Ralph Moore, the Visalia rose breeder hailed as the "father of modern miniature roses," died this week in Visalia. He was 102.
With 500 rose varieties to his credit, Mr. Moore brought fame to himself and pride to his hometown.
Mr. Moore founded Sequoia Nursery in 1937 with "$800 and a few hundred roses," he once said.
He created his first miniature by crossing the Oakington Ruby dwarf English rose with other roses. By the mid-1950s, Moore's Miniature Roses was selling miniatures wholesale. In the 1960s, Chiquita Bananas had a promotion for housewives in which the prize was a miniature rose plant -- thousands flew out the door.
By the 1970s, Mr. Moore was attending conferences and giving lectures. In 1986, the Royal National Rose Society in England awarded him the prestigious Dean Hole Medal, its highest honor.
Today, miniature roses are worldwide. Mr. Moore once got a letter telling him that miniature roses were spied at an outpost in Antarctica.
He made a lot of local ladies proud by naming roses after them, such as the "Mary Hill," the "Doris Bennett" and the "Ora Kelly."
"The Eleanor" came out in 1959, named for his daughter, now Eleanor Bergthold of Fresno.
"I like to say I went to college on a rose," she said.
Fellow rosarians viewed him as an esteemed mentor.
"Five minutes into meeting him, there was no hint that you were a stranger," said fellow rose hybridizer Paul Barden of Corvallis, Ore. "His desire to share information with you was unparalleled."
"A lot of rose breeders had secrets, but he didn't have secrets," said Carolyn Supinger, officer manager at Moore's until it closed last year. "He was a wonderful man -- a loving, giving, sharing person."
Besides roses, Mr. Moore also developed a popular evergreen bush that Monrovia Nursery in Southern California grew for 20 years. He gave the royalties to Westmont College in Santa Barbara for scholarships.
Visalia honored Mr. Moore in 2004 with a public rose garden planted with his roses and bearing his name.
At age 86, Mr. Moore started writing poetry. His devoted staff made bookmarks of pressed dried roses and printed his poems on the reverse. They're collectors' items now.
A celebration of life will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 3 at First Presbyterian Church in Visalia.
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