How do you rate your roses?

Frida Kahlo, a floribunda from Weeks Roses and named
 for the famed artist, is among the roses that needs rating
in Roses in Review. (Photo courtesy Weeks Roses)

Annual 'Roses in Review' survey grades new introductions

By Debbie Arrington

For almost a century, gardeners across the nation have been rating their roses. It’s one of America’s oldest exercises in citizen science and an important tool for helping others select roses for their own gardens.

It’s the American Rose Society’s 95th annual Roses in Review survey. And you’re invited to participate.

“We need your evaluations, whether you grow one of the varieties on the survey or dozens of them,” said Don Swanson, the national coordinator for Roses in Review. “We welcome evaluations from you whether you are a new rose grower, a ‘garden’ rose grower or a seasonal veteran grower; whether you grow roses for your landscape and garden or if you also grow them to exhibit and arrange. We are happy to get reports from non-ARS members as well.”

ARS members do most of the ratings (and new members are always welcome), but the review is open to anyone who grows roses – as long as those roses are on this year’s survey. The results are compiled in the annual ARS handbook.

Not all roses are re-evaluated every year; there’s just too many. According to the ARS, there are more than 37,000 registered roses listed in the society’s encyclopedic “Modern Roses.”

Instead, the annual survey sticks to newly introduced roses, commercially available in the past one to four years. That group still includes about 200 varieties. Rating those new introductions is important; high scores will keep them on the market for years to come. A bad grade? That rose could soon be history.

This bouquet features Violet's Pride, a salute to "Downton Abbey."
The mauve floribunda is one of dozens of new roses,
up for review. (Photo: Debbie Arrington)

How do you rate roses? Through observation, gardeners evaluate each bush’s characteristics such as height, winter hardiness and disease resistance. They consider its pluses such as fragrance, color and form. And its minuses (such as a susceptibility to powdery mildew).

After thoughtful consideration, they give that rose a number grade on a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being best.

In the rose garden, there are almost no 10s. As the directions remind graders, “10 (equals) Outstanding, one of the best roses ever. These scores should be seldom used.”

Instead, most roses fall between “7” and “8,” which makes sense. Each variety had to have a lot of positive features to make it to the market in the first place; but a “6” is below average.

By comparison, Mister Lincoln (an all-time favorite hybrid tea) is rated 8.3.

Filled with the ratings of new roses as well as thousands of popular varieties, the ARS handbooks are available for purchase from the national website as well as local rose societies.

For more details or to participate in Roses in Review, go to: www.rose.org.