After an approximately 22-year hiatus, the Lehigh Valley Rose Society “reblossomed” in April – this time, in Bethlehem. It was again formed as a Chapter Member Organization of the American Rose Society – the nation’s oldest and largest single-plant horticultural society.

“This is something I wanted to do when I retired, but due to COVID-19, I found myself with a lot more free time than usual,” Nate Fisher, interim president, said. “I filed all of the paperwork with the state and with American Rose Society, wrote the bylaws, designed the website and put together the social media pages and it took off?pretty quickly from there. There really seems to be an interest and an excitement about it.”

The Lehigh Valley Rose Society was originally formed in the home of Emile P. Sissung, of Allentown, one evening in October of 1947. It was formed by a group of amateur horticulturists who wanted to share their knowledge and experience of growing roses with the public, learn more about roses, encourage others to grow roses and put on rose shows.

Their organization quickly swelled to a couple hundred members, featuring annual rose shows, frequently with over 500 entries.

They organized several events every year for the public, such as pruning demonstrations. They enjoyed approximately 50 years of operation before disbanding around 1997-1998.

Originally with a goal of “eventually” taking over responsibility of the maintenance for the Bethlehem Rose Garden, members of the Lehigh Valley Rose Society found an opportunity open up more quickly than originally anticipated.

“I was scrolling through Facebook, and I saw an event hosted by the Bethlehem Rose Garden Farmers Market titled, ‘Bethlehem Rose Garden Clean-Up,’ I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get formally involved,” Fisher said.

“I reached out to our members and they showed a lot of enthusiasm about showing up to help.” Lehigh Valley Rose Society members joined forces with the Mount Airy Neighborhood Association and other community volunteers to start weeding the garden beds.

While weeding, rosarians from the Rose Society noticed some roses infected with Rose Rosette Disease. “It’s a good thing we caught this early. Allentown’s Rose Garden lost over 700 roses to the disease,” Fisher said, “I walked through the garden and tagged about three dozen roses infected and needing removal.”

Rose Rosette Disease also referred to as “Witch’s Broom,” due to one of the symptoms of the disease causing malformed leaves close together resembling a broom, is spread incredibly easily by a type of mite that can be blown from plant to plant by the wind.

It can also spread from using gardening tools on an infected rose then using them on uninfected roses with no sanitizing in between.

Apart from becoming malformed, the roses typically die within 1-3 years, depending on the variety.

Lisa Walton, resident historian of the Lehigh Valley Rose Society, has found several articles pertaining to the original Lehigh Valley Rose Society as well as the Bethlehem Rose Garden – including the original color scheme and several varieties of roses originally planted. The rose garden started with 3,500 roses and later added an additional 1,500 for 5,000 roses total. Currently, the rose garden is estimated to have around 100 roses.

Lehigh Valley Rose Society has volunteered to take over maintenance of the rose garden for the city.

“I would love to see it used for community outreach and as an educational site,” Fisher said. “We would love to hold planting, fertilizing and pruning demonstrations in the rose garden; demonstrations on disease and pest management and identi?cation and more. We want to be a community resource.

“It’s been great the past couple Saturdays that we’ve been here weeding. People are shopping at the farmers market, then coming over to see what we’re doing.”

The Lehigh Valley Rose Society is working with the Mount Airy Neighborhood Association with input from other community organizations to design plantings for the beds.

LVRS and MANA share the goal of restoring the rose garden with some minor changes.

“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from various individuals in the community who would like to see pollinator plants and native plants incorporated into the rose garden. I would like to stick to the original color scheme, and really try to honor the original design; however, to minimize the risk of RRD, it does make sense to add other plants to act as a buffer between roses.

“I’m planning on picking speci?c rose varieties that are good for attracting bees in addition to incorporating other plants. Again, we are at the early planning stage, so nothing is set in stone,” Fisher said.

If you are interested in assisting the cleanup efforts of the Bethlehem Rose Garden (currently weeding and spreading mulch), volunteers meet 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays in the garden. Bring gardening tools including rakes, shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows/garden carts, etc.

If you are interested in contributing to the fundraiser for new roses, rose ID tags, perennials and organic fertilizers/garden amendments for the Bethlehem Rose Garden, or would like more information on joining the Lehigh Valley Rose Society, you can visit the website www.LVRoseSociety.org.