I must admit, I am not a 'joiner' so I never got down to the local rose society or garden club - but I do enjoy my roses, and thought I would tell you about one of the best in my garden.

I grow Marmalade Skies - I bought it at the nursery because once I saw its name I couldn't get the old Beatles song out of my head ... Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Odd - but that's how my mind works. Once I got it home, I looked on this web site for instructions on how to plant it and care for it. Found all of it so I ventured out to the front yard, selected a spot close to the edge of the walkway, and dug the hole.

My rose has been blooming it's fool head off since that first year - and it blooms in big bunches of salmon-orange blossoms. Quite an eyecatcher! The neighbors like it, and some of the 'walkers' from the Residential Care Home on the next block often stop by to admire it and comment about the color. The only downside for them is there is not much fragrance - only a slight whiff of "something nice is blooming here".

This rose is a low to medium growing Floribunda from Meilland International. It was introduced in 2001 and in some countries it is called Tangerine Dream. It is fairly bushy for me and I find that it tolerates the dry heat of the California interior valleys very well. It is not very stickery and the leaves stay a nice dark green with some luster. They seem to be very tough - at least they don't tear easily. ARS color classed it as an orange-blend. I class it as florescent salmon!

The individual blooms average about 3 inches across but it blooms in clusters of 5 or more, so you get a big bouquet of blooms on each flowering stem. The bunch of blooms is often so heavy the stems bend sideways. There are about 25 petals in each cupped bloom. They start out a dark salmon and shade slowly to a light salmon-pink-orange before they are done.

The parents are [(Tamango × Parador) × Patricia]. Tamango is red and has Mutablis in its background. Parador is orange-red with Sarabande in its background. Patricia is an apricot-blend, hardy rose.

Marmalade Skies won the AARS award for 2001. That means it does well all around the country.

If you like bright colors, and easy care floribundas that can withstand heat - try this rose. You'll like it.

Photo, courtesy of Lee Jennings