Home & Garden: A Rosey Disposition

Ron Mallory’s love for roses started in the late 1940s when victory gardens were all the rage. His mother and grandmother instilled his love for this thorny beauty in him at an early age. His grandmother would have him take care of the roses in the victory garden when she wasn’t planting vegetables and his mother would have him help her with the propagation of roses. Mallory has grown roses for more than 50 years and even created his own hybrids including his current favorite, Anne Paul.

Prior to retirement in 2007, Mallory served as the curator of the Mable Ringling Rose Garden at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art for 20 years. “My favorite part was sharing it with others,” recalls Mallory, “I would give the history of the garden and how it came to be and even give history on individual roses.”

Mallory has been a member of the American Rose Society since 1960, is the past president and currently serving as a consulting rosarian for the Bradenton and Sarasota Rose Society, and has been a member of the Sarasota Garden Club for 10 years.
Mallory gives tours in his own backyard and even has his own “Rose Lab” where he works on cultivating and creating new hybrids of roses.