With so many great new roses to grow, I am definitely looking forward to a garden full of color and fragrance. I am also looking forward to something else new – the new Jackson & Perkins Spring Garden Inspirations catalog. Many gardeners were surprised not to see our Rose catalog in their mailbox this fall. That is because we have expanded the catalog to include the many other products that J&P has to offer. All of our award-winning and favorite roses, both old and new, are also featured. Look for this fabulous new book now, or
click here to request a catalog.
From
hybrid teas to
floribundas to
shrub and
floribundas to
groundcover roses, we have some fantastic new varieties. With so many wonderful new roses I find it hard deciding where to begin. Perhaps the best place to start is with the award winners.
The
All-America Rose Selections (AARS) had a difficult time selecting their ’07 winners because there were so many deserving candidates. The AARS Trials are conducted over a 2-year period in test gardens around the country. Rose entries are scrutinized for all the qualities gardeners look for in a good garden plant: hardiness, vigor, disease resistance, habit, bloom color, fragrance, form and substance. This is a pretty tall order considering that winning candidates have to show these qualities in gardens throughout the U.S. and in all the unique and challenging growing conditions that this entails.
The judges selected 3 winners this year.
Moondance is a large upright, white-flowered floribunda. Its blooms open a creamy white. The offspring of the popular Iceberg shrub rose, Moondance produces much larger flowers and more of them than its famous parent. On long, strong stems, the large flowers show beautifully in a vase, and the plant itself displays very strong disease resistance. Moondance flowers have a sweet raspberry scent. This is J&P hybridizer Keith Zary’s ninth AARS award-winning variety.
Moondance also won our Floribunda of the Year honors.
Floribundas are my favorite rose type because they are fantastic garden performers and easy to incorporate into landscapes.
Strike It Rich is a 2007 version of the 1950 AARS winner, Sutter’s Gold. It’s a much stronger plant, with the same large, glowing, ruby-swirled golden blooms that made Sutter’s Gold such a popular rose in its time. The reddish stems and dark green foliage make this grandiflora rose a standout in the garden.
Rainbow Knock Out®, another in the Knock Out® shrub rose series, promises to be heavier flowering than previous Knock Out® varieties, with improved disease resistance. Its yellow-centered flowers are certainly eye-catching, in a clear pink that deepens to coral as the blooms mature.
For nearly fifty years Jackson & Perkins has selected their best rose for Rose of the Year. The 49th winner is no exception.
Sheer Magic displays ravishing, coral-blushed cream blooms with thick substantial petals that hold up well in a vase. The stems are long and strong. A nicely compact plant gives you lots of flower power for a small space. And it’s resistant to blackspot, too.
While our Floribunda of the Year award has only been around for seven years, it was a long-overdue award considering J&P created the floribunda rose class. Surprisingly, award-winning red floribundas have been sparse. That is, before the introduction of this year’s Floribunda of the Year,
Black Cherry. A tall vigorous floribunda that is constantly in bloom, its near-black buds open to bright cherry-red blooms. I have really enjoyed gardening with this rose.
