The annual Rowan Rose Society’s Show has a new location this year in a vacant store at the Salisbury Mall.
There are fewer entries this year than some years because of the recent weather.
The free show will be open to the public from 1-5 p.m. today at the Salisbury Mall near the bookstore.
At the conclusion of the show, all the roses will be sold, with the proceeds going the the American Rose Society.
The cold, hot and rainy weather caused many roses to bloom too early for the show. Other growers saw their roses damaged with the recent heavy rain. Despite the smaller number of entries and the stress on the growing season, the quality of the roses is still good.
Doug Whitt, of Charlotte, is proud of his display. One of his deep-red veteran’s honor variety roses took top honors as the Queen of the Show. He had such a good year that his roses captured seven of the eight prizes in the Queens Court.
Being a longtime grower, he picked his prize-winning roses over a week ago before the recent rains could damage them. He has stored the blooms in a cooler for the show. This was his first entry in the local show in eight to 10 years.
Salisbury-grower Sara Hill won the Royalty Award with her themed arrangement “Dreams Come Through Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarfs.”
The arrangement has yellow Henry Fonda roses and white seafoam blooms. Hill also won the Oriental Award honors with her arrangement of Rio Samba roses.
She was able to use umbrellas over her roses in her garden to protect them from the recent rain storms.
The Mini-Royalty Award went to Frances Agner of Salisbury. The title of the entry was “Cinderalla.”
Leslie Lee from China Grove was presented the Mini-Artist Award with an entry titled “Alice in Wonderland. “
Becky Lowery received a blue ribbon for her “Sleeping Beauty” arrangement that she put together at 3 a.m., before the show.
In a new youth category created to encourage young growers to take part, John Seamon was honored with his “Jungle Book” entry. There were three entries from the youth this year.
Marie and Amos Fritts from Lexington swept 11 awards in the miniature rose categories.