I'm a sucker for new roses.
Particularly in the dead of winter when I gaze out at the frozen tundra and the only signs of life I see are paw prints, rabbit tracks and a stubborn sedum stem or two shuddering in the cold wind. My roses are knee-deep in snow and the rose towers look forlorn.
All of which serves to make photographs of new roses in spring catalogs so appealing. The descriptions are reminiscent of a bodice-ripper romance novel: "Lush, prolific blooms," "come-hither color," "intoxicating fragrance" and "a pleasure no rosarian should be denied."
All-American Rose Selections chose two roses for its 2011 honors, "Dick Clark" and "Walking on Sunshine." AARS describes the color of the "Dick Clark" grandiflora as a "killer combo." Black-red buds open to cream-edged roses washed with cherry pink. When the sun strikes the petals, they blush burgundy and finish as a deep, dark red. "Walking on Sunshine," a floribunda, offers bright yellow buds that open with an anise fragrance and fade to a light canary yellow for a multi-tonal effect. It is a vigorous, disease-resistant variety, as well.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier