Everything A Prize Rose Should Be
Three Beauties Selected as 2004 AARS Winners


They’re just what you’d expect an award-winning rose to be: beautiful, fragrant, disease resistant and easy to maintain. These traits have earmarked All-America Rose Selections winners for 65 years, and the 2004 AARS Winners are outstanding examples of roses that have excelled during two years of thorough testing.

Day Breaker, Honey Perfume and Memorial Day have outperformed the field to be awarded the coveted AARS honor.

As the absolute best new roses for the next growing season, this trio promises to sparkle in any garden and stir up emotions as rose lovers renew their affair with this gem of all flowers.     

“No new roses are ever guaranteed of meeting All-America Rose Selections’ standards during the rigorous trials in test gardens across the country,” says AARS President Phil Edmunds. “The fact that we have three deserving winners this year is testament not only to the roses’ stellar performance, but also the diligence of growers to deliver new, exciting varieties to the rose-growing public.”

Rigorous Test Program

AARS winning roses are all judged on 15 key gardening characteristics including disease resistance, hardiness, color, form, flowering effect, fragrance, vigor and novelty. Winners must perform exceptionally well over a two-year period in numerous test gardens throughout the United States.

Day Breaker, Honey Perfume and Memorial Day will be available for the 2004 planting season through selected catalogs and at retail garden stores nationwide.

Day Breaker

Day Breaker is an upright, bushy floribunda with bright, multi-shade blooms in yellow, blending to pink and apricot. From pointed and shapely buds, its spiraled blooms grow to 4 to 4½ inches in diameter, with 30 to 35 pedals per flower, each nestled among dark, glossy green foliage on a plant that reaches a medium height.

Day Breaker is an awakening of the senses, not only for its exquisite beauty, but also for its sharp moderate tea fragrance. Day Breaker truly earns its floribunda classification with its brilliantly colorful, long-lasting clusters of flowers in a hardy, continuous bloom.

Hybridized by Gareth Fryer, Day Breaker is being introduced by Edmunds’ Roses of Wilsonville, Ore.

Honey Perfume

This second award winning floribunda for 2004 is one “sweet” honey of a rose. Exceptionally rich in color, Honey Perfume is a knockout performer. Its bright apricot yellow blooms grow in large, open clusters with fast repeat on an upright, well-branched plant. Flowers are 4 inches in diameter with 25 to 30 petals each on 12 to 14-inch long stems. Honey Perfume grows to about 3½ feet high and 2½ feet wide and features dark green and glossy foliage.

This classic floribunda has a great spicy scent and exhibits very good resistance to disease, including rust and powdery mildew. Honey Perfume was hybridized by Keith Zary and is being introduced by Jackson and Perkins Wholesale Inc. of Medford, Ore.

Memorial Day

Like the holiday of the same name, Memorial Day is truly worth celebrating. Expertly representing the most popular class of modern roses — hybrid tea — this medium-tall, upright and bushy variety features very large, full, spiraled blooms with more than 50 petals per flower. Evolving from pointed and ovoid buds, Memorial Day’s clear pink flowers are accented with a lavender wash and grow to up to 5 inches in diameter. Its long cutting stems are beautifully clothed with rich green foliage to accent the large blossoms.

With its classic, strong damask rose fragrance, a single Memorial Day rose can fill an entire room with sweet rose perfume. A vigorous and productive performer, Memorial Day is highly disease resistant and especially loves hot weather, particularly for unfurling its commemorative rose petals. It makes a great, easy-to-grow addition to any garden.

Memorial Day’s hybridizer is Tom Carruth. It’s being introduced by Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower of Upland, Calif.

All-America Rose Selections is a non-profit association dedicated to the introduction and promotion of exceptional roses. Since 1938, the AARS trial program has encouraged the rose industry to improve the vitality, strength and beauty of roses for American home gardens. Today, the AARS program is one of the most successful and highly regarded of its kind, having brought to the forefront such roses as Peace, Mister Lincoln, Knock Out, and Bonica.


Day Breaker is a trademark of Edmunds’ Roses.
Honey Perfume is a trademark of Jackson and Perkins Wholesale Inc.
Memorial Day is a trademark of Weeks Wholesale Rose Grower.