Dr. Tony Liberta - Old Garden Roses

  Join us as Rose Chat Radio welcomes Dr. Tony Liberta. We'll be chatting Old Garden Roses!  An avid rose grower, Dr. Liberta was a member of the former McLean County Rose Society (IL), having served as its Editor, Treasurer, Vice-President and President.  He is currently a member of the Greater Peoria and Decatur Rose Societies in Illinois.  As a member of the American Rose Society he served on its Board of Directors for six years as the Director of the Illinois-Indiana District as well as serving a three-year term as a trustee of the ARS Maintenance Endowment Trust.   He has served on several committees of the American Rose Society, and chaired its Rose Classification Committee for thirteen years.  He frequently lectures and writes articles on various aspects of rose culture and was a contributing author, along with his wife, to the books Ultimate Rose and The Rose.  He also helped revise the section on the genus Rosa for the American Horticulture Society’s 2004 edition of its A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. He is an accredited rose judge and was designated a Master Rosarian by the American Rose Society in 2005.  He also served as chairperson of rose judges in the Illinois-Indiana district for more than a decade.  In 1989, he was the selected as the American Rose Society’s Outstanding Judge in the Illinois-Indiana District.  He received the American Rose Society President’s Citation for his role in modernizing the society’s system of classifying roses.  Other American Rose Society awards included the Bronze Honor Medal (shared with his wife) for dedicated service to the McLean County Rose Society, the American Rose Society Silver Honor Medal for service to the Illinois-Indiana District (1988), and the Outstanding Consulting Rosarian Award in 2001.