Carefree Beauty™

This rose's location in the garden is NW & NE 011.

• Classification:  Shrub
• Flower Color:  medium pink
• Flower Size:  4.5 inches
• Flower Form:  large, semi-double to double, cupped-to-flat bloom form
• Petal Count:  15–20 petals
• Fragrance:  moderate to strong sweet-fragrance
• Repeat Bloomer:  yes
• Foliage:  medium green
• Plant Height:  4–5 feet
• Plant Width:  4 feet
• Growth Habit:  vigorous, upright, spreading
• Disease Resistant:  very disease resistant
• Hybridizer:  Griffith Buck
• Registered:  1979
• Parentage:  ‘seedling x Prairie Princess’
• ARS* Rating:  8.7 (a very good to excellent rose)
  *American Rose Society Rating

Awards:

• 2007 Earth-Kind® Rose, Texas A&M University

 
Notes:

• Also known as ‘Katy Road Pink,’ this Griffith Buck rose, initially distributed by Conard-Pyle, proved to be very disease resistant, producing an abundance of fragrant flowers on a hardy bush.  Piggybacking on the success of Carefree Beauty, other growers copied with Carefree Wonder, Carefree Delight, and Carefree Marvel, but none of these are from the Buck family tree. --- Brenner and Scanniello, ( A Rose by Any Name, page 38)
  
  
• Griffith Buck (1915-1991) was a researcher and professor of horticulture at Iowa State University from 1948 to 1985.  While he earned his living as a professor, his real passion was hybridizing roses that would be hardy and disease resistant in the difficult climate of the central US.  During his lifetime he hybridized nearly 90 varieties. He was not a commercial developer, and many of his roses were lost after his retirement at age 70.  However, several have survived due to the work of friends and other rose enthusiasts. --- (www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/cad/GriffithBuck, retrieved 12/24/2012)