Whether you follow your nose or the flower show signs, you'll find exquisite assortments of dreamy, pink-edged Mr. Lincolns, pale Moonstones, yellow St. Patricks and creamy, delicate, disease-resistant Secrets on display this weekend at the Adam's Mark Caribbean Gulf Resort.

The fragrant, dewy soft blooms must be at their supple and flawless best with no chew marks from bugs on their leaves to impress the judges and win Queen of Show (owners are up as early as 4 a.m. to do pre-show leaf bite inspections).

Lesser entrants will be crowned King, Prince or members of the court, which is admirable, certainly, but it's not the Queen.

The Queen rose is "the closest to perfect," said Patti Barfield, co-owner of Personal Touch Rose Service and Nursery in Dover, in Hillsborough County, considered by some rosarians (the name for a gardener who grows roses for those who don't know a Eureka floribunda from a Whisper hybrid tea) to be one of the best rose authorities in the Tampa Bay area.

The competition is the Deep South District Convention and Rose Show, and it will run through Sunday at the Adam's Mark.

It is the first time the contest has been held in Clearwater, according to Russ Bowermaster, show co-chairman and finance officer.

"It's very competitive," Bowermaster said. "But it's a friendly competitiveness."

He said at least 200 exhibitors from top growers with 500 bushes to novices with just a small backyard garden will travel from Alabama, Georgia and even California to participate and show 58 different classes of flowers in 18 color classifications. Each paid a registration fee of $35.

The public is invited to look at the arrangements for free from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday.

"We will have all types of roses, all different classifications," said Bowermaster. "We will have old garden roses, hybrid teas, floribunda roses and miniature roses (among others)."

Also, vendors selling rose bushes, rose-care items, tools and gifts will be on hand.

Growers all have a fair shot, as long as they do what finicky roses require to be at their prize-winning best: feed them things such as fish meal, alfalfa and fungicide (to keep insects away) and expose them to six hours of sunlight a day.

And most of all, love them.

"If you give them attention and care, they will reward you royally," said Bowermaster, 74, who has been showing roses for 27 years.

-- Eileen Schulte can be reached at 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com.

If you go

The Pinellas and West Pasco chapters of the American Rose Society will host the Deep South District Convention and Rose Show today through Sunday at the Adam's Mark Caribbean Gulf Resort, 430 Gulfview Blvd., Clearwater Beach. The public can look at the flowers from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. For information, call (941) 755-7505.

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