It doesn't take long to do it, and it helps make ratings more accurate.
It's a really simple good deed. Do it today!

Jeri

Just finished it. Fortunately, I didn't have too many roses on the list, so it went rather quickly. However, now I'm second-guessing myself--maybe that 8.5 should have been 8.7, etc. Oh well, too late--already submitted.

It was kinda fun.

Kate

I'm impressed that you have an 8.7 rose...... I haven't done mine yet. I'm debating about even rating a couple of 1st year own root roses. How can I tell from 5-6 blooms on a twig what they are really going to be like? Think I'll wait on those for another year just to be fair.

Maryl, that is absolutely the right thing to do. If you don't think you can fairly rate a rose, then waiting for another year is the best approach. I hope you do have at least one or two you can rate. The more people we can get to participate, the more accurate the results will be.

DublinBay, don't worry too much about one or two tenths of a point. Getting your ratings in the right ballpark is the important part. I'm glad you are willing to rate your best roses high. We get far too many "safe", middle of the road ratings.

I hope everyone will take a little time to rate their roses. We really do care what you think about them.

I had almost no really new roses to rate. Most of what we rated were in the "special" section, and they are things we grew for years -- so we had a good "read" on them.

Jeri

Hey, I like that they have added that special section. So many roses, like the older Austins, weren't readily available back in the day and their ratings were non existant. Too I think the ARS has opened it's doors to wider audience participation now. Roses of diverse bloom forms can be more fairly rated then when the ratings were mostly done by exhibitors who favored HT's. I still like the HT form probably the best, but certainly wouldn't throw out some of my Romanticas, Austins, etc and I'm interested in their ratings as well.

Special section? I don't remember one and just checked the survey--don't see a special section. What am I missing?

Wish I had printed off copies of my ratings. I'm having trouble now remembering what roses I rated.

Kate

"The ARS WILL NOT use this information to SPAM you, it is only used for data collection and is deleted once the input is forwarded to the district RIR coordinators. "

Once upon a time I was president of my local Rose Society. The ARS had to have my contact info to send me stuff I needed for the job. I was assured that my physical address would NOT be given or sold to anyone, and yet, to this very day I get gobs of garbage mail sent to me as "ARS (local affiliate) President", all clearly from various advertisers with the ARS magazine. Obviously my address was sold to a list of ARS advertisers, with no consideration of the fact that I was told this would NOT happen. So forgive me if this "ARS won't spam you" bit leaves me rather skeptical.

Regards,
Paul

Paul, I appreciate your feedback. I have been entering my data on line for at least 5 years now, and I never get any SPAM e-mail from the ARS or any paper mail either. The e-mail address is used to correlate the data, and also so that users can return to the survey to rate more roses at a later time. It makes it easier for the RIR district coordinators (volunteers like me) to tabulate the data.

What the ARS does with its general mailing lists, I do not know.

Kate, the section that Jeri is referring to is called "Special Review" at the top of the survey.

Thanks everyone.

Kate, to see your ratings, go back into the survey, click on "Hybrid Teas" (or whatever category at the top) then look at the yellow band, on the right side there is a link for "List Your Reviews". That will give you a list of your reviews that you can print.

Thank you, Diane--I just ran off my ratings. On second thought (or I guess third thought now), I do not want to change any of my ratings, so I can quit worrying about that.

But about the "special review" section--maybe I'm being really dense today, but I can not see anything like that on the survey page. Maybe it appears only on members' pages? (I'm not a member.)

Kate

Kate, the "Special Review" section should be visible to everyone. Go back in to "Review Roses", enter your e-mail and zip. At the top of the next page, in the purple areas in the top pane, on the left side are (or should be) links for "Floribundas & Polyanthas","Large-Flowered Climbers", "Special Review", in the center "Grandifloras", "Miniatures/Mini-Floras", and on the right "Hybrid Teas", "Shrubs & OGR's".

Finally, I found it. You must have larger screens than I do. I had to scroll down one more level to find "Special Reviews." Didn't notice the scrollbar the first few times I went there.

Thanks for your patience--I got to rate Lambert Closse as a result.

Kate

Paul, in this case you can be absolutely sure your email address will not go beyond Roses in Review. The RIR survey online is run by volunteers, is handled on an independent server far from Shreveport, and the email addresses are all deleted once the survey is over and the data has been sent to your district RIR chair. That is one reason you have to reregister at the start of each RIR rating year. It is on the ARS website to make it easy for everyone to find, but the staff at Shreveport are not involved. (Frankly, I think your data would be safe with them as well, but I can understand your concern.)

I'll have to go back in. I checked under Hybrid Teas and only saw one, Mr. Lincoln that I have. I never heard of most of the other entries.

Also, is the rating 1-10, it didn't really specify, but I assumed that it was.

buford--
If you scroll down the opening page, you will see a link to "Instructions"--it has the rating scale listed in a table.

Kate

Also please note, the rose listed under hybrid teas is not Mister Lincoln, it is Mrs. Lincoln. This is a newer red hybrid tea carried by Hortico. With the exception of the special section, all roses in the survey are in their second, third or fourth year in commerce in North America. The only older roses in the survey are those in the Special Review list.

The ARS does hold a survey every few years to ask whether rose growers agree with the current ratings for older roses. The last one of these surveys was in 2005, with the next tentatively scheduled for 2010.

Phil,
Obviously my (physical) address information was NOT safe with the ARS headquarters folks, or I wouldn't have found my mailing address sold to their advertisers. I'd love to hear some official ARS comment on this event, since headquarters has never responded in private to my questions about it. I believe the ARS has a privacy policy about selling our addresses, and yet it happened.

Respectfully,
Paul

Oh darn! (Mrs.Lincoln) that's what I get for not wearing my glasses.

What would be extremely helpful when determining size of rose is what height determines a small, medium and large bush? My medium may be anothers large. Something I struggle with every year when doing these. Thanks!

I think Paul's getting that stuff because he was a President, not because of RIR.
My DH was President of our local society at one point. We haven't even been members of that society for at least 6 years, but we, too, still get all that claptrap.

At one point, I went to the point of calling both ARS and the American Kennel Club, to request in person that they not include us on any member lists that they sell.
Both assured me, hand on heart, that they do not and will not do that.
BOSH. The ads keep on coming.
But rest assured, ARS is NOT the only culprit, and I suspect you would have the same problem with almost any member group, these days.

Jeri

It is almost impossible for us to define short, medium and tall in a way that will fit everyone. In the northern tier of states a hybrid tea might be tall at 6 feet. In the deep south that would be a midget. All we can do is suggest you consider the normal heights of the various classes as they grow in your area. Then decide if the rose in question is among the taller ones, is about average, or is one of the shorter ones.

Jeri,
Same as you, my gripe is that I was promised that my mailing address would not be sold or given out to anyone, and yet clearly it was. No way will I ever join the ARS again, and not just because of being lied to about my mailing address being sold.

Paul

At this point, Paul, I suspect ARS needs you a lot more than you need ARS.
Organizations of any sort shouldn't be less-than-truthful with their members. In the long haul, it never pays.

Jeri