Welcome to the Mesa East Valley Rose Society
Working Together with Roses
Sharing the Love of Roses here in Arizona
MEVRS committee members - Check it out NOW
MEVRS Is looking for help
Use the link below to Get more information. We are a great group to join and participate with others to have fun
Our Members
Our Meetings
Our Members
Our fantastic membership helps each other learn and grow amazing roses here in Arizona. We have monthly meetings at Mesa Community College (MCC) on the Second Thursday in the library on campus each month. Plus many members volunteer and work in the gardens at MCC on Saturday Mornings.
Several of our members are Rosarians and offer help to
Our fantastic membership helps each other learn and grow amazing roses here in Arizona. We have monthly meetings at Mesa Community College (MCC) on the Second Thursday in the library on campus each month. Plus many members volunteer and work in the gardens at MCC on Saturday Mornings.
Several of our members are Rosarians and offer help to answer your rose-growing questions. Feel free to ask any of our members for advice and suggestions to help you.
Our History
Our Meetings
Our Members
Seeing a need for energetic Rose growers in Arizona we created this organization in 1953 to bring together people to share their knowledge and love of growing roses in Arizona. We also have a very large Garden at MCC that has over 10,000 roses to see how they grow here in Mesa. Come Check out the gardens anytime Open 24/7
During the year w
Seeing a need for energetic Rose growers in Arizona we created this organization in 1953 to bring together people to share their knowledge and love of growing roses in Arizona. We also have a very large Garden at MCC that has over 10,000 roses to see how they grow here in Mesa. Come Check out the gardens anytime Open 24/7
During the year we have monthly meetings normally held at the Mesa Community College main Library (1st Floor Community Room) Plus many special events to help you grown roses in Arizona. Come join us to learn more about Roses in the Desert and how to have great looking gardents.
Our Meetings
Our Meetings
Our Meetings
Everyone is Welcome
Note: The new location of our summer meetings is below
Please note the earlier start time of 6:00 PM for this Meeting
This month we will have a special speaker from Arizona Beekeepers, LLC. Duane Combs. He will discuss how bees play a special role in keeping our roses looking great. He will also talk about the three mai
Everyone is Welcome
Note: The new location of our summer meetings is below
Please note the earlier start time of 6:00 PM for this Meeting
This month we will have a special speaker from Arizona Beekeepers, LLC. Duane Combs. He will discuss how bees play a special role in keeping our roses looking great. He will also talk about the three main keys in their business.
- To save and increase bee populations
- To produce the best bee products possible
- To help beekeepers who are facing an increasingly harder environment and business.
At our core, our mission will always be to grow bees and help people become successful beekeepers. That is why we started and this is why I became a master beekeeper and serve my state beekeepers and the Western Apiculture Society.
Duane Combs Arizonabeekeepersllc.com (623) 225-5523
Bio:
One of the management problems we have spent a lot of time on is excessive heat in our desert. In 2022, our certified master beekeeper project was on dealing with high temperatures. For 2023, we tried a hive design that we thought would solve the problem and lost 20% of our hives. In 2024, we made changes in the hive design and reduced our losses to 10% and during the summer of 2025, we did testing with Carl Hayden Bee Lab.
Serving our community is an important goal for us. In 2022 and 2023, I was the president of the Beekeepers Association of Central Arizona. In 2025 I became President of the Arizona Apiculture Society, our state organization, and also served on the Executive Committee for the Western Apiculture Society.
In the summer of 2025, we turned our focus on selling honey and helping small sustainable beekeepers sell their honey for a better profit. Store honey is heated, filtered, and usually not pure, as the processors buy foreign honey for less than $1 per pound versus buying American honey for $2 to $3 per pound. Local beekeepers can easily sell their pure, raw, local honey for $16 per pound; the problem is connecting with their customers. Small beekeepers do not have the volume to open a store or the time to stand by the side of the road. Farmers’ Markets are also time-consuming, requiring that you be there every week, and they are expensive. The final problem local beekeepers face is that most do not produce the diversity of honeys to provide a product line.
To support local beekeepers and raw honey, we have formed our Arizona Rare Honey division to sell local and imported rare honeys from Mexico. This supports small sustainable beekeepers, like our coconut honey producer who produces just 24 5-gallon buckets of coconut honey per year. Coconut honey in his area is no big deal, but for us, who have never seen it, what a rare treat.
Hybrid meetings (in-person and Zoom). We look forward to seeing you there and sharing a lovely evening!
When:
Thursday, July 9th, 2025, at 6:00 PM
Where: **This is a new Location for the summer Meetings**
MCC Room TC 425
Building at the Southeast Corner of Campus
Southern and Dobson Campus
1833 West Southern AVE
Mesa AZ 85202
Zoom Link below if you cannot attend in person