Polar Express Sunbelt Floribunda (Photo: The Biltmore Company)

‘Honeymoon Arborose’ (photo: The Biltmore Company)

If you grow roses in the U.S. Mid-South region, the historic Biltmore Gardens in Asheville, NC is key source for discovering what varieties you should be growing.

Recently, a jury of world rose experts selected the winning roses in the 2016 Biltmore International Rose Trials. Since 2011, Biltmore’s historic Rose Garden has been home to the trials in which more than 150 varieties from growers and breeders worldwide have been planted and cared for by Biltmore’s horticultural team.

Polar Express Sunbelt, a fluffy white rose bred by Kordes, took the top award: the George and Edith Vanderbilt Award for Most Outstanding Rose of the Trials.

In addition to winning the Best in Show Award, Polar Express Sunbelt won the Edith Wharton Award for Best Floribunda, and the William Cecil Award for Best Growth Habit.

Additional winners this year were:

• Honeymoon Arborose, bred by Kordes, won the Gilded Age Award for Best Climber and the Lord Burleigh Award for Most Disease Resistant
• Double 10, bred by Ping Lim, won the Pauline Merrell Award for Best Hybrid Tea
• The Lark Ascending, bred by David Austin Roses, won the Chauncey Beadle Award for Best Shrub

Each trial lasts two years and a permanent jury judges the roses four times per year. This year’s final round of competition started with 31 entries planted in 2014 from Canada, the U.S., France, Ireland, Great Britain and Germany. Competing roses are evaluated for overall health and rigor; fragrance; disease resistance; and ability to repeat bloom.

Biltmore’s Rose Garden receives Award of Garden Excellence
Biltmore’s rosarian Emily Wilson and past American Rose Society president Jolene Adams unveiled an award in honor of Biltmore’s historic Rose Garden: the World Federation of Rose Societies Award of Garden Excellence. Biltmore’s rose garden is one of only 10 gardens in the United States and 62 worldwide to receive this honor.