ALBANY - Naturally it would smell as sweet, but would a rose by any other name attract your attention as quickly as "Pope John Paul II"?

Ken Rowe doubts it. People in the rose-naming business deliberately go for something catchy for just that reason, he said.

Rowe, of Corvallis, is chairman of the 17th annual Albany Rose Show, which continues through 6 p.m. today at Heritage Mall in Albany.

Visitors to the show will see table after table of the fragile blooms, boasting names such as, "Timeless," "Veterans' Honor," and "Hoagy Carmichael."

The rose named for the late pontiff, an eggshell white, is part of the "fragrance" category, where visitors to the mall are encouraged to cast their vote for the one with the most beautiful smell.

"Both of the Reagans have a rose named after them. John F. Kennedy had a rose named after him," said Rowe, a judge and an exhibitor in this year's show.

"The names are picked because they'll be eye-catching," he added. "What's more eye-catching than 'Falling in Love'?"

"Falling in Love," a delicate pink hybrid tea, is this year's hot bloom, Rowe said. "Everyone I've talked to has just been gaga over it. It's just a beautiful pink."

Competitors receive extra points for listing the names of their roses on each of their displays. That's so visitors - and judges, too - can go shopping for their favorites afterward.

Points are also given for the rose's overall appearance and how well the exhibitor meets the requirements of the category, said Jan Pollock, president of the Portland Rose Society and one of the judges for Albany's show.

In most categories, judges are looking for "the perfect center," where the petals are spiraling open just so, she said. They're eyeing the form, the substance and the amount of foliage: enough to complement the bloom but not draw attention.

Many of the competitors travel for hours from show to show, Pollock said, pointing out exhibitors from Medford and from Olympia, Wash. That means they have to choose their selections carefully, so the rose has opened just enough at competition time.

"You have to grow a rose to know a rose," Pollock said.

Participation in rose shows, and in rose societies in general, is dwindling, Rowe said. He blames television, DVDs and other electronic diversions.

"Gardening's not as big in people's lives as it used to be," he said. "If they garden at all, it's organic vegetables."

Maybe so, but most people who enter a rose show quickly find they love the competition, Pollock said. "You work really hard to grow a perfect specimen of a rose, and when you do, you want to share it with everybody."

Rowe has been growing roses for 35 years. It all started shortly after he was married, to a woman who agreed to give up her East Coast hometown and take on three stepchildren.

She was having a tough day, Rowe recalled, and she sighed to him, "I'd sure like roses."

So he went out and bought 10 bushes.

She has forgiven him, Rowe said with a chuckle. But that day, he said, "That's not what she meant. That's not what she meant at all."