Roses available in '08/'09	'07 Catalog Cover

About us!

This rose business was established by Francis E. Lester in the 1930's, continued by Will Tillotson from 1948 to 1957, and carried on by Pat's mother, Dorothy Stemler until her passing in 1976. Patricia Stemler Wiley and her husband, Newton Wiley ran Roses of Yesterday for the next twenty years until they retired.

Since 1998, Pat and Newt Wiley's sons, Andy and Jack, and Jack's wife, Guinivere, continue to keep the garden open to the public and offer potted roses everyday from 9 until 4.   Old roses, selected modern, unusual, and rare rose varieties available. Bare Root Roses will be available for Pick Up (Jan./Feb. - Orders must be confirmed, including Pick Up Day) or Shipment (Jan.-early May).

The Roses of Yesterday and Today Garden, which has developed with the help of four generations of the Wiley/Stemler family, has more than 230 rose varieties on display.  Picnic tables are available.

How To Order

If You Do Not Hear From Us

Directions to our garden

Potted Roses available year-round. Picnic tables available.
Do not miss the renowned Corralitos Meat and Sausage Company
on the corner of Corralitos Rd. and Browns Valley Road.

Bareroot Roses available by ordering ahead, January through early May.
Order now to reserve your roses - click on "Available Roses" at sidebar.
Or phone, (831)728-1901. We will return your call if you reach our machine.

Coming from San Francisco, San Jose or Santa Cruz, you can follow either; Hwy. 1, 280, or 101 south.  Highways 101 and 280 lead you to Santa Cruz via Hwy. 880 - (17). Highway 880 turns into Hwy. 17. Take Hwy.17 to Santa Cruz where you will join Hwy. 1 going south towards Monterey. Exit Highway 1, at Freedom Blvd., and go left over the freeway. Go 6 miles to Corralitos Rd. where you will turn left at the stop sign . Once on Corralitos Rd., go 2 miles and turn right onto Browns Valley Rd. Browns Valley Rd. makes a sharp left at a stop sign 0.3 miles later. Travel on Browns Valley Rd. for 2.3 miles. You will see the Roses of Yesterday Garden sign on your right and turn left up our driveway where there is parking available.  803 Browns Valley Road.

Coming from Monterey, take Hwy. 1 north, getting off at Hwy.152, Green Valley Road. Take Green Valley Road to Freedom Blvd. Turn left onto Freedom Blvd. and go approximately 3 miles to the stop sign and Corralitos Rd. where you will turn right. Once on Corralitos Rd., go 2 miles and turn right onto Browns Valley Rd. Browns Valley Rd.makes a sharp left at a stop sign 0.3 miles later. Travel on Browns Valley Rd. for 2.3 miles. You will see the Roses of Yesterday Garden sign on your right and turn left up our driveway where there is parking available.  803 Browns Valley Road.

Current Catalog Available (2008)!  Rose Descriptions of our Bareroot Roses Available for 2008/2009 include over 140 rose descriptions.  The catalog also includes a color cover of a bouquet of roses available and 45 additional color rose photos, as well as Descriptions,  Recommended Roses for Special Conditions, History of Roses,  and offers for our Gift Certificates, Rose Video , Sacka Da Weeda Apron, and Old Rose Pot Pourri.
Please send $5. to address below or purchase through our secure order form - click on Available Roses at sidebar and click on 'to order' to get to secure order form.
Roses of Yesterday  803 Browns Valley Road, Watsonville, CA 95076

Use the website as rose information resource on-line or print for old-fashioned reading pleasure - Print "Descriptions" and print once that page is fully loaded.  Print this "Home Page" for planting and rose care instructions.  We also recommended printing "Roses for Special Conditions" and "History of Roses".  Print "Comments, News, and FAQ's" and you will have a complete catalog.   See Available Roses for pick-up availability.

We are offering our 1996 Catalog for reference for $7.00. This catalog has descriptions of 229 varieties of roses and  black and white photos of approximately 159 of them.  We currently cycle in 25-30 % of the roses in the catalog at a time.  Makes a fine reference book and introduction to old roses.
To receive, please send check or money order for $7.00 to:
Roses of Yesterday, 803 Browns Valley Road, Watsonville, CA 95076
Please specify you are willing to receive the '96 catalog, otherwise we will have to return your check.

