Kids & Roses With Lee Stephens

Lee Stevens lives in Southern California where she and her husband, David have lovingly restored their 1888 Victorian era home, raised six children, and passionately pursued learning more about roses. She and David currently have about 300 roses under cultivation.

Lee was first introduced to rose horticulture by a friendly neighbor when she was eight years old, and the world of roses was opened to her imagination in that fragrant garden.

Helping children learn about sustainable gardening practices while teaching them the joy of growing our national flower is the driving force behind her creation of the American Rose Society’s  National Kidz N’ Roses program. 

Lee and David teach rose horticulture lessons to elementary school children in grades 2-6 in an after-school program called Green Team. Using hands-on experiences, along with colorful power point presentations and worksheets that she has developed, she teaches children to create their own organic rose food, how to identify and select the best types of roses for their gardens, how to use organic pest controls, and how to make compost and brew compost tea. 

Lee is the current president of Raincross Rose Society and a Consulting Rosarian. She is a prolific writer with multiple articles published in the American Rose Magazine, as well as editor of the Raincross Rose Society and Kidz N’ Roses monthly newsletters and frequent contributor to inspirational  and homeschool publications

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Lee organized the humanitarian outreach project “Restoring Roses to Southern Gardens.” She orchestrated both a compassion-inspired letter writing campaign to garner letters of support for those whose lives were dramatically impacted, as well as a program for sponsoring roses to be given to those individuals as a symbol of love from Americans everywhere. Thousands of roses, and tens of thousands of letters, reached homeowners along the Southern Gulf Coast where lives were touched and hope was restored.

To access the FREE educational resources you heard about on this broadcast visit the Kids n Roses Resource Site HERE