This month we feature a rose guaranteed to light up any garden this coming season. ‘Fireball’ is a new release floribunda with masses of orange blooms with a silvery – yellow centre and reverse to the petals. The blooms are lightly fragrant and it is a free flowering variety, with quick repeat during the summer months. A medium, bushy grower with glossy green foliage, ‘Fireball will be a great colourful addition to any garden. Bred by Rob … [Read more...]
May – Scent by an Angel
This month we feature a new release for this winter from the world famous rose breeding family Poulsens of Denmark. Poulsen roses perform well in New Zealand conditions and other introductions have included ‘Ingrid Bergman’, ‘Hans Christian Andersen’, ‘Sparkler’ and more recent introductions like ‘Silver Anniversary’ and ‘Mum in a Million’ ‘Scent by an Angel’ is very much like ‘Mum in a Million’ in growth form, being an tall upright vigourous … [Read more...]
April – Tropical Delight
Bicolour roses are a bit of a novelty in the rose world and this month we feature one that deserves to be more widely grown. ‘Tropical Delight’ has clusters of blooms, creamy white edged raspberry red that are lightly scented and look good enough to eat! In full flower, the plant looks a picture and looks a treat in the garden. It is a medium, bushy grower with good health to about 1.3 metres. One thing it does not like is hard pruning so … [Read more...]
Rose Trial winners 2016
The awards for Trial 46 (2014 - 16) at the New Zealand Rose Society International Trials were presented on December 4th at the Dugald Mackenzie Rose Gardens in Palmerston North. A panel of 20 judges have assessed around 40 entries from New Zealand and overseas rose breeders (via their New Zealand agents) over a range of categories including freedom of flowering, health, plant quality, flower quality and fragrance. Certificates of Merit are … [Read more...]
Win – Christchurch Remembers
Win - we have three plants of the 2016 New Zealand Rose of the Year winner to three lucky winners. There are only very limited plants available this summer but will be widely available in winter 2017 from Mitre 10 and Palmers stores. This floribunda rose has blooms of medium red, darkening on the edges. Medium growing with mid green foliage. Bred by Rob Somerfield of Glenavon Roses, Tauranga, this rose is his tribute to the people of … [Read more...]
August – Picotee
The ‘hand painted’ roses first appeared with much excitement in the 1970’s, a result of breeding work by Sam McGredy. In recent years, there has been a renaissance in the hand painted area with several newer hand painted roses appearing on the market and we feature one of the best this month. ‘Picotee’ is a patio rose with blooms of pink edged white blooms with a white reverse. It is very free flowering with blooms produced in clusters … [Read more...]
June – Kiwi
The brown or chocolate shades have always been a novel colour in roses and this month we feature one of the best to be released in this colour range in recent years. While New Zealand breeders like Nola Simpson and Sam McGredy have made significant contributions to roses in these shades, our featured rose comes from across the Pacific from breeder Tom Carruth, now retired from Weeks Roses in California. ‘Kiwi’ is well named with clusters of … [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...]
August – Anniversary
While pale pink is a fairly common colour in floribunda's, this month’s featured rose is one of the better ones in the colour range to be released in the last 20 years. ‘Anniversary’ is a seedling of the popular ‘Sexy Rexy’ and carries many of its attributes, most of all its ability to produce masses of blooms. The porcelain pink blooms come in small and large clusters throughout the season. At times, it is hard to see the dark green glossy … [Read more...]
April – White Romance
It’s been a while since we featured a white rose so for this month, we feature one of the best new white roses of the last 10 years to come onto the market in New Zealand. Some say it’s destined to be the best white floribunda grown in New Zealand, already ranking 4th among the top favourite floribundas as voted by rose society members for 2014. ‘White Romance’ is a wonderful rose both in the garden and on the show bench, producing a great … [Read more...]