Jim, way back when, I wrote an article seeking the stippled Buck roses. No one carried his creations and very few of them were available anywhere. Peter Schneider printed it in the American Rose Rambler. It’s a wonderful newsletter, BTW. The article encouraged one response, from Mrs. Ruby Buck. She was lovely! She put me in touch with Kathy Zuzek who should be well known here. Kathy and I traded many things and she sent me photocopies of his registration sheets as well as an own root plant of all of his roses she had, I didn’t.
Being the “nudge” I am, I began “encouraging” everyone I knew to grow them. I pestered Clair Martin, Curator of Roses at The Huntington, to put in a bed of them so the collection would have a home and, hopefully, be safe. He did it for the found roses and the entire set of David Austin’s. He wasn’t impressed as he said the few of the cold hardy roses were good for SoCal. In a few cases, he was right, but more of Dr. Buck’s were good here than the earlier Austins, and the English roses afforded him the opportunity to make his name. I offered them to Desi Maiz, who was Marketing Director at Rose Hills and in charge of their rose garden. No interest. I didn’t have any connections with any other public garden, so I grew them, shared them with everyone who would try the ones which did well for me and began offering them to Sequoia, Pixie Treasures and Vintage.
Once the grass roots movement began getting them into more and more lists, Iowa State obviously purchased a Combined Rose List because any source who offered a Buck rose received a letter from them stating the Buck roses were “proprietary material” belonging to Iowa State. It demanded royalties for them and went on to say by not paying royalties, money was being taken out of his widow’s and childrens’ mouths.
That letter had a chilling effect on the distribution of his roses. Ralph Moore read it and didn’t want either the paperwork required nor potential litigation, so he told Carolyn to dump all Buck roses. Ralph well knew the pleasures of royalties because he worked deals whenever possible to collect them. I seriously doubt if he ever paid any. It was simply against his religion.
She didn’t dump them, but did pull them from sale until she saw how most others were ignoring the letter with no consequences. She eventually put them back on her list and was for some time, the only source here for many of them.
Talk about mercenaries. They did nothing to support his efforts while he lived other than to pay him and let him use their facilities. His roses got to the market because of his friendship with Patricia Wiley at ROYAT, which is why the vast majority were introduced infected with virus. After he died, they dumped his roses and Kathy “inherited” his library and papers. I understand Iowa State didn’t have many plants to supply her. David can probably fill in these blanks. But, once it appeared someone else was raising the popularity of their “proprietary material” they did their best to glom on to any monies they could, without paying anything more than the cost of a letter and postage. Witnessing this and the goings on with Ralph’s collection, I’m deeply soured on the part of institutions to preserve them.
