The Virginia Clemens Rose Garden is pleased to announce that it has been selected to be an Award of Excellence (AOE) Miniature Rose Trial Garden. In an attempt to test miniature roses under harsher winter conditions, the American Rose Society’s Award of Excellence Committee sought out northern gardens to be trial grounds for new miniature and mini-flora roses. As Rose Specialist for the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden, Debra Keiser, was contacted last fall by Jim Hering, Chair of the AOE Committee. He had received a recommendation from an American Rose Society member residing in the Twin Cities, who told him about the Virginia Clemens Rose Garden and suggested it as a perfect place for a northern AOE garden.
What is the AOE Miniature Trial Program? Here is the history. In 1973, because of the increasing popularity of miniature roses and the integral part these roses were beginning to play in national, regional and local rose shows, the American Rose Society Board of Directors resolved to undertake an active, impartial testing, scoring and rating program exclusively for miniature roses. Each mini rose entry was to be tested for a two-year period. At the end of the testing period, no more than five award winning mini roses were to be selected and no award given if no entry warranted recognition. Thus the ARS Award of Excellence for Miniature Roses was born. The purposes of the AOE evaluation program are parallel to those of the All-America Roses Selections:
-
To foster the development of new and better roses in and for the United States;
-
To foster the establishment of rose test gardens in the United States for the purpose of testing, judging and rating new kinds, species and varieties and acquainting people with the most worthy roses;
-
To make awards to new rose varieties of superior quality and marked distinction as determined by their performance in the official test gardens and to publicize and recommend those varieties which receive such awards.
Following the establishment of the mini-flora class in 1999, the ARS Board of Directors voted in 2000 to accept these roses as eligible for the AOE award, also. Miniature roses and mini-floras are evaluated for AOE recognition in nine test gardens by teams of ARS members:
* Edisto Memorial Gardens, Orangeburg, SC
* Fernbank Science Center, Atlanta, GA
* Hershey Gardens, Hershey, PA
* Toledo Botanical Gardens, Toledo, OH
* Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, CA
* International Rose Test Garden, Portland, OR
* Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ
* Ringling Gardens, Sarasota, FL
* Virginia Clemens Rose Garden, St Cloud, MN
Three plants of each entry are grown in the nine trial gardens. Each public garden has five evaluators who judge the rose entries four times during two growing seasons. Elements used in the two-year evaluation include novelty, bud form, flower form, opening color, finishing color, substance, habit, quantity of flowers, vigor/renewal, foliage, and disease and insect resistance. Announcement of the varieties elected to receive the Award of Excellence are made at the ARS National Miniature Conference and Rose Show each year.
Look for the new trial mini roses in the borders of the All America Rose Selections (AARS) garden beds in the lower Clemens Gardens along Riverside Drive. The roses will be planted as soon as our weather warms up.
|
