EVERYTHING'S COMING UP ROSES; AWARD-WINNING STUDIO CITY GROWER CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

Tommy Cairns moves among his roses like a loving father among his children, touching a blossom here, a leaf there, admiring an unexpected burst of color, a particularly intoxicating explosion of fragrance.

And, like children, he calls them by name: Playboy, Rosie O'Donnell, Stainless Steel, Double Delight, Orange Juice, Kardinal.

``They're beauty on a stem,'' he concludes, surveying his yard, dug and terraced and planted so every available inch is covered in roses.

More than 1,000 rose bushes, in fact.

``Roses, roses everywhere and not a blade of grass,'' Cairns said with a wide smile, gesturing expansively over his riot of blossoms. ``I'd rather have roses than grass.''

Cairns, 57, a toxicologist for a Los Angeles drug-testing laboratory, says his love of roses was born in his hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, ``where everybody has a few roses in the front yard.''

So in the 1970s, when he moved to California and into a home in the hills above Studio City, it was only natural for him to want a bit of color here and there. So he planted his first dozen rose bushes.

He fertilized, weeded and watered and came up with what he thought were attractive specimens. Wanting to see what other local gardeners were growing, he gathered a handful of his blooms and took them to a 1977 Valley rose show.

``I walked away with three trophies that day,'' Cairns said with a wry grin. ``That tweaked my sense of competition. And I just kept planting more, to what you see now.''

What you see now is an explosion of color surrounding an otherwise modest home on busy Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Roses have gradually encroached until there's no front yard, only a tiny strip of driveway and a turnaround for visitors' cars. Running out of yard, Cairns and his roommate and fellow rosarian, Luis Desamero, 44, dug up sections of the ivy-covered slope that fronts the street and planted roses among the ivy.

On the other side of the driveway, they carved two terraces from the slope, shoring up each one with sturdy wooden retaining walls. On each terrace, more roses bloom. Around the pool, behind the house, a high brick planter is home to miniature roses, and giant pots hold still more plants.

But the jaw-dropper is Cairns' back yard, which has spilled over into an unused easement between homes. Reached by climbing up a steep stairway, it's gently terraced and gravel-floored, and covered with slat-bottomed table after table of roses in giant pots.

When he gets home each day, he heads for the garden to water and clip off spent roses so new ones will follow. Weekends are for heavier work: fertilizing, repotting, replanting, unloading new shipments of roses.

``To work in the garden takes the stress of the day away,'' he said. ``And it's hard work. There's no need to go to an exercise club.''

Cairns' roses are the perfect specimens of art prints and how-to books; many of the buds could be mistaken for porcelain sculptures. There are no blemishes, no bugs, no brown spots. The colors range from white to yellow to orange to pink to red to lavender and back again, row after row after row of perfect blooms on perfect, dark-green foliage.

They're Cairns' pride and joy - and a consuming passion.

``I grow them, I show them, I write about them, and I lecture about them (at local garden club get-togethers),'' he says. ``I love roses.''

How roses got such a hold on him is a mystery even to Cairns.

``We're all born to do that certain thing,'' he says simply - then adds, with a grin, ``I'm glad I'm not a bungee jumper.''

That first victory in the local rose show was no fluke; he's followed it up by winning just about every prize offered in the United States and Britain for rose growing. His blooms have won best of show in England's premier rose show the past nine years out of 10, and next year he will step into the three-year presidency of the American Rose Society, the prestigious organization that annually awards prizes for newly developed rose varieties.

An acknowledged, if self-taught, expert worldwide in rose history and cultivation, Cairns is one of the experts other rose growers listen to: He's got three books currently in bookstores, from a basic how-to manual for gardeners to a giant coffee table book containing photos and descriptions of more than 4,000 of the world's 20,000 varieties of roses.

And he's just developed a rose fertilizer, called Magnum Grow, that's available at most nurseries.

``You hate to say that somebody's the best because you don't really know, but I'd consider Tommy certainly one of the top three rosarians in the U.S.,'' said Keith Zary, vice president of research for Bear Creek Gardens/Jackson & Perkins, one of several rose producers for which Cairns tests newly developed roses before they're marketed to home gardeners.

Hybridizers say they know when Cairns recommends a rose, it will sell well, said Tom Carruth, research director for Weeks Roses of Upland.

``Tommy's pretty tough,'' Carruth said. ``He loves exhibition roses, so to get his OK, a rose has to be big and showy and colorful.''

