Griffith Buck
Encyclopedia
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
at Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
who created over 80 named cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s of the rose
Rose
A rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
, all of which are capable of withstanding temperatures of -20°F and need no pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s or fungicide
Fungicide
Fungicides are chemical compounds or biological organisms used to kill or inhibit fungi or fungal spores. Fungi can cause serious damage in agriculture, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality and profit. Fungicides are used both in agriculture and to fight fungal infections in animals...
s to thrive.
Biography
Buck's introduction to rose breeding took place when he was a high school student in Rockford, IllinoisRockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
, where he began a correspondence with the Spanish rose breeder Pedro Dot
Pedro Dot
Pedro Dot was a Spanish rose breeder.-Biography:Pedro Dot was born on 28 March 1885 outside Barcelona on the rose-growing Monistrol estate where his father was estate manager. His early experiments in hybridising roses were encouraged by the Marquise of Monistrol and the Countess of Sástago...
. After teaching for a few years, he entered the US Army during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as a member of the 13th Airborne, serving as a teacher and as a paratrooper in the European Theater.
Returning to civilian life, he enrolled at Iowa State, receiving his BS degree in 1948, an MS in 1949, and a Ph.D. in 1953 in horticulture and microbiology
Microbiology
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are defined as any microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters or no cell at all . This includes eukaryotes, such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes...
. He then became a professor at the college.
Breeding program
His breeding program was meant to address an ongoing issue: Wild rose species around the world were hardy and disease-free, but bloomed only once per year, and in a limited color range from white to medium pink. They were also quite large — sometimes 15 feet tall and equally wide. On the other hand, the Hybrid TeaHybrid Tea
Hybrid Tea is a cultivar group of roses, created by cross-breeding two different types of roses, initially by hybridising Hybrid Perpetuals with Tea roses...
roses developed during the 19th and 20th centuries flowered repeatedly on bushes of a manageable size, but were subject to a host of rose diseases and could not survive extremely cold temperatures. Buck's colleague Neils Hanson brought him cuttings of Rosa laxa 'Semipalatinsk' from Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Buck crossed these with a variety of other species and cultivars. The German rose breeder Wilhelm Kordes
Wilhelm Kordes
Wilhelm Kordes I was a German horticulturist.His sons, the breeder Wilhelm Kordes II and Hermann Kordes continued to expand the business, now known as W. Kordes’ Söhne...
also contributed to his breeding stock. Buck described his program in a 1985 speech: "My normal procedure was to grow the seedlings in the greenhouse one year until they got big enough, and plant them out the second spring. The only attention they would get would be water and cultivation. I didn't spray for disease." His hybrids combined the best characteristics of both groups.
Buck often named his roses after friends — usually in an indirect way — and also chose "names that were appropriate to all the corn belt rural pleasures", e.g., 'Barn Dance', 'Applejack', and 'Prairie Sunrise'. The cultivars 'Spanish Rhapsody' and 'Sevilliana' commemorate his partnership with Pedro Dot
Pedro Dot
Pedro Dot was a Spanish rose breeder.-Biography:Pedro Dot was born on 28 March 1885 outside Barcelona on the rose-growing Monistrol estate where his father was estate manager. His early experiments in hybridising roses were encouraged by the Marquise of Monistrol and the Countess of Sástago...
.
The commercial trade in his rose cultivars got off to a slow start, since the university had no marketing infrastructure. The cultivars gained momentum during the 1980s and 1990s, along with the ecological movement
Ecology movement
The global ecology movement is based upon environmental protection, and is one of several new social movements that emerged at the end of the 1960s. As a values-driven social movement, it should be distinguished from the pre-existing science of ecology....
. 'Carefree Beauty' was one of the first roses to receive Texas A&M
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...
's EarthKind designation. This rose is now grown at the Montreal Botanical Garden, Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, the Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago Botanic Garden
Located at 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois, USA, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 24 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores. The Garden is open...
, and the Australian National Botanic Gardens
Australian National Botanic Gardens
The Australian National Botanic Gardens are located in Canberra and are administered by the Australian Government's Department of the Environment and Heritage....
.
Collections
The largest collections of Buck roses are grown in the Griffith Buck Garden at Iowa State's Reiman GardensReiman Gardens
Reiman Gardens is situated on a 14- acre site located immediately south of Jack Trice Stadium on the Iowa State University campus in Ames, Iowa. Reiman Gardens is a year-round facility that has become one of the top ten attractions in Central Iowa...
. Other collections have been established at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is a horticultural garden and arboretum located about west of Chanhassen, Minnesota at 3675 Arboretum Drive, Chaska, Minnesota...
and the Elko County Rose Garden in Elko, Nevada
Elko, Nevada
Elko is a city in Elko County, Nevada, United States. The population was 18,297 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Elko County. The city straddles the Humboldt River....
. "Buck roses" is a category used in the rose trade to indicate those roses that are cold-hardy and disease-free.
In 1997 the American Rose Society established the annual Griffith Buck Memorial Rose Trophy.