The company sells perennials and bulbs, help new gardeners and old plan the best flower garden in the neighborhood, and they have been around longer than anyone reading this. Jackson & Perkins was founded in 1872 and has become a household word for numerous things but perhaps more than anything, for their trademarked roses.
If you want to honor someone with a gift of roses to grow in their garden or if you want a special corner of your own garden for specialty roses, you simply must request a Jackson & Perkins catalog (also found online at jacksonandperkins.com). If roses aren't your forte, you will find bushes and trees, accessories, and ornamental plants in the catalog as well.
I will name a few of the special roses offered but it will just be a sample listing because there are others. Late spring of 1999 found Jackson & Perkins at Arlington National Cemetery of all places! The representatives were there to honor the men and women of our military for their service to the country. They did it in the way that Jackson & Perkins knows best and unveiled a new rose called Veterans' Honor (tm). It was the year 2000 "Rose of the Year" (c) and ten percent of the proceeds for the sale of this rose is donated to veteran health care. The Veterans' Honor (tm) is dark red in color and is a hybrid tea rose.
Another Jackson & Perkins specialty rose is pink in color with some specks of silver and is called the Our Lady of Guadalupe (tm) Floribunda Rose. Five percent of sales from this particular rose will go toward helping young Latinos attend college. The rose was blessed at the Church of Our Lady Queen of Angels in Los Angeles during its unveiling.
Jackson & Perkins has two roses to honor former President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. The Ronald Reagan Rose is red with white reverse and blue edge and The Nancy Reagan Rose is a dark apricot color. Both are hybrid tea roses and ten percent of net sales from both roses benefits the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
Keeping with their tradition to help fund various charities, Jackson & Perkins developed an ivory colored rose with a pink blush to it and named it the Diana, Princess of Wales (tm) Hybrid Tea Rose. As with the other roses, ten percent of the net sales of this rose also is given to a worthy cause. In this case that cause is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund which works with various humanitarian organizations.
There are two new Rose of the Year (r) winners for the year 2006 now available at Jackson & Perkins. If you would like to be the first person in your neighborhood or town growing new kinds of roses, this is the place to obtain them. The 2006 winners are the Black Cherry Floribunda Rose and the Spellbound Hybrid Tea Rose.
The Black Cherry Floribunda Rose begins with buds that are almost black in color and then open to a dark crimson color. The Spellbound Hybrid Tea Rose is a coral color and its petals are extra thick.
The biggest problem you will have (and I had!) while looking at the Jackson & Perkins catalog or deciding what to order from the web page is where to begin and what your actual final decision will be. There are so many choices that it becomes difficult deciding which of the flowers, whether it is roses or another kind, will be adorning your yard.
In the rose section alone, you can choose by type of rose or by color. If you know what colors you want, you are on your way to decisions, but if you don't know, you will need to choose. The color options in rose selections are red, yellow, lavender and pink, coral and apricot, whites and creams, and multicolor.
A few other choices you will be making are:
Do you want roses or perennials, or both?
Should your plants be deer resistant?
Are you looking for trees or shrubs also?
Which plants grow best in your area?
Will your garden have lots of sunlight, or partial shade?
Do you want to attract butterflies or particular birds?
What time of year do you want your flowers to bloom?
What height should your flowers be? Does it matter?