This story interests all lovers of the “queen of flowers.” American gardeners can now grow the world’s finest roses in their yards and gardens with relatively little effort or expense.
Each year, more homeowners turn to roses for beauty and almost every landscaping need.
The vast increase in the popularity of roses can be attributed largely to the success of the All-America program inaugurated in 1938 by a group of the country’s leading nurserymen-rosarians.
This gives the average gardener a dependable basis for identifying the best among new rose varieties introduced annually. No longer must a home garden be a testing ground.
Instead, one can now obtain pre-tested roses with more beautiful colors, more fragrances, and richer rewards in flowers from top-quality plants.
Rose Hybridizing
All-America Rose Selections is a non-profit corporation, national in scope, and independent of all other All-America judging organizations.
Before its formation, the gardener could not determine the quality of new rose introductions.
The Plant Patent Act of 1930 put rose hybridizing on a business basis. For the first time, growers could introduce and market new varieties with the assurance of a fair return from their originations.
This encouraged increased activity among rose breeders and led to the establishment of large research programs and an expansion of planned rose hybridization.
Thousands of new rose varieties appeared, and many of them vastly improved over those of the past.
Unfortunately, a plant patent does not denote superiority or higher quality. Instead, it merely certifies that the variety is different; it may or may not be better.
Patented Roses
The mass introduction of patented roses before nationwide testing destroyed the public’s confidence in new roses.
Few amateurs could afford to test wide new varieties to choose those suitable for a particular locality.
Commercial growers faced a similar dilemma and were forced to market new roses purely speculatively. It was to solve these problems that All-America Rose Selections came into being.
Truly All-America
The name “All-America Rose Selections,” or “AARS,” means exactly what it implies that a rose bearing the AARS seal may be grown anywhere in the United States with the expectancy of top performance.
Numerous new varieties have been judged outstanding in all characteristics by a group of the nation’s top rosarians.
This does not mean some variables may not excel in a given location under specific conditions.
It does mean that AARS award winners are the roses that have shown the finest balance of many qualities in all climates.
The name “All-America” rather than “All-American” was chosen because selections need not be American but may come from anyone anywhere in the world.
Any new rose origination can compete without restrictions, except that the new variety may not have been sold previously in the United States for outdoor planting. If his entry wins, the entrant must also agree to cooperative production and introduction.
Garden Testing
New entries are tested for two years at 25 official test gardens, which are in all sections of the country and include the widest possible variations of soil and climate.
Many of these testing grounds are located at leading educational institutions and public gardens; some are near various nurseries.
An impartial judging panel of master rosarians, consisting of amateurs and professionals, horticultural leaders, and commercial growers, studies the roses under growing conditions.
Tested Two Years
Entries are often evaluated during the first spring, summer, and fall. Then, after demonstrating an ability to overwinter in good condition, they are scored throughout a second spring, summer, and fall.
Scoring is by a uniform point system—actually four systems because the schedule of points and characteristics varies according to the type of rose (hybrid tea, floribunda-polyantha, Grandiflora, or climber-pillar).
High Ratings of All-America Roses
All-America roses must receive high ratings for such qualities as a novelty, vigor, habit, disease resistance, foliage, bud form, flower form, stem, floriferousness, substance, opening color, finishing color, and fragrance.
For floribundas, emphasis is upon spray rather than stem; both spray and stem are considered for climbers, and the latter class also contains a score for “cleaning itself.”
Points of the Grandiflora class stress the characteristics which set aside this type as different.
Garden Care
Rose garden care is intended neither to neglect nor to pamper the entries under test but to simulate that given the average home gardens regarding planting, insect and disease control, feeding, watering, and winter protection.
At the end of the two-year testing period, judges submit a final evaluation of each entry, with comments on its behavior during the entire trial.
This provides an accurate picture of characteristics during different periods of blooming. Scores from the 25 gardens are average and tabulated to show the relative final standing of competing entries in the several classes.
Awarding the Best Rose
After the judges’ scores and comments have been discussed openly at the next meeting of All-America Rose Selections, members vote by secret ballot to decide which, if any, variety is worthy of the award.
