In 2005, the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden was named one of 23 nationwide All-America Rose Selections (AARS) test gardens. Becoming the Garden’s Rose Specialist in 2004, Debra Keiser researched the AARS and determined not only that the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden would be a great place for a zone 3 trial rose garden but that the accreditation would give the Garden recognition through the AARS website and other media. So she applied for designation as both an AARS Test Garden and an AARS Public Display Garden. Virginia Clemens Rose Garden was accepted, first as a test garden, and a year later, in 2006, as a public display garden.
The test garden acceptance required staff to build two new garden areas, each capable of holding about 150 roses. Each year the garden, receives new rose plants to grow, and evaluate for two years. In 2008, after a standard three year probationary period, the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden was given AARS Official Test Garden status. The Rose Garden has received excellent reviews from American Rose Society evaluators for its maintenance of the AARS test and public display gardens.
In 2006 and 2007, the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden was a test garden for Bailey Nursery’s Easy Elegance roses. This resulted in the addition of a very good selection of Easy Elegance hardy, disease resistant roses in the Clemens Perennial and Lower Test Rose Gardens. A trip to Butchart Gardens as part of the American Rose Society National Convention in 2006, resulted in the addition of miniature roses and delphiniums to the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden Further contacts with members of the American Rose Society have brought additional large donations of roses, including a collection of Buck Roses from the University of Minnesota Research gardens, species and old garden roses from a Minnesota rose hybridizer, new varieties of miniature and mini-flora roses from Nor’East Roses, tree and shrub roses from Linders, hardy shrub roses from Conard Pyle, and a variety of new roses from W. Kordes Söhne of Germany.
From the original 1,100 roses that included hybrid teas, floribundas, shrubs, climbers, and tree roses, the numbers have increased to more than 1,800, including the addition of miniature, mini-flora, species, and old garden roses. In 2009, the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden celebrates its twentieth season and will become one of nine American Rose Society Award of Excellence Trial Gardens for miniature and mini-flora roses. This gives the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden the distinction of being one of only seven rose gardens in the United States that is both an AARS test garden and an AOE trial garden. St Cloud residents have a reason to be very proud of their rose garden. |
