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- All-America Rose Selections named for 2008
With the New Year come announcements of ornamental plant winners. One popular competition is the All-America Rose Selections. AARS winners for 2008 are Mardi Gras and Dream Come True.
LSU AgCenter horticulture professor Dr. Allen Owings calls Dream Come True a stunning sight of catchy colors, which lures the likes of even non-rose lovers to its side. This rose produces flawlessly formed yellow blossoms, blushed with ruby-red at the tips, all set amongst abundant matte-green foliage. The big, bushy vigorous plant yields long-stemmed, long-lived blooms with mild tea fragrance, making it lovely in the landscape and a great choice for bouquets.
Dream Come True was hybridized by Dr. John Pottschmidt of Cincinnati, Ohio – only the third amateur hybridizer to win the AARS Award in 67 years – and introduced by Weeks Roses of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Owings says Mardi Gras creates a festive atmosphere in any setting with its flamboyant blooms in a novel blend of pink, orange and yellow and its delightful peppery scent. Each high-centered hybrid tea-style bloom begins as an apricot-orange bud that slowly spirals open to reveal a 4-inch bright pink and orange bloom with a yellow base.
Mardi Gras has proven to perform exceptionally well across the country with little-to-no care. The colorful blooms are perfectly framed with dark green, semi-glossy foliage, and its upright columnar habit makes it an ideal rose to use as a hedge or in a border with mixed perennials.
Mardi Gras was hybridized by Keith Zary and is introduced by Jackson & Perkins Wholesale, Inc., Medford, Ore.
All-America Rose Selection roses are evaluated at the LSU AgCenter Burden Center in Baton Rouge prior to and after their release. You can view on-going rose research at Burden. Landscape studies evaluating rose performance are also being initiated this year at the LSU AgCenter’s Hammond Research Station in Hammond.
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Contact: Allen Owings, (985) 543-4125 or aowings@agcenter.lsu.edu
Editor: Mark Claesgens (225) 578-2939 or mclaesgens@agcenter.lsu.edu