The New Zealand Rose Society

Join the New Zealand Rose Society to attend local rose meetings, rose shows, pruning demonstrations, rose trials, publications, rose of the month and more...

October – Hamilton Gardens

This month we feature the very last rose to be released by the late Sam McGredy who passed away on August 25th in Auckland. Discovered as a naturally occurring sport or mutation of the popular McGredy rose ‘Paddy Stephens’, it shares many of its attributes including fantastic disease tolerance, long stems ideal for picking and well formed blooms. The only difference is the colour which is an appealing blend of apricot, pink and cream. Should … [Read more...]

December – Old Master

We end 2015 by featuring a rose that was one of the first of the hand painted roses bred by Sam McGredy in the 1970’s. A novelty at the time, the blooms gave the look that one colour was splashed with another.  Today, they are still grown and a wider selection of varieties are available. One of the earliest varieties and one still grown today is ‘Old Master’ which attracts attention in the garden or on the show bench with its crimson red … [Read more...]

July – Solitaire

This month we feature one of the better yellow roses to be released in the last 30 years. For many years yellow roses were often weak growers but this rose was certainly not and by further work, has led to the development of more vigorous growing yellow flowering roses. ‘Solitaire’ is a Hybrid Tea bred by Sam McGredy with large blooms of yellow flushed peach around the edges of the petals, very similar in colouring to the famous ‘Peace’ rose. … [Read more...]

March – Eyepaint

Every so often, a rose comes along that is completely different to anything else around and this month, we feature one such rose that has stood the test of time. ‘Eyepaint’ is a very free flowering shrub rose that can also be grown in some situations as pillar or climbing rose up 1.5 metres high and wide. It’s main attribute are the masses of single scarlet blooms with a distinctive eye that changes from yellow to silver as it ages. In full … [Read more...]

November – Waikato

It’s that time again when the roses start blooming in November for another season and various events are held up and down the country featuring roses. Two of the main events are the National Spring Rose Show and Convention which is this year being hosted in Hamilton and the Pacific Rose Bowl Festival which is held annually at the award winning Hamilton Gardens. So what better rose to feature this month than ‘Waikato’ the rose! Large blooms of … [Read more...]

May – Sexy Rexy

30 years ago, a rose was released that caused a bit of a stir in the world of roses because of its name. This month we feature it as one of the best floribunda roses of all time and one that even those with a passing knowledge of roses even know about! “How could they name a rose like that” was commonly heard at the time. We can only be talking about ‘Sexy Rexy’, one of the most popular floribunda roses and still widely grown around the world … [Read more...]

October – Michelangelo

For this month, we feature one of the striped roses which people either love or loath. They are certainly something different to grow in your garden. Michelangelo is one of the best striped roses and no two blooms are ever the same. The bloom colour can be best described as stripes and flecks of orange, cream, scarlet and vermillion. With clusters of blooms throughout the season, there is always something slightly different to look at. Unlike … [Read more...]

Cheops Garden – Hastings

In 2005, Gary and Georgina Campbell bought the property now known as ‘Cheops’; an organic Feijoa Orchard with a perfect place for a large garden.  Many of the plants arrived by truck from their old farm, having been collected for over 20 years by Georgina, to create the garden which was begun in June 2005.  The Hawke’s Bay climate and soils have helped the plants to thrive.  Many plants are propagated on site to fill the beds but also because no … [Read more...]