restorationrose.com.

Please plan to join us. Admission to Cheekwood is not required – let the gate attendant know that you are attending the NRS Meeting in the Potter Room.