This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. It took a bit of extra time on Sunday to smell the roses. After all, nearly 650 of them were lined up table after table at Richland's Shilo Inn for the Tri-City Rose Society's 51st rose show. For JoAnn Brehm of Richland, only one really mattered, a majestic Brigadoon judged queen of the show, the top honor in the matriarchal world of roses. Finding such a rose isn't as easy as snipping a bud from neighbors' bushes when they aren't looking.
Judges look for proportion, balance, shape and color.
And like in any beauty contest, perfection demands primping - chasing away aphids during the growing season, wiping leaves clean, prying petals to the right degree of bloom and refrigerating buds to preserve shape until show time. Brehm's chances for royalty weren't looking good a few days earlier when she gathered her top buds. The 20-year veteran of the rose society didn't think she had enough good flowers for many entries in the arrangements competition. To her surprise, she took home her second queen of show award. This year's roses generally were larger than normal, which experts attribute to spring weather starting cool, then turning hot in the last few weeks.