What better rose to start off our regular ‘Rose of the Month’ feature than the one named for the 150th celebrations in 1990. The breeder, our own Sam McGredy could not have selected a better rose to carry the Maori name of New Zealand.
The most outstanding feature of this rose is its huge fragrance and if you love fragrant roses, this one should be at the top of your list of roses to grow in your garden.
It also has other great attributes – the creamy pink blooms are produced mostly in clusters ensuring you have a great display in the garden or it does well picked in a vase. Unlike so many strongly fragrant roses, ‘Aotearoa’ seems to be fairly disease tolerant and is easy to grow, just find a spot where you can enjoy the huge fragrance. It can be a little slow to repeat bloom and the flowers do not like heavy rain, but otherwise a great rose which is still very popular today.
Awarded a Certificate of Merit and the Fragrance Award at the NZRS Rose Trials at Palmerston North in 1990 (link to trials page) and is ranked 2nd equal in the top favourite fragrant roses as selected by NZRS members in 2008.
‘Aotearoa’ means Land of the Long White Cloud and several years ago, a mutation (sport) of Aotearoa was found in Sam McGredy’s own garden and given this name. It’s just like Aotearoa in every way except the blooms are pure white in colour and yes, it has the same huge fragrance.