GARDENING : Petal Pushers Spread News to the Rose-Colored Classes
Pasadena’s annual parade will be Monday; the other rose parade will in the days after as gardeners descend on nurseries to buy roses in the bare-root stage.
In addition to old favorites, there are almost 50 new selections for 1995. They include roses in novel colors and with sweet perfumes, easy care ground covers and shrubs, traditional floribunda and hybrid teas with classic form and long stems for elegant arrangements.
Each year, rose aficionados eagerly await the announcement of All-America Rose Selections, roses that have been tested nationwide for two years and evaluated by AARS.
There are two winners for 1995, Brass Band and Singin’ in the Rain. Both are floribunda roses; both are in unusual apricot blends.
Brass Band produces ruffled flowers in soft apricot tones with shades of pink and a yellow reverse. Hues of yellow, apricot and orange add to the novel coloration. The flowers are long-lasting, but the color can fade in hot weather inland. A plus is this variety is reputed to have excellent disease resistance.
The rich color of Singin’ in the Rain varies from amber cream to deep cinnamon and apricot. “The color will capture you,” said Tom Carruth, hybridizer for Weeks Roses. The rose offers continuous bloom, good disease resistance and nice foliage.
If you like orange roses, and, judging by the increasing number coming on the market, many people do, Weeks Roses offers several to light up a drab garden. Oranges n’ Lemons is a shrub rose with gaudy bright yellow stripes on striking orange flowers. It’s very disease resistant, with bronze-red foliage.
“This is a rose people either love or hate,” Carruth commented.
He notes that it needs time in a garden to develop. “It’s a stingy bloomer the first year, but once established will flower freely.”
Blast Off is another bush with striking colors. The scarlet red/orange clustered flowers have a white reverse. The floribunda rose produces many clusters of small flowers that last up to seven days on the bush, even in heat. As the flowers age, they fade to white, creating novel coloration as new flowers form.
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Easy-care rose plants are popular in Europe, and their importation to America is accelerating as more and more gardeners demand landscape roses--lots of flowers on bushes that are very disease resistant and don’t need much care.
Among the easy-care varieties are those in the Town and Country Series offered by Young’s American Roses. The group of eight shrubs or miniature roses in colors ranges from pink, white and apricot to red. Two are ground-cover roses, with almost continuous bloom year-round.
Carruth recommends Cliffs of Dover, a white ground cover in the series, especially for slopes or trailing over retaining walls.
“It’s a fascinating little rose with tremendous flower power,” he said. “Single white flowers are produced in clusters all year; it’s never out of bloom.”
Look for more ground cover roses in 1995, with Jeepers Creepers and Snow Shower offered by Jackson & Perkins, and Flower Carpet making its debut in late summer. A single bush of each will cover 10 square feet, and all flower freely to produce an eye-catching landscape effect of masses of color.
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If you still long for fragrant roses to admire in vases indoors, you’ll find several new varieties in ’95.
Heaven is the Jackson & Perkins 1995 Rose of the Year. The long white buds, edged in pink, open to five-inch blooms with a light tea fragrance. Keith Zary, hybridizer for J&P;, recommends Heaven especially for inland areas of Orange County, because it can be prone to mildew, especially along the coast.
Lynn Anderson, a robustly growing hybrid tea rose, produces cream blossoms edged in pink. Flowers and color excel in cooler weather, so this is rose will be better along the coast. It is a very tall grower, so expect long-stemmed roses for a formal bouquet. The rose was developed by Joe Winchell, an amateur hybridizer, and is being marketed through Weeks Roses.
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Other noteworthy new roses are:
Camille--old-fashioned flowers with quartered centers, light pink and strong fragrance. Shrub grows to five feet.
Fortune Teller--deep purple hybrid tea with a strong lemon fragrance.
Gypsy Dancer--a shrub-like floribunda rose that produces clusters of “hand-painted” flowers of yellow splashed with red. Good disease resistance. Spreading growth to four feet.
Love Potion--dark lavender floribunda with strong fragrance. Ruffled flowers on a productive floribunda shrub that grows to three feet in a rounded habit. Moderate disease resistance, can get some mildew.
Magic Lantern--a color sport of the yellow grandiflora, Gold Medal, this rose is a tall grower like its parent. Produces long-stemmed flowers in cognac-like copper-gold hues. Good disease resistance.
Taboo--classic hybrid tea form on a very tall growing bush. Very deep red, velvety flowers that can burn in intense heat. Slight fragrance, good disease resistance.
Queen Margrethe--old-fashioned pastel pink floribunda rose that produces quartered flowers in great abundance. Small, rounded growing habit. Bright green leaves are completely disease free. Apple fragrance.
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The AARS winners are available at nurseries and garden centers throughout Orange County, as are the Weeks Roses and many J&P; roses.
Jackson & Perkins also offers a free mail-order catalogue. To request one, call (800) 292-4769.
