Gardeners Find Many Reasons To Plant Rose Garden (NAPSA)—Ask gardeners why they start growing roses, and you'll get a range of answers. This year gardeners who choose All-America Rose Selections (AARS) winners for their garden will discover another wonderful quality of roses—generosity. The 2003 winners provide an ongoing parade of dazzling color and new blooms, plus some never-beforeseen colors and combinations. For example, the two Floribunda winners Eureka and Hot Cocoa are bushy plants that produce explosions of color throughout the growing season. Nearly as wide as it is tall, the three-foot-tall Eureka features big flowers in an unusual gold shade that somecall “copper apricot.” The clusters are widely spaced, which makes this rose a wonderful corner anchor in your garden. Hot Cocoa is a novel “chocolate brown”bicolor rose that can become the focal point of the garden. This stunning rose is great in front of your house or can provide a colorful accent to an existing garden. Cherry Parfait, a flashy Grandiflora with white petals edged in red, is the secondbicolor AARSwinnerthis year. This winner seems to be always in bloom, makingit a terrific garden centerpiece and excellent for someone growing rosesfor thefirst time. Whisper, the only Hybrid Tea winner this year, contrasts with the vivid color of the other three. Its creamy white blooms are a breath of fresh air. Whisper has classic bud form and dark green foliage to serve as a dramatic backgroundfor this classic rose. Gardeners—whether beginners or veterans—find AARS winners easy to grow and maintain because they are the “best of the best” in test gardens around the country. Eureka, Hot Cocoa, Cherry Parfait and Whisper have proved disease-resistant in all climates, so they’re a very safe bet for your garden. They’re also very forgiving, another characteristic of roses that makes them popular. While other plants may take weeks or months to show improvement, roses respond quickly. That’s a big relief, especially for the novice gardener. Roses prove to be great friends because they have such staying power, particularly quality ones such as these 2003 AARS winners.
