Love roses? Help rate new varieties

Love it or hate it? When it comes to evaluating new varieties, gardeners always have opinions.

Here’s an opportunity to make those opinions count!

It’s the annual Roses in Review survey, conducted by the American Rose Society. Gardeners from coast to coast are asked to rate newly introduced rose varieties. The scores are then compiled and averaged into a national rose rating, published in the ARS’s annual “Handbook for Selecting Roses.”

“This will be the 99th time Roses in Review will be conducted in which rose growers everywhere can review new roses they’ve grown in their own garden,” says the ARS. “Roses included in the survey have generally been on the market one to four years and are available commercially, although some on a limited basis.”

Diversity of reporters is important, notes national coordinator Don Swanson. “We need your evaluations, whether you grow one of the varieties on the survey list or dozens of them. We welcome evaluations from you whether you are a new rose grower, a ‘garden’ rose-grower or a seasoned veteran grower; whether you grow roses for your landscape and garden or if you also grow them to exhibit or arrange.”

ARS membership is not necessary; anyone who grows roses is invited to take part.

New rose varieties are scored on a scale of 6 to 10 for such attributes as color, fragrance and disease resistance. (Why not 1 to 10? If a rose earns less than a 6 or “C” grade, it’s not worth growing.)

The survey includes two ratings: Garden and Exhibition. “Garden” rates how that rose looks and performs in a garden on the bush. (Is it always in bloom? Does it look nice with little effort?) “Exhibition” rates how that rose performs as a cut flower in a rose show. (Are the stems long? Does the cut flower hold its form without falling apart?)

Rose lovers are notoriously hard scorers; even the very best rose varieties very rarely earn a 10.

Here’s a scoring breakdown from Swanson:

10: Outstanding – One of the best roses ever. This score should be seldom used.

9: Excellent – Has major positive features and minor negatives – top 1 percent.

8: Very Good Rose – You would recommend it without hesitation.

7: Average – Solid rose. Good features easily outweigh the negatives.

6: Below Average – You can find better roses easily.

(That also offers insight into the published ratings.)

Not all roses are rated every year – there are too many! (Thousands of roses have ratings.) Instead, the roses on the review list are mostly new varieties or ones that had not yet been rated but are becoming known to a wider audience. Most roses on this year’s list first hit nurseries in 2020 or later. There also are five varieties that for whatever reason had not been previously rated or needed revisions.

Among the roses on this year’s review list are several low-growing “groundcover” or landscape roses such as Buttercream Drift as well as more traditional hybrid teas and floribundas.