AARS Relaunches Web Site, Announces 2005 Rose Honorees

A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet, but All-American Rose Selections (AARS) knows that even the loveliest blooms need to be refreshed occasionally. For that reason, AARS announced the relaunching of its Web site www.rose.org earlier this month, as well as a new look to the organization’s logo. The new logo and easier-to-navigate Web site are part of AARS’s effort to raise awareness of the organization and share with trade and consumer customers the benefits of planting award-winning AARS roses.

Founded in 1938, AARS’s 16 member companies represent more than 90 percent of the nation’s total rose production and strive to introduce and promote exceptional roses. The non-profit organization performs extensive two-year trials on every rose cultivar submitted for evaluation, looking at everything from fragrance and color to disease resistance and flower production. AARS-winning roses have been proven to perform at or above AARS standards in a variety of official test gardens representing a range of climates throughout the United States. During the trial phases, the roses are provided with the care and average home gardener would give to his or her plants.

This year, AARS has named four award winning roses, all of which will be featured on promotional materials the organization is sending to select garden centers. Read on or visit www.rose.org for more information on the newest AARS honorees.

About Face™ (cv. WEKosupalz) PPAF. Hybridized by Tom Carruth and introduced by Weeks Roses, About Face exhibits large flowers up to 5 inches in diameter and has a tall, upright, bushy growth habit. Rich green foliage shows off the unique bicolored blooms – golden yellow on the interior and bronzy orange on the reverse. Usually, bicolors are darker on the inside of the petal and lighter on the outside. AARS notes that About Face, a member of the grandiflora class, has excellent disease resistance, is easy to grow and lovely to watch as the colors blush and blend throughout the season.

Lady Elsie May™ (Rosa ANGelsie). A member of the shrub class, Lady Elsie May has a vigorous but uniform growth habit with flowers clustering on strong 12- to 20-inch stems. Hybridizer Reinhard Noack and introducer Angelica Nurseries are proud of this rose’s excellent disease resistance, 3½- to 4-inch flower size and abundance of coral-pink blooms set off by dark green, waxy foliage. AARS notes that the semi-double blooms make appearances through summer and well into autumn and that the foliage color will not fade in the summer heat. With crown hardiness into zone 4 Lady Elsie May is an excellent choice for mass plantings.

Elle™ (var. Meibderos PPAF). The Conard-Pyle Co./Star Roses introduces the Meilland International-hybridized Elle rose, a member of the Hybrid Tea class. Elle’s strong, spicy, citrusy fragrance is carried by 4- to 5-inch blooms with an average of 50 to 55 petals each. Noted to be bushy but compact for its class, Elle is perfect for small gardens or large containers and its pink blooms with deep yellow undertones are well matched to the plant’s dark green, glossy foliage. Elle exhibits mildew, rust and black spot resistance above average for its class and has a vigorous, ever-blooming growth habit.

DayDream™ (Rosa ‘Baleam’). This landscape shrub rose hybridized by Ping Lim and introduced by Bailey Nurseries displays petite 1-inch flowers, but makes up for bloom size with volume. The round, bushy plant carries masses of mauve to fuschia-pink flowers all summer long. The button-like blooms open wide and flat and are framed by glossy, medium-green foliage. Lim gave DayDream its name because its disease resistance and easy-to-care-for manner afford gardeners more time to sit among the flowers and daydream, rather than toil over their care. With a medium growth habit, DayDream works well along a garden path, mixed into perennial borders or simply in a patio container.