Coming Up Roses : Latest Hybrids Are Fragrant--and Have Colorful Personalities
Rose hybridizers continually strive to develop roses with excellent disease resistance, strong fragrance and novel colors.
The 1996 crop of new roses includes all of the above.
Those that win the All-America Rose Selections top award, based on nationwide trials for a two-year period, get the most publicity, but those aren’t necessarily the best roses for Southern California. This year, however, all four All-America winners will perform well here.
St. Patrick is sure to get the most attention, since this is the first rose that actually appears green under certain conditions. Hybridized by an amateur, Frank Strickland of San Bernardino, St. Patrick is a chartreuse-yellow hybrid tea that thrives in heat, unlike most yellow roses that fade as temperatures climb, said Justin Ekuan, a hobbyist who grows St. Patrick and 100 other rose bushes in his Dana Point garden.
St. Patrick’s chartreuse buds remain tight in cool weather but slowly unfurl when the weather heats up, making this rose better suited for inland areas. The chartreuse cast becomes more green with heat, and the gray-green foliage is resistant to disease.
It has little fragrance, but its long-lasting qualities make it an excellent cut flower.
“St. Patrick is a real gift for people who live inland,” Ekuan said. “It’s a good, healthy plant with good vigor and novel greenish color. Hotter weather intensifies its color and form.”
Mt. Hood, a white grandiflora and 1996 All-America winner, is apt for garden displays and bouquets, said Tom Carruth, hybridizer for Weeks Roses in Upland. Clusters of ivory flowers are set off by glossy-green, disease-resistant foliage. This is an upright grower, and because the flowers have 45 petals, they open better as the weather warms.
All-America winner Livin’ Easy is an easy-care floribunda with apricot and orange flower clusters. The masses of bright flowers glow in a landscape, particularly in a mass planting. It is quite disease-resistant and quick to repeat its bloom, Carruth said.
Carefree Delight, the 1996 All-America shrub winner, produces masses of single pink flowers with white eyes. The plant grows in a mounding form that spreads, and can be used effectively on slopes or cascading over walls.
In our warm climate, a single Carefree Delight plant can spread to six feet, so it can even be used as a small climber against a picket fence, Carruth said. It’s disease-free and is a low-maintenance rose.
Jackson & Perkins of Medford, Ore., is introducing a dozen roses this year. Look for its rose of the year, Signature, which according to Keith Zary, a hybridizer at J&P;, is an outstanding rose, especially for those who like to exhibit. It features deep pink flowers with a lighter pink reverse and classic hybrid tea form. The dark-green foliage can mildew somewhat in cool weather.
“Signature is magnificent,” Ekuan said. “It’s a gorgeous bush with plenty of vigor and lots of bloom.”
Moon Shadow, hybridized by Zary, is a rich lavender hybrid tea with outstanding fragrance and surprising disease-resistance, Carruth said. (Lavender roses are among those most prone to rust and mildew.) It does best in summer and fall when the nights are warmer, because the pointed buds need heat to unfurl 30 petals.
J&P;’s hybrid tea, Monet, offers large flowers in hues of pink, peach, yellow and apricot, enhanced by a light, fruity scent. According to Zary, the resistance to disease is average, meaning it will get some mildew, but that flaw is offset by the large flush of bloom and speed with which the plant repeats the bloom cycles.
Last year, a number of excellent ground-cover roses were introduced, and that trend continues in 1996.
Watermelon Ice, also from J&P;, is a low-spreading, watermelon-pink ground-cover rose that is disease-free, Carruth said. Like other ground-cover roses, the spent blooms fall by themselves so it only needs to be pruned for shaping.
Weeks Roses is introducing several noteworthy roses. Flutterbye is a shrub rose that grows so large it can be used as a small climber. The single flowers mutate from yellow to coral, tangerine and pink, and are produced in large clusters. This show-stopping rose features glossy, dark-green foliage that’s disease-resistant.
But if you want fragrance, select Champagne Cocktail or Shocking Blue. Both have been on the international market for a number of years, but Weeks is now introducing them in the United States.
Champagne Cocktail is a floribunda that produces novel fragrant flowers of pastel yellow splashed and painted pink. The pink intensifies as the weather warms. Shocking Blue is a highly fragrant medium lavender floribunda with a strong citrus aroma.
An upright grower for a floribunda, it’s quick to repeat blooms and has glossy green foliage that’s remarkably disease-resistant, Carruth said.
Edmunds Roses, a respected mail-order rose nursery based in Wilsonville, Ore., is especially popular with exhibitors. Its featured rose for 1996 is Teneke, a white hybrid tea that has the distinction of being developed for the cut-flower trade and is also an excellent bush in the garden. Teneke is an upright grower, to 5 1/2 feet in our warm climate, and the pure white flowers are resistant to water spotting and are long-lasting.
Karen Blixen is another white rose from Edmunds. This grandiflora is bright white, with moderate fragrance. The large flowers have 55 petals, so they need heat to open.
Maggie Barry, also from Edmunds, is a luminous coral hybrid tea with long-lasting flowers.
According to Carruth, this flower improves with age. He recommends planting it alongside St. Patrick for a remarkable garden display.
Local nurseries offer Weeks and J&P; roses. You can also obtain a J&P; catalog by calling (800) 292-4769.
Edmunds Roses are available by mail order only: 6235 S.W. Kahle Road, Wilsonville, OR 97070, (503) 682-1476.
