[From the Summer 1998 issue of The Rose, the quarterly magazine of the Royal National Rose Society, p. 45:] Rose of the Year (ROTY) is the UK rose trade's leading trial. It is an internationally renowned competition, staged jointly by the British Associations of Growers and Breeders... Annually there are around forty un-named entries in the ROTY competition... Almost all of the leading internation rose breeders are represented. They submit their up-and-coming varieties to be cultivated in trial conditions at ten specialist rose nurseries, which includes a trial of the roses growing in pots in order to gauge their suitability for container gardening... Many notable varieties started life as ROTY winners, beginning with 'Mountbatten' which was the first Rose of the Year in 1982. Other worthy winners include 'Magice Carpet', 'Sweet Magic', 'Dawn Chorus', 'Sweet Dream', 'Amber Queen', 'Royal William' and 'Polar Star'... 'Sunset Boulevard' [was the] Rose of the Year 1997... 'Penny Lane' [is the] Rose of the Year 1998.