Plant of the Week: Oso Easy® Urban Legend® Rosa

We're very excited share the news that
Oso Easy® Urban Legend® rose has been awarded an American Rose Society Award of Excellence for 2019!

In 1973 the American Rose Society Board of Directors established the Award of Excellence (AOE) to recognize new miniature and miniflora rose varieties of superior quality and marked distinction. Since the inception of the award, there have been 130 AOE winners.

The competition accepts submissions of miniature and miniflora roses which have been in commerce for less than one year. Those chosen to compete are evaluated for two to three years in eight AOE public test gardens and two private gardens, which are spaced geographically across the United States. Roses may be entered in a “no spray” division, a “preventive spray” division, or both.

Each public garden has an AOE supervisor and five evaluators who score the entries on eleven criteria four times during each growing season. At the end of the trial period, Awards of Excellence are given to deserving entries, with a maximum of five per year.

The official public announcement of the Award of Excellence winners was made at the ARS National Miniature Rose Show and Conference in May, where Oso Easy® Urban Legend®, a cherry red miniature, was declared the top rose in the “no spray” division.

This is a really showy rose, and quite thorny, too. That's how it got its name: planting something this prickly near windows might help to keep burglars from breaking into your house. It's also good for keeping people out of your yard. You know, Father's Day is coming up. If your dad is one of those guys yelling at kids to keep off his lawn, maybe some of these pretty guard dogs would be appreciated.

Portions of this post are taken from the Plant of the Week email, written by Jane Beggs-Joles