‘Gold Medal’ is one of my favorite roses, being a fan of yellow anyway. Hybridized by Christensen in 1982, it has withstood the test of time. Also known by the name ‘Golden Medal’, it has parents of ‘Yellow Prize’ X ‘Shirley Langhorn’, ‘Granada’ X ‘Garden Party’. It won the New Zealand Gold Star of the South Pacific (where it is known as ‘Golden Medal’) in 1983.
Modern Roses calls it a medium yellow, while Bonica’s Roses classifies it as deep yellow. Whatever color you chose it’s a beautiful rose, with large lovely yellow blooms borne on (usually) single stems sometimes streaked with orange or even red, sometimes in cooler weather with a deeper almost orange coloring. The 30-35 petaled flowers are four and a half to five inches across and of great exhibition form. While there is not a huge fragrance, there is some, but I like it simply for the flowers. The bushes are tall (classified as a grandiflora), dark upright and have a fairly bushy growth. Foliage is a darker green.
By Barbara Picarelli, Consulting Rosarian Emeritus
Edited for the website by Nanette Londeree, March 2020