Tom Carruth fell in love with roses at an early age and nurtured his romance into a full-time career.
Carruth, rose hybridizer and curator of The Huntington Rose Garden in San Marino, will speak at the Laguna Woods Garden Club meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 28. He will share details of his unique career and offer advice to gardeners who want to see their gardens grow.
Carruth belongs to a rare breed of flower enthusiasts: He’s a rose breeder, and he’s been in that line of work since 1976.
“I have been interested in flowers since I was a child,” said Carruth, who grew up in Texas.
His mother’s best friend had a rose garden, he said, inspiring him to tend his own garden by age 11. He was especially attracted to roses because of their colors and aura of romance. To earn spending money, he sold Burpee seed packets to neighbors,
“I wanted to work with flowers and color, but my father thought that all I could become was a florist,” he recalled during a recent phone interview.
The young Carruth, however, was also fascinated by the field of genetics and gravitated toward plant breeding,
“The field combined my two interests,” he said, although there were not a lot of opportunities to do that kind of work, he added.
He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in horticulture in 1974 and a master’s in plant breeding two years later from Texas A&M University.
Carruth has worked in the rose industry in California for many years, first at Armstrong Nursery and then at Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower. From 1987 until early 2012, he was in charge of the rose hybridizing effort as director of research, licensing and marketing at Weeks Roses.
“The specific goals were to enhance sales by coming up with roses that were dependable and vigorous as well as beautiful and floriferous (blooming freely),” he said.
Throughout his long and flowering career, he has developed 160 varieties of roses.
“It takes about 10 years to bring a breed forward,” Carruth said.
Since taking the job at The Huntington, he has not developed any new breeds, but a backlog of seedlings from his prior job has led to a few new ones coming to market more recently.
His latest creation, named “Make Me Blush,” was revealed in 2024.
The breeding of roses involves the manipulation of the pollination in a greenhouse, Carruth explained.
“We don’t leave it to the bees,” he said.
Pollen is applied to the female plants, the seeds germinate, and the result is individual varieties that are similar but not identical, just like the children of the same parents, he said.
Varieties are then tested in various climates and growing conditions. Roses perform differently in different atmospheres, Carruth said.
“Out of a quarter of a million seeds over 10 years’ time, we can introduce three new varieties that are marketable and good performers,” he said.
A deep purple rose called “Ebb Tide” was the first of his colorful creations. He has since garnered 11 All-America Rose Selections (AARS) awards, and in 2011, he received the Luther Burbank Award for extraordinary achievement in the field of plant breeding from the American Horticultural Society.
Several of his varieties have been named for celebrities or people of note in a certain field.
“Often, the connection is serendipitous, but the celebrity has to give permission for their name to be used,” he said.
The “Marilyn Monroe” rose marked the first time that her estate had licensed the use of her name, Carruth said. Barbra Streisand was very “choosy” about the rose named for her, he said, and it took three years to settle on one.
“But once it was selected, she was a great promoter of the variety,” he said.
Neil Diamond’s agent requested his variety. Another is named for Dick Clark.
Glass artist Dale Chihuly asked for a rose in his favorite color, teal.
“That color doesn’t exist, so we came up with a multicolored striped variety that blushes, or changes color, that is very reminiscent of his work,” Carruth said.
His personal favorite is the “Julia Child” rose, which performs the same everywhere and has been an international success.
The famed chef originally dismissed the idea, saying, “I’m not worthy,” he recalled. Finally, because her friend had a rose company, she agreed and picked the color herself: “Butter yellow, of course!,” Carruth said.
In 2012, Carruth retired from Weeks Roses and subsequently took the part-time position as the E.L. and Ruth B. Shannon Curator of the Rose Garden at the Huntington. There he oversees a 3-acre garden of around 2,500 plants representing 1,300 varieties. It was originally planted in 1908.
The time of year determines the activities of his crew of volunteers, who are now busy pruning the rosebushes. This takes about four weeks, he said.
The first blooms will arrive in late April or early May, depending on how rainy the winter has been and how warm the spring.
“We have color into December,” he said.
During his presentation to the Garden Club, Carruth will show photos and discuss the varieties he has birthed as well as the varieties that do well in Southern California.
Markers for success include a sunny location, good soil and ample water, but not all varieties do well in all locales.
“You have to see what blooms well,” he said.
Bare root plants are less costly, but potted plants are fine, as long as they are not planted in the heat, he said,
Carruth will also review rose culture in general.
While he acknowledges that his days as a breeder have come to an end, he notes that there are only a couple of such professionals left in this country but that they will continue to generate new varieties along with professionals in Europe and amateur breeders everywhere.
Gardeners can obtain advice by contacting the American Rose Society, which offers regional consulting services.
The Laguna Woods Garden Club meeting featuring Carruth is on Jan. 28 at 2 p.m. in Clubhouse 1 and is open to residents and their guests only. Garden Club members will be admitted free, guests for $5 at the door.
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