The University of California, Davis, has been selected to be a garden testing site for the All-America Rose Selections, a nonprofit association dedicated to introducing and promoting exceptional roses.

The campus rose test garden, located on Hopkins Road west of the core campus, was planted this winter, becoming only the third such test garden in California. It includes 30 new rose varieties, which are labeled but not yet named.

“All-America Rose Selections runs one of the world's most challenging horticultural testing programs, intended to improve the disease resistance, ease of care and beauty of roses,” said Deborah Golino, executive director of the new test garden and director of UC Davis’ Foundation Plant Services. She noted that this testing program brought to the forefront some of the most popular roses in history, such as Peace, Knock Out and Bonica.

Mike Cunningham, production manager for Foundation Plant Services, will be the supervisor for the new test garden.

Foundation Plant Services is a self-supporting department in UC Davis’ College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences that tests, maintains and distributes premium plant materials, including roses, grapes, strawberries, sweet potatoes, and fruit and nut trees.

“We have many members of the UC Davis gardening community who are passionate about roses and have long wished for the opportunity to have a rose test garden on campus,” Golino said. She noted that the garden’s first team of campus rose judges has been selected and will be trained by experts from All-America Rose Selections.

The new test garden, which is located just north of the Agriculture and Natural Resources building, will include hybrid teas, floribundas, landscape, grandifloras and climbing roses. A kiosk next to the garden will provide visitors with information that will help them take self-guided tours of the garden.

Normal gardening methods will be used for optimal growth and insect control, but no fungicides for control of powdery mildew or rust will be allowed, in order to evaluate the natural resistance of the varieties to invasive fungi. The test garden is to be judged in spring and fall over a two-year period. During the year, the public will be welcome to visit the test garden.

Each year a new set of test-garden roses will arrive for judging so that the garden will contain a one-year old set of test roses, a two-year old set of test roses and a fallow plot waiting for the next year’s roses. All-America Rose Selections provides $2,000 annually to help pay for maintenance of the garden, which will be a permanent collection on campus. Fundraising is under way to help ensure the project’s long-term future.

More information about All-America Rose Selections is available online at http://www.rose.org/.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 32,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $600 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.