Sunshine Daydream: An Inspiration to Rose Lovers by Jeff Rugg on Creators.com

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Sunshine Daydream: An Inspiration to Rose Lovers

If you watched the awesome Rose Parade, you probably saw the Bayer Advanced Garden of Imagination float that won the Director's Trophy for outstanding artistic merit in design and floral presentation. Among the 20,000 roses was the world debut of the 2012 All-America Rose Selections Winner, Sunshine Daydream.

The float told the story of the Walheim brothers, who daydreamed in their childhood garden. Rex Walheim dreamed of flying and became an astronaut and flew on the very last shuttle flight in July. His brother, Lance, dreamed of gardening and became a bestselling author of 30 books, including "Roses for Dummies." I love the combination of a rocket scientist and a horticulturist from the same family riding the Rose Parade float together.

The All-America Rose Selections (AARS) are a group of 10 official trial gardens. The gardens are spread out across the country and located in a variety of climates. They follow standards designed to test each rose with the type of care normally given by the home gardener.

Rose breeders develop hybrids on a regular basis. Before a new one is put into production and released for sale to the public, it can be entered into competition at the AARS trials. The specimens are assigned a number and undergo a two-year test. Climbing roses undergo a three-year test because they bloom on older canes. The roses are evaluated on 15 characteristics of concern to the typical rose-grower. They're tested for vigor, disease resistance, flower production, flower shape, petal count, fragrance and many other attributes.

If a rose is a winner in this nationwide test, the result is a beautiful and easy-to-grow rose — easy to grow so long as you plant it in the proper location and follow the proper maintenance techniques, just as you would with any other plant. Winning roses are then planted in more than 130 public display gardens around the country so that gardeners may see the roses in person.

Some contests have a winner in every category each year, but not the AARS.

There hasn't been a winner in the miniature, tree rose or climbing rose divisions for the past several years. Winners of the AARS are truly winners that can be planted all across the country with a good expectation of success.

The first hybrid tea rose was introduced in 1867, and roses haven't been the same since. They are the most popular type of rose. They have large flowers several inches across borne singularly on stems as much as 18 inches long. They usually require more care and winter protection than other types of roses.

Floribundas are usually a foot or two shorter than hybrid teas and have many flowers on the end of the stem.

The grandifloras are crosses between the first two types and have clusters of flowers resembling hybrid teas. All three groups are more difficult to grow in northern areas of the country than shrub roses and climbing roses.

The more petals a rose flower has, the more solid the flower bud looks, and the longer it takes the flower to open. It lasts much longer in the nice-looking partly open stage. Fully open flowers tend to lose petals more quickly after they've been pollinated. A rose flower designated as a "single" has only five petals. Many shrub roses, crabapples, pears, serviceberry and other rose family plants have this open look.

This year, the AARS awarded only one rose. The grandiflora named Sunshine Daydream has a 25-petal count and light-yellow flowers with no fragrance. There may be up to eight of the 3-inch-wide flowers on a single stem.

The Sunshine Daydream rose blooms on the ends of new branches, so pruning will help it keep flowering all summer. The bush grows to about five feet tall and four feet wide, is disease-resistant and grows best in full-sun locations. It is hardy in zones 6 through 9 and into zone 5 with winter protection.

Plant a Sunshine Daydream rose in your yard this summer, and then have the kids daydream about what they might be when they grow up — and maybe they'll end up on a Rose Parade float in the not-too-distant future.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.