I know it’s unseemly to go around awarding oneself your own award, but in this case, the Snidely Whiplash Award, awarded to the villains of the garden world, is just desserts. What have I done to deserve this award you may ask? (Many things, but we’re not here to talk about the debauchery and carrying on). I penned one of my most infamous posts, The Axis of Evil: American Rose Society, All-America Rose Selections, Jackson and Perkins, and for the most part I stand by it…but I’m afraid that we may only have a ‘duo of evil’; if one takes a look at the record of the All-America Rose Selections Committee it’s pretty obvious they’ve done good things in recent years. Specifically, the AARS honored some incredible roses by hybridizer Tom Carruth, notably Hot Cocoa, Strike It Rich, Scentimental. Secondly, and perhaps most impressively the AARS had the boldness to award Knockout roses, Pink Knockout roses, and Rainbow Knockout roses all with AARS designations. Frankly, it took some courage to nominate a hot pink rose, but it was the right choice, as disease resistance is excellent. AARS, you have my apologies (although it doesn’t let you off for the some of the loser roses you honored in the preceding half century). I’ll treasure this award forever.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We may now have only a ‘Duo of Evil’  - see more recent article, How I Wronged the AARS. Sure, Starbucks, Walmart, and Microsoft are easy enough to pick on, but in the gardening world we have our own axis of evil. I refer, of course, to the triumvirate of the American Rose Society (ARS), All-America Rose Selections (AARS), and Jackson and Perkins. This bunch present themselves like Stanley and Livingston, spanning the globe and their own breeders network to bring only the best to you. However, their chief function seems to be to market and sell roses, and oh what crappy roses they are…

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Over at the good ol’ American Rose Society website, an article written by Robert B. Martin on the spraying of roses begins: “The practice of spraying one’s roses is a delicate subject to address in these times of environmental activism. But the fact of the matter is that spraying is often essential for the control of insects and mites and for the prevention of diseases that attack roses. As a consequence, most devoted rosarians accept the need to spray their roses.” Sorry, but I’ve got to take issue with this statement, especially since it might lead new gardeners to believe it’s so.

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