Weeks Roses Tom Carruth Receives Luther Burbank Award

The American Horticultural Society (AHS) recently announced 12 award recipients for the 2011 Great American Gardeners Awards.  These honors are bestowed upon businesses, organizations and individuals who have made significant contributions to horticulture related to wide-ranging topics including conservation, teaching, garden communication and research.

The Luther Burbank Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the area of plant breeding.  With numerous awards to his credit, including multiple All-America Rose Selection honors, Tom’s successes are recognized throughout the industry.  The Luther Burbank Award was established by the American Horticultural Society in 1993 and is awarded bi-annually.

Tom heads the research facility located on the Cal Poly University campus in Pomona, California.  There, with research assistant Christian Bedard, Tom directs the pollination of about 50,000 flowers each year, producing nearly a quarter of a million seeds.  Through this painstaking hybridizing effort, along with Tom’s experience and vision in this field, he has led Weeks Roses to the front of the rose world.

Weeks Roses is not new to AHS honors.  In 1991, O.L. Weeks received the Paul Ecke Jr. Commercial Award recognizing him for excellence in the field of commercial horticulture.  O.L. Weeks founded Weeks Roses in 1938.

Tom will be honored on June 9, 2011 by AHS at the Great American Gardeners Awards Ceremony and Banquet held at the Society’s national headquarters at River Farm in Alexandria, Virginia.