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PrintA Rose-y Outlook
A former surgeon takes full advantage of an accidental second career.
Irwin Ehrenreich among the roses
Jay Elliott
Close to a dozen rose beds have taken shape in Irwin and Cindy Ehrenreich’s front yard on Route 6A in Barnstable. From a distance they appear as swaths of undulating shades organized by color, from soft whites to brilliant reds and everything in between. Up close, you can see the particular beauty and trademark characteristics of each variety, meticulously identified on wooden shims staked in the ground. There are the English roses, with their big, lush petals, sweet with fragrance as well as the sprawling climbing roses, hybrid teas, and clusters of floribunda. The list goes on, with a few hundred varieties already spoken for.
There are stories to accompany each rose: from Teddy Roosevelt’s favorite, the Duchesse de Bravant (each morning he cut one for his boutonniere); to the Peace Rose (when the United Nations was formed after World War II, one was given to each delegate); to Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Rose honoring African American female legends. There are roses commemorating the fallen heroes of 9/11, one named for Julia Child, others for English royalty.
What’s taking shape on the Ehrenreichs’ property is a rebirth of sorts. What’s there is already impressive, but there are hints all around of what’s to come: a bed of English roses that will progress in a rainbow of color; potted roses waiting to be planted; remnants of an old greenhouse around back that Irwin plans to rebuild and eventually use to hybridize his own roses.
More than three years ago, the Ehrenreichs had about 20 rose beds on their property featuring over 600 varieties, and a business selling potted roses. “People pulled in off the road to see the garden,” says Irwin. But some neighbors complained about traffic and the fact that the property was not zoned for business, and the couple relocated the nursery to Carver in 2007. The remote location, however, didn’t work out. “Here we have tons of traffic and everyone got to know us on the Cape,” he says. “Over there we were in the middle of nowhere.”
The couple decided to cut their losses and closed up shop in Carver in October 2009. But in the meantime, their Barnstable garden had fallen into disrepair. “The two years we were out there, we were there six days a week and the day we were home, we didn’t have time. So we just let all the weeds grow,” says Irwin. “It took over our whole life. We’re kind of living again.”
They’re back tending to their home garden but purely for pleasure this time around. Instead, they are once again making it their business to tend to other people’s roses as part of their rose care enterprise they had to give up when they relocated to Carver.
Still, they’re catching passersby’s attention with the noticeable facelift, getting thumbs-up gestures from motorists. According to Irwin, one man declared from his car window, “The Rose Man’s back!”
Since they re-launched their rose care business, as The Rose Man, the Ehrenreichs have already signed on most of their former clients plus some new ones, and they’re hoping to build the business up even more.
It’s been a long journey for the Ehrenreichs, whose foray into the rose business sprung from an accident 14 years ago that left Irwin unable to continue his career as an Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon. While working on the 17th century old captain’s house — the Ehrenreichs restored all of the approximate 5,000 square feet since moving in 17 years ago— Irwin cut off two fingers on his left hand. Though they were reattached, one had to be removed and the other remains numb. For the left-handed surgeon, early retirement was the only option.
But for someone who has a voracious appetite for learning, Irwin didn’t take well to being idle. “A few months later, Cindy took me to a rose show because she wanted me to start a rose garden,” he recalls, noting that the intention was to lift him out of his depression from the accident. “I didn’t know anything about gardening.”
For Cindy, not only would the new hobby prove to be a new career for her husband, but also a way to realize a long-held dream. “I always wanted roses. My grandmother had a little tiny patch of land in the Bronx [with a small rose garden].”
That rose show prompted Irwin to join the Seaside Rosarians, a membership that brought with it a miniature potted rose bush, which he planted. Things took off from there, from purchasing Roses for Dummies and being named president of two local rose societies to running the rose section of Hyannis Country Garden and earning a regular spot on a radio gardening show to opening up a nursery and rose care business. Irwin has earned the designation of Master Gardener and gives lectures on roses throughout New England, with 20 lectures already lined up through 2011.
“Physically, I enjoy being in the garden, being outside on my hands and knees,” he says. “I love the roses, the complicatedness of it all. I enjoy that I can do something well that a lot of people can’t do well. I also love reading up on the roses and their history.”
Indeed, roses are a way of life for the couple. Inside their expansive home, there are touches of roses everywhere, from stenciling to wallpaper to upholstery to china. But you won’t find fresh-cut roses in the house. “I got my rose garden. He never lets me cut them,” says Cindy with a laugh.
But the real focus these days is the rose care business. Initially, it was viewed as a way to supplement the nursery. “I figured it would just help the business out and I took out an ad saying that I’ll come to your home ever week and do the spraying and the deadheading and the pruning.” Eventually that led to 20 customers, including former U.S. representative Joseph P. Kennedy. An initial consultation will determine what kind of garden the client wants and creating a design plan, which the Ehrenreichs carefully map out on graph paper with colored pencils.
Irwin visits each house about once a week from April through October and after a few frosts—usually after Thanksgiving—he’ll go back and do winter protection.
“I really enjoy going to all these places,” he says. “I start to feel like they’re my own roses.”
And for the couple, running the business takes on a natural symbiosis of sort. “I know the roses. He knows the care,” says Cindy.
Meanwhile, the Ehrenreichs’ beloved home garden is a work-in-progress. Back in June, Irwin pushed back the overgrown grass and weeds, and put stakes in the ground anywhere he saw a tiny rose. “Eventually, it will be twice as big as the original garden we had,” he says.
One day, Irwin hopes to hybridize his own roses — he’s already thinking naming ones for Pink Floyd and Sesame Street’s The Count—and dreams of one day designing, building, and caring for a large public rose garden. But he’s content how things are. “I’d be happy just continuing the way we are,” he says. “In a way, we’ve come full-circle. We’re happy that we’re home working in our own garden.”
