LADY BUG SAYS...NEW ALL-AMERICAN ROSES NAMED

Singing in the Rain

June is Rose Month.

This is the time of the year when the All-America Rose Selections announce the winners for the coming year. This year's honorees for 1995 are Brass Band and Singin' in the Rain, both floribundas, perhaps the most versatile rose for the home garden.

Floribundas are possibly excelling more and more in landscape and border plantings. They offer unusual color and growth habits and will perk up a variety of spots around the yard.

Brass Band has delicate yellow buds that open to a melon-orange bloom with a light yellow reverse. With up to 40 softly ruffled petals per flower, this floribunda grows up to 3 1/2 feet tall with an upright, yet spreading habit, that will blend well into a home landscape around a lamp post or mailbox. It has a definite fragrance.

Singin' in the Rain has cinnamon-apricot flowers that gently change to golden and blushed hues of apricot. Clusters of five to nine flowers create a display of ever-changing color over the entire bush. The scent of sweet musk rewards those who venture to explore its delights. This floribunda grows between four and five feet in height and is covered with dark green glossy foliage. Reports say its disease resistance is excellent.

Like the classic images their names invoke, Brass Band and Singin' in the Rain are sure to become time honored favorites. AARS assures their performance by putting the honorees through a rigorous two-year trial of the worst Mother Nature has to offer.

Originated in 1938, the AARS trial program has encouraged the rose industry to improve the vitality, strength, and beauty of roses through the years. In the process, AARS has brought to the forefront some of the classic roses of all times, including Peace, Tropicana, Mister Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth.

Last year's AARS winners were Secret, a cream and coral-pink hybrid tea with the alluring fragrance of spice and fruit, Caribbean, a grandiflora that brings to mind the lively flavor of the tropical islands with its tropical orange and yellow-tinged blooms, and Midas Touch, also a hybrid tea, which can grow five feet tall, and has bright yellow long pointed buds, and lovely open flowers.

Three of the above mentioned, Brass Band, Caribbean and Midas Touch, were Jackson & Perkins introductions, who also honored two outstanding American women by naming roses in their memory.

A striking rich apricot blooming hybrid tea was chosen to honor Lucille Ball on the occasion of the 40th year anniversary of the "I Love Lucy" series. This rose promised also to be an outstanding performer in the garden with its robust and vigorous growth on a bush clothed in medium green foliage and will grow to five feet in height.

The Anne Morrow Lindberg honors the aviatrix, author, conservationist and unofficial diplomat. She first captured public interest and admiration in the 30's by making pioneering flights with her husband. The lovely rose named in her honor blooms a soft cream and ivory with a bright pastel pink blush along its petal edges, on a vigorous, highly productive bush.

Cape Girardeau has done its bit to promote the growing of roses and further its reputation as "City of Roses". Right now there are hundreds of red floribundas blooming in the parkways, thanks to the Vision 2000 committee.

No one loved roses better than the late Fred Naeter, co-founder and publisher of this newspaper for 61 years. His keen eye and mind saw their significance for community beautification and betterment. Though he was the leader, he was joined by his brother, George Naeter, in drum beats of encouragement for more roses for Cape Girardeau.

Fred Naeter, more than any other, was the architect of the Ten Mile Garden that once existed between Cape Girardeau and Jackson. It won national acclaim, and was written up in the Reader's Digest at that time. Bed after bed of roses graced the 10-mile stretch between the two cities.

Editorially and in photos and features and news stories, he pushed for roses in Cape Girardeau, urging that there be at least one rose bush in every yard and at business locations. It was largely through his continued promotion in the pages of The Missourian that Cape Girardeau became the City of Roses, joining Tyler, Tex., Portland, Ore., and other cities in proclaiming the beauty of this much loved flower.