Rita Perwich is an American Rose Society Consulting Rosarian and a UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener. She has been writing the monthly column entitled “The Sustainable Rose Garden” for the San Diego Union Tribune since 2015. She contributes monthly articles to Rose Ramblings, the newsletter of the San Diego Rose Society. Her articles have also been published in American Rose, Roses & You, California Garden, Coronado Eagle, Coronado Connection and Coronado 365. She teaches presentations and writes about growing roses sustainably without pesticides and stresses the importance of healthy soil and protecting the beneficials in the garden. She served as editor of Roses & You, the monthly e-newsletter of the American Rose Society from 2019 to 2021 and was awarded a Presidential Citation in recognition of outstanding service to the American Rose Society in 2021. In 2022 she was awarded Outstanding Consulting Rosarian for the Pacific Southwest District by the American Rose Society.

A retired attorney, Rita teaches the annual pruning workshop in Coronado and has been chairing the Rose Section of the Coronado Flower Show for over 20 years.

The Perwich garden has been judged the Best Coronado Garden and Best Runner Up garden several times. Rita has a Certified Earth Friendly Garden, and she does not use pesticides or fungicides. Her garden is beautiful and fragrant and includes 100 roses and a diverse palette of many other plants. For Rita, the pleasures of growing roses are to be outside in nature, to share roses and her passion for roses with others, and to meet and teach the wonderful group of people who grow or want to grow roses.