2007 Rose Festival ~ Day Three ~ Grandflora Roses

Grandiflora Rose 'Tournament of Roses'

2007 Rose Festival ~ Day Three
Grandflora Roses

The Rose Festival continues with Tournament of Roses a Grandiflora rose that is named after the huge New Years Day celebration in Pasadena, California. Here is a link to the Official website which has a lot of information on the festivities:
click here

From the history page:

“The first Tournament of Roses was staged in 1890 by members of Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club, former residents of the East and Midwest eager to showcase their new home's mild winter weather."
"In New York, people are buried in snow," announced Professor Charles F. Holder at a Club meeting. "Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise."

I have always wanted to attend the party. I guess some people want to go to the World Series or the Super Bowl but I want to go to the Tournament of Roses. That is like those two events rolled into one. Someday I will get out there but since it requires traveling over the holidays I will have to convince my wife to go. I entered the sweepstakes to win a free trip but I know those are mostly to get my name and address to spam me.

Grandiflora Rose 'Tournament of Roses'

About the rose. This is another William Warriner/ Jackson and Perkins introduction. I seem to be typing that a lot lately. It is a lovely pink double flowered rose that doesn’t grow too tall (3-4 feet, in my garden). There is really not a fragrance to speak of. It won the AARS award in 1989, the year after its introduction. One other note about this rose, when the Montreal Botanical Garden did a study on Black Spot, Rust and Powdery Mildew Tournament of Roses showed a 0-5% infection rate, one of the best.

Petal Count: 17-25
Parentage: Impatient × Seedling
Synonyms: JACient, Jackson & Perkins Rose Poesie

Another Grandiflora from ‘my’ garden is this beautiful white rose called ‘White Lightnin’. It is a relatively small rose but it has a nice pure color to it. It has kind of a lemony-citrus smell to it. This rose was bred by Jack E. Christensen and introduced by Armstrong Roses. It turns out Mr. Christensen has a website:

List of Christensen Roses
You’ll see he has bred some beauties!

and his Home Page:

Jack Christensen Home Page

Jack Christensen's Grandiflora rose ‘White Lightnin’

Parentage: Angel Face × Misty
Synonyms: AROwhif

Just a quick word about Grandiflora roses. They are descendants of Hybrid Teas and Floribunda roses. The often have the long stems, large flowers and bud shapes of the Hybrid Teas and bloom one to a stem or in clusters like a Floribunda. This class of roses was started for the rose ‘Queen Elizabeth’ in 1954 and that is still the most popular variety of this type.

Group shot of Grandiflora Rose 'Queen Elizabeth'

'Queen Elizabeth'
Origin: Dr. Walter Lammerts, 1954, US
Petal Count: 38
Parentage: Charlotte Armstrong × Floradora
Fragrance: Mild
Synonyms: Queen of England, The Queen Elizabeth Rose
This rose was bred to mark Elizabeth Alexandra Mary’s ascension to the British throne in 1952.

This is a cool USDA Zone finder by Zip Code I found at the Jackson and Perkins site:
Zone Finder by Zip Code (US only)