Barbie Bankin, age 8, of Baton Rouge, La., for her question:

HOW MANY KINDS OF ROSES ARE THERE?

One of the most beautiful of all flowers is the rose. Also, the rose family is one of the most important of the plant kingdom. There are about 2,000 species of trees, shrubs and herbs in the rose family.

Roses grow in many parts of the world and in various soils and climates. They do especially well in temperate and mild climates. Roses thrive under cultivation and thousands of varieties of these beautiful flowers have been developed.

The most popular garden roses are all hybrids. This means they were bred from two different varieties. For example, hybrid teas were developed from the everblooming teas and the hardier hybrid perpetuals. Floribundas were bred from the hybrid teas and polyanthas. Grandifloras, one of the newer kinds of roses, resulted from crossing hybrid teas with floribundas.

There are three main classes of cultivated roses: old roses that bloom once a year, new roses that bloom in early summer and again in fall, and perpetual roses, the hybrid perpetuals. Those in the third class flower almost constantly during the growing season.