Southampton Rose Show Is On Saturday

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet;

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;

And for that name, which is no part of thee,

Take all myself.

Juliet would swoon, if she could make it there, on Saturday, June 14, at the Southampton Rose Society’s 38th annual Rose Show and Competition at the Rogers Memorial Library. Imagine how sweet the smell.

Competitors will bring in their roses starting at 7, judging will take place from approximately 10 a.m. to noon, and the public is invited from 1 to 4 p.m. to view, for free, the roses that win trophies in a bouquet of categories. Competitive arranging, the theme of a workshop held on May 31 by Lillian Walsh of the American Rose Society in anticipation of the event, is one. The rules are thorny—only so many sidebuds allowed, only so many blooms per spray. The tips are numerous—for example, refrigerate at between 38 and 40 degrees. And the names are evocative: Flawless, Pope John Paul II, Dublin Bay. Even for those not in the know, though, the beauty contestants will be a sight to behold.

The Southampton Rose Society maintains roses throughout Southampton Village, and the most recently installed one, in 2013, is an organic rose garden at the Southampton Cultural Center, on which Sarah Owens of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden was a consultant. More information can be found at the rose society’s website, southamptonrose.org, and in its newsletter, Dune Rose.