done!

I've done mine also. Always appreciate the reminder on this forum. I'm hoping again this year that when they publish the results in the January ARS magazine they will include the color designation by the name of the rose. I realize it's there on the insert in the July/Aug ARS mag (the excuse that has been given to me on more then one occasion since they stopped doing it),but what help is that 3 years from now when I want to see the reviews on ANY pink mini (for example). There are 117 possible minis to be reviewed this year and I'm supposed to save both issues from 2008 so that I can flip back and forth to find which ones were pink? I don't understand why this seems to be impossible to accomplish, it certainly was not a monumental task in the past. At the current prices for membership I would think something like this, which is a annoyance and easily solved, could be accomplished to accomodate people like myself who have chosen to incur the costs of your organization on limited funds.

Well said, Maryl. I hope someone out there is listening.

Phil, as an ARS official, can you tell us how to nominate a rose such as Sweet Surrender for the James Alexander Gamble Fragrance Award?

Thanks.

I'm afraid that Sweet Surrender would not be considered for this award at this time. Although they have lowered the rating acceptable for the award in the past few years to 7.5, Sweet Surrender is rated only a 7.4. If you feel that this rose deserves to be rated higher you must wait for the Triennial survey which allows people a chance to reacess the rating on older varieties. Fragrance is not the sole criteria (yet) for winning this award.

Maryl is correct. The current rules state that a rose must have a Garden rating of 7.5 to qualify for the Gamble Award, and Sweet Surrender only has a 7.4. However, if you would like to pursue the issue, this award is decided by the ARS Prizes and Awards Committee. The chair, Sam Jones, can be reached at gsamj@bellsouth.net. By the way, this information is largely available on the ARS website at www.ars.org. Clicking on the Members Only link takes you to lots of information that is not just available to members (don't ask why it is included there because I don't know). It is freely available to everyone. There are only a very few things limited to members only.

OK, I will do that. I went to the ARS site and had to do the google search to find the James Alexander Gamble Medal award and found that it was in the ARS Archives section. It appears that not-so-new roses are still eligible for the award, based on Crimson Glory being the first award winner in 1961 when it was breed in 1935, a 26-year period, and Mister Lincoln was given the award in 2003 while bred in 1964, a 39-year period. So there is still a chance for Sweet Surrender I suppose. I tried unsuccessfully to find the ratings section for the various roses to see how the award winners stack up in terms of the ratings. Do you know if the ARS site has the ratings or where the ratings are on the ARS site?

Thanks

The ratings for roses can be found in the "Handbook For Selecting Roses", which comes out once a year and is sent to the ARS members. As far as I know it is not available to non-members. The qualifications for the James Alexander Gamble award include not just fragrance, but also a better then average performance rating. The rating used to be higher then 7.5 (which is a rather middling rating IMO), but because so many years passed without the award being given out, they lowered the rating requirement. The current 2008 ratings for past winners of the award are not relevant. It was how high their ratings were at the time of consideration and selection. Sutter's Gold (a past winner) for instance now has a low rating of 6.9. Once given, the award can not be taken away even though a rose's rating may have slipped below the original ideal.

The ratings are online, the link is in the "Members Only" section, but this info is password protected.

Diane, I am a member of ARS, but have trouble finding the link. Can you point me to the link in the Members Only Section?

Thanks.

Sure. Members Only->2008 Handbook for Selecting Roses (link in the right column). The ratings are in the Handbook for Selecting Roses, as maryl noted earlier.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to 2008 Handbook for Selecting Roses

Us CR Chairmans look to see who has done it or not. This helps me make the choice of the Outstanding CR of the year.
No matter what they did , if they don't do their CR report and RIR I won't give it to them!

Maryl, I will try to include the color class of the roses in the RIR survey report this time. However, I think you may be laboring under some false assumptions. For one, the ARS is no more my organization that it is yours. I am simply a dues paying member who volunteers his time to run the RIR survey. The same is true for the district RIR coordinators who receive the reports for their districts. None of your dues money is going to pay for it. The ARS could triple my salary and it still wouldn't be enough to buy a piece of penny candy (if there still is such a thing).

Back when you remember the results showing color class and other goodies, the survey was run so the results from the 2008 version which just closed wouldn't be published until December of 2009 when the Annual came out. You should get the results now in the January 2009 magazine, which is much more timely. In order to do that, my district coordinators have about 19 days to put their district reports together and send them to me. Some of them have 200 reporters, so there is a lot of detail to handle. I then have 16 days to compile the 18 district reports into the national report and get it to Shreveport to include in the January magazine. We simply don't have the time to include all the little niceties the longer wait allowed for. We also are quite limited in space in the magazine, so it isn't easy to add things.

However, I'll do my best to include the color class this year.

I appreciate all the volunteers that give their time and efforts to the ARS. And of course I don't hold you personally responsible for the contents or methods used by higher ups in the current versions of the ARS magazine. However, I believe I can say with some validity (and you can pass this on to them) that the only reason to join the ARS for many of the non-exhibiting public is the contents of the ARS magazine and the yearly rose ratings. I think it behooves the ARS now more then ever to be as "user" friendly as possible. I will admit to ignorance on magazine publication, but I don't understand why adding(at most)a 2 letter color designation (ie: PB for pink blend) by the rose name would require any more "space" in the January issue then it did in the July/August issue. But alls well that ends well as the poet said. Again your efforts are appreciated and just so you don't think yours is a totally thankless job "Thank You" from all of us who will enjoy an easier January RIR with the color codes included.

Phil are you doing better. I missed you in Peoria!