Video available!!!
This video accompanies the '96 catalog. See all of the roses swaying in the wind and the sunlight as you read along the descriptions of the roses. Film footage of the roses and photographs when video footage was not available. The cost of the video, including accompanying '96 catalog is $20.00 plus tax (CA) and $6.00 priority mail shipping (includes catalog). A great gift for rose lovers!!!

Gifts and Gift Certificates
Gift Certificates!  Can be sent anytime!
Lovely cards by mail for one or more roses or dollar amount.
Please contact us at postmaster@rosesofyesterday.com

See more at our "Gift Store"

Books available!   Dream Sleeps of Europe, Camping Europe, and more...

Bath Salts - Infused with antique rose oil, 1 bottle $12. + $7. s/h U.S. Priority Mail

Pegging Stakes -
Pegging is a method of forcing a large shrub and climbing rose canes into an arched position.
Made of heavy 10 gauge wire, appoximately 20 inches long, with hooked end which holds cane in place.
Easily to remove and reuse.  They come to you a dozen (12) to a package. $15. plus $8. shipping.

Rose Care

Water-Fertilizer-Spray

Planting Your Roses

First, get a big bucket of water and put 3-4 tablespoons of Vitamin B1 in the water. Then, remove your roses from their package and put the roots down in the water so it comes up on the shanks of the plants as far as possible, leaving the top canes exposed.

Next, prepare your holes - dig the soil about 2 feet deep and 18 inches around and make a good hole. Put about 2 tablespoons of bone meal in the bottom and cover with soil, mounding the dirt up in a pyramid in the center of each of the holes you are planting in.

Now, remove your bundle of roses from the bucket, cut all the strapping that is keeping the plants together and separate the plants gently, putting them back iin the bucket as you work. It is important that you keep the roots moist at all times - air is the enemy of rose roots. Remove the plant you want from the water and put it in the hole, arranging the roots around the pyramid in the center.

Now, fill in the hole with soil, tamping and pushing the soil in around the roots as you go.  We recommend you plant the bud union just below the soil level as this helps the plant develop its own roots from the grafted stock.   It is also helpful to mound the soil up around the to the top of the canes for 2 to 3 weeks, until the buds start to grow, then uncover them to 1 inch above the bud union.  This helps to keep the plant from drying out.

Fill this basin with water, jiggling the plant gently to dislodge air bubbles, which you will see rising to the top of the water.  After the basin is full, let the water soak in and then fill again. Make sure the soil is well tamped.  After a few days of watering, using your fingers, poke the soil/ tamping well again to make sure the soil is well packed around the roots so there are no air pockets.

If a rose does not seem to be doing anything, (not growing, or it started to grow, then stopped) it is most likely the case of a simple air pocket.  Repeat the process in the above paragraph to dislodge any air pockets that may be around a root. We recommend to prune the original canes to approximately 4 inches long (even to 2 inches with smaller plants), cutting at least a half inch above an outward facing bud eye. Cutting the canes short encourages new shoots to grow from the base.

Rose Care - Beside regular, slow, deep irrigations, (we do not recommend drip irrigation practices until the plant is well established and growth is 6-8 inches long) water weekly with a solution of Vitamin B1 and water for the first six weeks.
     Do not use regular fertilizer until the top growth of your roses is at least 1 1/2 inches long. Any good rose food should then be used monthly until September, when the plants begin to rest for the winter. At this time you can give a feeding of 0-10-10  (no nitrogen), which will help harden the plants against the cold weather to come.  Rugosa roses do not need to be fed so often,  perhaps only once in the spring and once in the fall with 0-46-0 (triple super phosphate).

One note to those with professional gardeners: when your gardener has planted your bare root roses, please remember you must care for the plants until his next visit. After planting, rose roots must be kept moist to encourage them to come out of dormancy - you cannot let the soil dry out, especially if the weather and the soil are warm;  you MUST water at least every other day.

