Award-winning roses for your garden

If you didn't get roses for Valentine's, don't despair. You still have time to get the newest and latest varieties to add to your garden.

Since 1938, the All-America Rose Selections have promoted exceptional roses. The nonprofit association, which was formed to introduce and promote exceptional roses, features a nationwide network of 20 official test gardens dedicated to evaluating roses under many conditions.

Before a rose is selected as a winner, it must complete an extensive two-year trial program in gardens representing all climate zones. In these gardens, roses are given the same care that an average homeowner would give them in a garden setting.

The judges select winning roses based on vigor, fragrance, disease resistance, foliage, flower production, growth habit, bud and flower form, opening and finishing color, stem and overall value of the plant.

Here's a look at this year's selections:

The beautiful creamy white blossoms give Moondance its name. This floribunda rose has exceptionally well-formed flowers that contrast nicely with the glossy dark green foliage. Like other floribundas, it is an upright, well-branched, extremely vigorous tall plant.

The blossom stems are typically 14 to 18 inches long, and the buds have a pointed, oval-shaped form creating high-centered flowers. These flowers open flat into 3-inch diameter blooms with about 25 petals each. The long stems make elegant bouquets for gifts or displays.

Part of what makes this an award winner is that Moondance has an exceptionally spicy fragrance for a white floribunda. Moondance is highly resistant to black spot, mildew and rust, making it much easier to grow in your garden. Another important consideration is that it is hardy to Zone 5 and will take Zone 4 with good winter protection.

Moondance is hybridized from Hartanna and Iceberg, a famous white rose by Keith Zary and introduced by Jackson & Perkins of Medford, Ore.

Rainbow Knock Out is a bushy, compact landscape shrub rose that is even more floriferous and disease-resistant than its famous parent, Knock Out. As a shrub rose, it has short stems covered with glossy, dark green leaves.

Its flowers start out as pointed buds that open into single-form delicate five-petaled flowers. These are 2 inches in diameter and are a deep coral-pink color with a yellow center that changes to a light coral color.