Most members have observed the performance of entries at the test gardens and demonstration gardens, maintained by many of them to become familiar with the merits of each entry.
A favorable two-thirds majority is required. This and the exacting standards of excellence demanded eliminating all but the finest varieties.
Distribute New Winners
Every year AARS ships the newest all-America roses to public rose gardens nationwide.
The roses are donated by the introducers of the winning roses. Plants are sent the season preceding the catalog listing.
Not only does this assure such gardens of a constant source of the newest and finest roses.
It also allows the public to see the latest award winners under actual rose-growing conditions in their own and other areas.
AARS Awardees
Two spectacular roses received the coveted AARS award for 1957, ‘White Bouquet’ and ‘Golden Showers.’
‘White Bouquet’ is an enchanting white floribunda with sparkling flowers up to five inches across and lustrous, dark green foliage.
The flowers are gardenia-like and open fully, with petals spreading to form opulent white blooms with a sweet, spicy fragrance.
The bushy form of this variety makes it especially valuable for bedding, foundation plantings, and borders.
First Climbing Rose
‘Golden Showers’ is the first pillar and climbing rose in many years to receive the All-America award.
Its large, 4” to 5-inch vivid, deep yellow blooms occur in great profusion in the early spring and recur throughout the season as new canes continue to produce many flowers.
The large, leathery, glossy foliage which covers the plant is highly resistant to mildew.
‘Golden Showers’ may be grown as a climber, pruned to grow as a five-foot symmetrical bush, or trained as a self-supporting pillar or column, 10’ feet high.
All-America Roses
All-America roses survive the test of time are the following:
- ‘Charlotte Armstrong,’ cerise red hybrid tea noted for its beautiful long bud and healthy plant, was a winner back in 1941 and remains a favorite today.
- ‘Lowell Thomas,’ deep yellow hybrid tea (1944)
- ‘Rubaiyat,’ cerise red hybrid tea (1947)
- ‘Floraclora,’ salmon rose floribunda (1945)
- ‘Mirandy,’ crimson red hybrid tea (1945)
- ‘High Noon,’ yellow climber (1948)
- ‘Diamond Jubilee,’ buff hybrid tea (1948)
- ‘Pinkie,’ light rose pink polyantha (1948)
- ‘Forty-Niner,’ brilliant red and yellow bicolor hybrid tea (1949) continues among the most widely planted and exhibited roses.
- ‘Peace,’ pale gold tinged with pink, hybrid tea (1946), maybe the most popular rose in the world, according to every poll.
- ‘Fashion,’ coral pink floribunda (1950), is the most widely planted of its type and pushes ‘Peace’ for top honors in popularity.
Although the above list reads like a “Who’s Who” of room, more recent All-America winners are equally outstanding.
- ‘Vogue,” cherry coral floribunda (1952);
- ‘Helen Traubel,’ apricot pink hybrid tea (1952);
- ‘Ma Perkins,’ coral-shell pink floribunda (1953);
- ‘Chrysler Imperial,’ crimson red hybrid tea (1953); and
- ‘Mojave,’ apricot orange hybrid tea (1954) has taken its rightful place in the gardens and hearts of rose lovers everywhere.
The rose was so outstanding and different that it became the first of an entirely new class and was an All-America winner in 1955.
- ‘Queen Elizabeth,’ a clear pink, heads the Grandiflora class and produces buds and blooms of hybrid tea quality with the profusion of floribunda, both singly and in clusters with cutting-length stems, on a husky plant that is larger and stronger than the average.
- ‘Tiffany,’ yellow-pink blend hybrid tea (1955), possesses an intense fragrance and captivating form;
- ‘Jiminy Cricket,’ coral-orange floribunda (1955), jaunty, floriferous; and
- ‘Circus,’ multicolored floribunda predominantly yellow and red, (1956), are other outstanding predecessors of ‘White Bouquet’ and ‘Golden Showers.’
44659 by Ralph M. Dasher