next generation

Hey gardeners! Three of you will receive a collection of all three colors of Next Generation Flower Carpet groundcover roses – offering supreme heat and humidity tolerance – as part of the Your Easy Gardens blog's “Great Gardens” contest being held this summer! 

Complete contest entry info and rules can be seen on Tesselaar's online newsroom.

  

During the contest, which starts in July and runs through September, we're asking for images and stories from your gardens in three different categories:

• Best Plant Combos (July)
• Best Story About Your Garden & Why Gardening Is Important To You (August)
• Best “Easy Gardening” Tricks & Tips (September)

One category will be featured per month, and the winner of that category will be randomly chosen at the end of that month.

Gardeners can enter more than once by answering that month’s feature question and engaging in conversation on the blog.  Monthly winners will receive a canvas totebag, a stunning coffee table book called The Rose, with writing contributions from five of the world's most respected rosarians (including Tesselaar Plants cofounder and president Anthony Tesselaar) and the entire collection of Next Generation Flower Carpet roses – Amber, Scarlet and Pink Supreme. The roses will be shipped next spring at the appropriate planting time for the winner’s area.

“This is all about sharing what works in your garden and why you garden,” says Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants. “We would love to see those winning plant combinations that make your garden a special place.”

The contest begins July 1 and will run through September 30, 2011. No purchase is necessary to enter or win. You can enter as often as you’d like but each entry must be a unique answer/comment. The contest begins at 9:30 a.m. on the first day of the month and all entries must be received  by 10:30 p.m. on the last day of the month until the contest ends on September 30, 2011. Winners will be selected and notified at the end of each month.

Pink Supreme is now the seventh Flower Carpet rose to win the world’s top honor for disease-resistant roses – Germany’s coveted All Deutschland Rose (ADR) designation. One of three new Flower Carpet “Next Generation” roses (with an additional 15 years of breeding for heat and humidity), Pink Supreme this year also scored high in the Dallas Arboretum trial gardens (known for putting plants to the ultimate test in extreme heat and humidity).

“I know of no other eco-friendly, easy-care rose program offering so much scientifically based, unbiased backing and endorsement,” says Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of the Australia-based Tesselaar Plants (which introduced Flower Carpet to the U.S. in 1995 as the world’s first low-maintenance, prolifically flowering, disease- and pest-resistant landscape rose.) “That’s what happens when every plant you offer goes through such rigorous testing – 1,465 steps in all – before it’s brought to market.”

Tesselaar is particularly pleased with the ADR designation for Pink Supreme, which is now the third of the Flower Carpet line’s “Next Generation” roses to win the award (along with Scarlet and Amber). The original line’s Pink, White, Scarlet and Yellow have also won the designation. The ADR trials are conducted over the course of three years at a number of different test sites, each enforcing the ADR program’s famous ban on spraying or other chemical support. “We all know these are important measures as we look to minimize our impact on the environment,” says Anthony Tesselaar. 

Pink Supreme also earned high marks in the Dallas Arboretum’s 2010 Trial program – internationally known as one of the premier places to test plants for extreme weather conditions, especially high heat and humidity.

“Our tagline is ‘Trial By Flower – If We Can’t Kill It, No One Can’”, says Jimmy Turner, the Dallas Arboretum’s Senior Director of Gardens.

The arboretum’s trial program annually tests 4,000 annuals, bulbs, perennials, trees and shrubs in search of the “toughest plants alive.”

“This is a variety that I was highly impressed with due to its flower power,” says Jenny Wegley, Research and Greenhouse Manager for the Dallas Arboretum. “Pink Supreme blooms its head off the majority of the growing season, with mid- to light-pink flower clusters that really make this variety popular.” Pink Supreme, she adds, also shows no signs of powdery mildew and takes a cutting well.

“This is why we’re so excited about the “Next Generation” line of Flower Carpet roses,” says Anthony Tesselaar. “As other brands continue to chase our original, revolutionary performance, our breeders have already spent 15 years taking it to the next level.”