Tom Carruth is one of the most influential American rose breeders of the modern era. After studying horticulture and plant breeding at Texas A&M University, he entered the rose industry in 1976 and eventually became the head of the Weeks Roses hybridizing program, directing rose research there from 1987 until 2012. His breeding philosophy was to make roses competitive with other landscape plants; not simply beautiful, but also vigorous, floriferous, fragrant, disease resistant, and visually distinctive.
Carruth is credited with more than 150 cultivars and earned 11 All-America Rose Selections awards within a 14-year period. His introductions include widely recognized roses such as Julia Child, Ebb Tide, About Face®, Barbra Streisand, Fourth of July, and numerous other Floribundas, Hybrid Teas, Grandifloras, climbers, and shrubs. He received the American Horticultural Society's Luther Burbank Award for plant breeding in 2011 and later became curator of The Huntington's extensive Rose Garden, extending his influence from breeding into preservation, education, and rose-garden stewardship.