Pruning and Care

As a general rule, prune roses that bloom repeatedly in the late winter or early spring before new growth starts.
Prune the once annual flowering roses only after they have bloomed in the spring.

Study your roses so that you begin to know their personalities.  Some of the older varieties that bloom repeatedly
should not be pruned except to remove weak or dead growth - their beauty is in a large plant with hundreds of
flowers, and if you prune them like a Hybrid Tea or Floribunda you will not get a mass of bloom.

With the spring blooming varieties, to create a bushy, many branched plant, shorten the long canes by one third
after the plant blooms, and shorten lateral canes a few inches.  If you wish, keep this up until late summer, then
leave the plant alone until after it blooms the next spring.

Pegging is the use of any method to bring the canes into an arched or horizontal position.  It may be done by
hooking about an 8 gauge wire over a matured cane and securing it in the desired position by pushing the
other end of the wire into the ground, or by tying the canes in an arched position to stakes.  This causes
flowering stems to grow all along the canes.  Just two or three canes arched over and tied to stakes or to a
fence will make it possible to weave other canes among them for a delightful effect.

After about two years it is a good idea to remove a few old canes as new ones grow from the base of the plant.

Moving an Established Rose

Prepare the soil in the new hole and make sure it is large enough so that you don't have to remove the plant again to perfect the hole.

Now, using a straight, square spade, dig around the plant with the spade straight down - do not heave the sail until you have dug all the way around the plant. You should be getting the spade in at least 12 inches, more is better. Begin to remove the soil around your cuts so you have room to heave the plant without disturbing the root ball any more than is necessary. Complete the digging out of the plant, keeping as much soil as possible around the roots, put it on a square of plastic or canvas material, and drag it to the new spot: or package it up, tieing securely with twine, if you plan to transport it a distance away.

Proceed to plant the rose, tamping the soil well and making a basin around the base of the plant. Irrigate well, slowly and deeply, giving a good drink of Vitamin B1 solution weekly for about three weeks.
GOOD LUCK!!

The best time to move an established rose is when the rose is
dormant - during the winter, as long is your ground is not too frozen.

The best time to plant roses, in general, is just after the last frost.

News

This is a formula widely used to discourage deer. If you cover your plants well with it, repeating after rainy weather, you will keep the critters away.

1. Put two eggs in a blender with 1/2 cup of water. Blend very well, at least 2-3 minutes at high speed.
2. Add 2 cups water and 8 tablespoons of Tabasco sauce and some garlic juice if available.

Blend. Put into plastic bottle - add water to top and refrigerate.
3. Pour contents into 24 oz. to 1 liter plastic; bottle with fine spray trigger handle.; Spray plants thoroughly. WORKS FOR ALL PLANTS THAT DEER OR OTHER ANIMALS LIKE. (if you add garlic juice will also help with aphids, spider mites, blackspot, etc.)

Testimonials/Press

   Press     Helpful and Interesting Links

Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Dear Guinivere Wiley,

The Sacka da Weeda Apron is unique and sturdy.
The rose scent from the potpourri is delightful. Thank you.
I'll place my order for old roses next month.

Leila Korotounov

Date: Tue, 11 May 2004
Just a quick note to let you know that the New Dawn bare roots arrived last week and were planted the same day.  My gardener, Romeo Bruno, noticed the quality of the plants and told me to expect great things from your climbers.  Romeo is notoriously critical, particularly about roses, and you should take pride in his praise. He rarely compliments our rose suppliers, which is the primary reason I considered using your company for these fill-ins.
 
This Fall, I will be planting out a new section of the property, and I will call upon your expertise.  Thank you again.
Pam Millman 
 

"I have enjoyed your catalog, quality of roses, and customer service so much I have been recommending you to my friends."

Deborah H. 7/7/99

"Many thanks for your kind, considerate, and in this day DECIDEDLY OLD FASHIONED approach to customer service. I LOVE IT!"

Sincerely, Pat A.

Thank you for visiting our website!

Best Regards, the folks at Roses of Yesterday!