When a rose is not just a rose
Gardeners grow roses for their beauty. Others love the
fragrance.
Gardeners grow roses for their beauty. Others love the fragrance.
This year’s gardeners who choose the 2003 All-America Rose Selection winners for their garden will find another quality – their generosity. The 2003 winners provide an ongoing parade of new blooms, plus some have never-before-seen colors and combinations.
Four new roses share the AARS awards this year. Cherry Pink Parfait and Whisper are big roses that seem to bloom without end. Eureka and Hot Cocoa are bushy floribunda plants that produce explosions of color throughout the growing season.
January is the time to buy and plant bare-root roses. Garden centers, nurseries and mail order rose catalogs offer the AARS roses along with other top-rated rose choices for our area. Here’s what you need to know about the 2003 AARS winners:
* Eureka. Nearly as wide as it is tall, the 3-foot tall Eureka floribunda features big flowers in an unusual gold share that some call “copper apricot.” The flower clusters are widely spaced, which makes this rose a good corner anchor in the garden.
* Hot Cocoa. Another floribunda on a big showy bush, Hot Cocoa is true to its name with a very novel “chocolate brown” bicolor rose that shouts “look at me.” Thanks to its unusual color, Hot Cocoa works well as an accent plant in the front of the house, or combined with pastel-toned flowering plants.
*Cherry Parfait. This is a flashy grandaflora with white petals edging a red center, a bicolor in the style of the most famous Double Delight. Because this rose is long blooming and highly disease resistant, it’s a good choice for a person growing roses for the first time.
*Whisper. The only Hybrid Tea winner this year, Whisper, with its creamy white blooms, stands in utter contrast to the vivid colors of the other three winning roses. Whisper has classic bud form and dark green foliage to serve as a dramatic background for these flowers.
What, exactly, does the AARS designation mean to the gardener? Some people think AARS is no more than a marketing technique. But AARS also is an assurance of tested quality. The AARS roses are field-grown for two years in public and private gardens across the country. The roses are rated for durability, disease resistance, color and performance. Some fail and end up in the compost pile. The best of the best are chosen for their top performance and rated AARS introductions.
In the AARS hall of fame are such all-time favorites as Mr. Lincoln, Peace and Double Delight.
There are 18 AARS test sites in California. The ones in our region are San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, San Francisco Golden Gate Park and Oakland Marcom Amphitheater of Roses.
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A Reader Wants to Know: When is the right time to prune my apple tree and rose bushes? One of my neighbors has already done allof his pruning. Another neighbor says not until February. What do you say? Debbie D., San Juan Bautista
Joan Says: Either one of your neighbors could be considered “right” because there is a nice big window of time for pruning. Basically, it is best to prune your deciduous fruit trees once all the leaves have fallen, and that can be any time from mid-December to early February. Roses should be pruned when they are fully dormant – or as “fully dormant” as they get in our climate. Prune roses in January and early February. Both roses and trees should be pruned before they break dormancy and start setting buds. Be sure to clean up underneath the trees and shrubs, pick up fallen leaves and renew mulch.
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Tip of the Week: Spruce up your containers with plantings of winter and spring-blooming annuals. Choose primroses, snapdragons, cyclamens, pansies or violas. They thrive in harsh weather.