When he's not tending his own roses, Cairns is a paid consultant to Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, which boasts a 25,000-bush rose garden. For the third year, under his direction, crews have been replanting and revitalizing the garden, planting 2,000 new disease-resistant roses so far, with another 1,200 plantings planned for this year, said Rose Hills superintendent Fred Patritti.

``Tommy knows his roses,'' Patritti said. ``He comes by twice a week and we get out in the dirt and see what needs doing. He gives us advice on fertilizing and spraying, and he's mapping the gardens so we'll know which rose is where. Our rose garden, I don't think, has ever looked this good. It's an awesome display of color.''

Cairns' own garden is in bloom year-round, except for the few months between late December, when he and Desamero spend a week pruning back his roses, and the second week in April, when the first buds usually appear.

And, although his $50-a-month water bill climbs to $175 a month during the hot summer months, he doesn't begrudge the cost.

``I don't regret it,'' he said. ``Not for this beauty.''

Occasionally, he opens his garden to visits by local garden clubs. But most people have to be satisfied with a glimpse as they drive - or fly - by. The roses are so showy that police helicopters often swoop down low so officers can get an eyeful of color, and passing cars occasionally get rear-ended when the drivers slow to get a better look.

``I feel guilty sometimes because people will try to sneak a look at my roses, and there have been several accidents,'' Cairns said. ``Cars actually slide in here (on the front terrace) and destroy the bushes, but I just plant new ones.''

Cultivate your skill with roses

Britain has used the rose as a symbol for centuries, and, although roses have been grown in America for more than 200 years, it was President Reagan who declared the rose the national flower.

Roses are hardy plants that are easy to grow. Yet the fragrant flower has been the subject of countless books, both practical and poetic.

Local rosarian Tommy Cairns has written and edited a few of his own. His ``Ortho's All About Roses'' (Ortho; $11.95) is available in most bookstores and garden centers. ``Modern Roses 10'' (American Rose Society; $49) is available by mail-order from the American Rose Society, P.O. Box 30000, Shreveport. La. 71130, or via the Internet at www.ars.org. And his ``Botanica's Roses: The Encyclopedia of Roses'' (Random House; $75) was only recently published and is not yet widely available.

Here are some tips from the prize-winning rose grower that you might not find elsewhere:

Force multiple blooms per stem out of traditionally one-stem, one-flower hybrid tea roses by constantly fertilizing. But don't burn the rose by using too much fertilizer at a time; half-strength applications twice as often as the product maker recommends are best.

When a rose bush produces a cluster of blossoms, break off and throw away the larger center blossom while all are still closed. This, called disbudding, will force the energy that would have gone into creating a spectacular center blossom into the smaller surrounding blossoms, boosting their color and size. If you let the center blossom develop, you'll have one big flower surrounded by a handful of tiny ones.

If you're planning a garden full of roses, plant them 3 feet apart to give their roots a chance to spread and grow vigorously. If properly fertilized, the plants will fill in the bare space in between.

If you have a rose you like, it's not hard to duplicate it yourself. Cut a stem with four eyes (an eye is the point at which new growth can be seen emerging); plant in a container filled with potting soil with two eyes below the soil level. Roots should sprout within a few weeks. The new plant will take two or three years to mature and flower.

It's not true that traditional-sized roses must always grow in the ground, and miniature roses must be in a container. Miniatures do well when planted directly into the ground, and regular rose bushes do just fine in at least a 7-gallon container if they're fed and watered properly. Another option is a half wine barrel, but plastic containers hold moisture longer than either wood or pottery.

If a spent rose is trimmed off, cutting just above where a five-leaved branch joins the main stem, another rose will bloom from that node in 42 days. But make sure to trim so the new growth will be on the outside of the bush; directed inside, the new growth will lack light and air and won't develop into a showy rose.

- Carol Bidwell

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) ON THE THORNS OF A DILEMMA

1,000 bushes still not enough for Studio City rose fancier

(2--Color) This pink moss rose is a descendant of the old-fashioned climbing roses developed in 19th-century Europe.

(3--5--Color) Tommy Cairns is one of the world's leading rosarians, having won most of the top prizes in the United States and England. The Fourth of July rose, left, derives its name from its explosive red and white stripes. The Orange Juice, below, is one of Cairns' favorites.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Daily News

Box: Cultivate your skill with roses (See text)