by Diane Sagers

CORRESPONDENT

Ah, Valentine's Day. While it's not an official holiday, it's a popular one that brings rapture to the hearts of lovers, nevertheless. Chocolate and flowers, cupids and kisses are the order of the day.

Roses are the queen of flowers and they are honored as such in many ways. The Tournament of Roses parade certainly has flowers of all kinds on display, but the name of the event makes them the star.

Rosarians specialize in growing these beloved blossoms and they are constantly looking for better and more beautiful varieties. Even those of us who aren't really as into roses as others still want to grow the prettiest ones we can find. After all, a rose bush can last for generations.

Roses carry meanings as old as legends. The red rose means I love you and other colors carry different sentiments. What could be more appropriate for Valentine's Day than to get a glorious new rose variety that has proven itself a winner among the others?

A group of rose aficionados, known as the All-America Rose Selections (AARS) Committee, has tested roses for about 63 years and they would love to share their results with everyone.

To be a winner, a rose must embody all the characteristics you would want in such a plant. They are tested for two years in special test gardens all across the country. Experts judge them on characteristics like disease resistance, flower production, color, fragrance and others. If the rose passes the test, it should be good nearly anywhere.

They have selected two winners for 2008.

Dream Come True is a grandiflora plant, meaning it produces prolifically with large, full clusters of flowers. They make wonderful background shrubs. If pruned severely, grandifloras take on the look of a hybrid tea rose.

Dream Come True produces blooms with a pastel yellow center blushing to a beautiful pink on the edges. The vigorous plant turns out long-stemmed, and long-lived blossoms make it as lovely in a bouquet as in a landscape. The flower form is pointed, fat and full double blossomed.

The shrub grows medium tall, upright and bushy. They have long foliage color growing in an abundant matte green. The plants are resistant to disease, although diseases are much less common here with our dry air than in many places.

This shrub produces a double and formal flower up to 5 inches in diameter with about 40 petals. It has a mild fragrance.

The plant is very hardy requiring winter protection in very cold winters.

In 67 years this is only the third All-America Rose winner hybridized by an amateur, Dr. John Pottschmidt of Cincinnati, Ohio. Weeks Roses has introduced this plant.

Mardi Gras is another floribunda plant. The plant grows to an upright, well-branched and dense form that makes it good for a hedge rose. It grows 16 to 20 inches tall with semi-glossy dark green foliage and is resistant to diseases and hardy to zone 5 -- meaning it will do best with winter protection here.

The flower color is yellow orange turning to pink at the edge. The bud is a pointed ovoid shape and opens to form flat, large clusters. Flowers are 4 inches in diameter with 20 to 25 petals and produces a moderate peppery fragrance.

Jackson and Perkins has produced this flower from an unnamed seedling crossed with 'Singing in the rain."

You may also be interested in their Region's Choice designations. These roses have shown to perform exceptionally in the Mountain states -- an area that extends across northern New Mexico and Arizona, turning north just above Las Vegas and running up the spine of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. It also includes the high deserts of the Rocky Mountains. Notice that not all of the states in this area have the same climate as ours. Not all are cold hardy to our level, so pay attention to hardiness designations when you purchase them. The lower the number the more hardy to cold the plant is.

Look for these varieties to add to your garden: Carefree Delight, Carefree Wonder, Memorial Day, Hot Cocoa, Tahitian Sunset, Eureka, Crimson Bouquet, Julia Child, Whisper and Scentimental.