I see ont he J&P website announcing their new roses for 2008 that two of the 2007 test panel roses have already been selected to be commercially marketed.

The Yellow is "Southern Belle" and labeled a grandiflora. I am surprised at the grandiflora label as my bush certainly shows no signs of clustering at all. All my flowers are definitely single stems--so sprays. I really like this one for it's vogorous bush growth and pretty fragrant flowers it produces very generously.

The pink bi-color rose they are naming "April in Paris" and is going to be their "Rose of the Year" for 2008. My bush is very vigorous growing and healthy and the flowers very fragrant and a nice creamy white center with creamy pink outer petals. I think my own bushes flowers pink outer edges are cleaner and less "dusty" looking than the pictures I see posted on the website. My only concern was that the first few blooms on mine were pretty small, but that improved immensely as the rest of the blooms of the first flush opened up. They were very acceptably sized and lasted quite well on the bush and also a couple that I cut and refrigerated. They finished opening very slowly in the fridge and the colors stayed just like you would want 'em to. This is a very good rose and it's flower form, bloom petal substance, and vigor could land a few of this one's flowers on the exhibition table.

The mauve/lavender rose on the test panel hasn't been named yet but I really think it deserves to be commercialized as well as the other two. Its' bloom doesn't last as long as I would really like on the bush or cut--only about 7 days, but that is better than Pristine's 4-5 day bloom longevity. This lavender rose has a very good fragrance in my garden though I do know that a couple of people have reported no fragrance at all. Mine is a real stinker though, so I don't understand why there is a difference of opinion on this one. I know detecting fragrance can be difficult with fickle lightly scented blooms, but this one is definitely not light to my nose or the DW's nose either. The bush is very hardy growing and broke dormancy and bloomed very quickly--faster than the other three for sure and one of the first of my entire garden and especially of the new bareroots I planted this spring.

I think the pink registered as JACcomag--which unfortunately is the same pink that J&P's own experts deemed unworthy of commerciallizing last year--is pretty much just a boring pink rose with no outstanding attribute. NOthing there to make it stand out and be worthy of purchasing for my garden or recommending it for yours either. Some say it's fragrant but I don't get any fragrance on this years bush or last years bush either one. It is a very generous bloomer and I counted 20+ single stem roses on it at one point last year. Not bad for a first year own-root rose of any variety. But still, not enough here to write home about--just to the folks here on Garden Web, LOL!!...

Why in Heaven's sake did J&P decide to send this pink rose out again on this years test panel as well is way beyond my comprehension. I have called J&P asking that very question. I think that we who purchased this years test panel deserve an answer and a refund of our money spent on purchasing, shipping,planting, and growing this rose to us this year or another rose (Preferable in my opinion)-from their vast selection of better roses. I think this whole situation stinks and really puts J&P's credibility and honesty on the line here and how they handle this complaint is important for the new management.

Let me know your opinion of this years test panel of roses, please.

Do you think the pink or lavender should be marketed??

Do you agree with marketing the yellow and pink bi-color?

What do you think of this sneaky pink JACcomag situation??

Will you continue to purchase the test panel in the future?

Best wishes and good gardening to you all!!

John