Pittsburgh Rose Society event in Mt. Lebanon honors late member
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Honoring the memory of David McKibben are his wife, Cil, and Bill Dorn, Pittsburgh Rose Society president.
Souvenir de Baden-Baden features long, pointed buds opening to 4-inch flowers.
Veterans' Honor is a hybrid tea rose that has been grown as a variety since 1997.
The floribunda rose variety Walking On Sunshine features richly saturated yellow blooms
Ring of Fire is an example of a hybrid tea rose. The type bears large flowers that commonly grow one to a stem.
The Pope John Paul II rose produces large and luminous pure- white blossoms with a fresh citrus fragrance.
Miracle On The Hudson is a shrub rose named in honor of Capt. Sully Sullenberger, the crew and passengers of US Airways Flight 1549.
The miniature rose Kristin was created by crossing another miniature, Buttons, with a hybrid tea Tinseltown rose.
The late chef Julia Child chose this variety of floribunda rose to be named after her.
Cutie Pie is one of the varieties of miniature rose on display at the expo.
Hot Cocoa is a variety of florinbunda rose, with flowers that grow in clusters on short stems.
As members of the Pittsburgh Rose Society like to remind people, the types of varieties of the flowers go far beyond the red ones that particularly are popular around Valentine’s Day.
Many were on display in all their stateliness during the 72-year-old organization’s recent David McKibben Memorial Rose Expo, held at Mt. Lebanon Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Pittsburgh Rose Society member Kristen Dotterway shows one of her favorite varities, a floribunda named Hot Cocoa.
Preceding the event was a memorial service for Dr. McKibben, a pediatric dentist by profession and certified master rosarian by avocation.
“He was our webmaster and our newsletter editor, and he wrote many scholarly articles,” said Bill Dorn, rose society president. “So we miss him dearly.”
At the start of the expo, Dorn presented Cil McKibben, David’s wife, with the Silver Medal Honor from the Pennsylvania-New Jersey District of the American Rose Society, which was awarded posthumously to her husband.
“We recognize someone every year for meritorious service to our district,” Dorn said.
In addition to his Pittsburgh presidency, Dorn was elected as director of the Penn-Jersey District. He will be installed and seated as a national board member of the American Rose Society during its national convention, scheduled for Sept. 9-14 in Milwaukee.
A resident of Pittsburgh’s Windgap neighborhood, near Crafton and Ingram, Dorn grows 120 roses in what he calls the Windgap Rose Garden.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
The hybrid tea rose Queen Elizabeth first was bred in 1954, the year after Elizabeth II’s coronation.
“My first experience was about 20 years ago, and I killed a rose. And then I became more interested later in life,” he said.
“Since I work as a psychotherapist, I typically work in the afternoon and evening. So my mornings are free. And what I like to say is, ‘In my office, I listen to my clients talk. And in the garden, I talk and my roses listen.’ So it’s a good deal.”
In 2019, he was elected to the top post of the Pittsburgh Rose Society, which normally meets monthly for educational or social events. The group also periodically schedules expositions, with the one at the Presbyterian church presented in conjunction with Mt. Lebanon Public Library, where Dr. McKibben volunteered.
“There’s no judging involved, and it’s very casual,” Dorn said about the expo. “Our members cut their roses and bring them to display for the public.”
For 2022, the society plans to resume its presentation of rose shows.
“That’s a little more formalized, where roses will be groomed and presented, and judges will come and evaluate each rose,” Dorn said.
The group’s mission is to help gardeners grow better roses, and members offer free educational programs on a regular basis.
For more information, visit pghrosesociety.org.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
On behalf of posthumous awardee David McKibben, Bill Dorn presents the Silver Medal Honor from the Pennsylvania-New Jersey District of the American Rose Society to Cil McKibben.