New thornless roses

June 19, 4:51 PMSF Gardening ExaminerChris McLaughlin

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Gardening Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Roses like these - without the thorns.

Calling all wimpy rose gardeners! Check out this new rose variety bred by Harvey Davidson of Smooth Touch. Now you can cut roses from the garden and your hands will remain baby-butt soft. Smooth Touch Roses are touted to be 95% thorn-free, which are pretty good odds if that’s the case. Smooth Touch roses can be purchased at Lowe's Home Improvement Centers and select independent nurseries.

The four newest varieties of thornless roses in 2009 offered by Smooth Touch are:

• Smooth Moonlight - "This beautiful rose displays flowers of varying shades of pink through to light mauve. It is quick to repeat flower with pink tipped buds. The compact bush of shiny green foliage and almost no thorns grows to approx. 39 inches. This romantic rose is richly fragrant and the flowers are excellent for cutting and display."
• Smooth Snowflake - "This Smooth Touch Rose has creamy white blooms with softly ruffled edges which are produced in many clusters. Flowers continue to bloom over the whole growing/flowering season. The light sweet perfume is very subtle. The bush is very compact. With dark green healthy foliage and almost no thorns, it grows to approx. 32 inches."
• Smooth Sunglow - "This exquisite rose has quite a spicy fragrance. Creamy buff colored blooms are edged with pink. When open the blooms reveal a glowing golden apricot center. It grows to approx. 32 inches."
• Smooth Lollipop - "Smooth Lollipop has clusters of carmine and off white flowers. Each flower is unique in color and pattern also produced singly. Dark green thorn-less foliage sets off these stunning flowers which grow to about 47 inches."

The Smooth Touch series are bred to have fabulous fragrance, make excellent cut flowers, as well as repeat bloomers. Too good to be true? Well, you guys tell me. If you’ve purchased these curious beauties, please let us know in the comments how you like them for your yard or garden.

*Rose definitions by Smooth Touch