May is Royal Wedding month and what better way to celebrate than with a rose with a wedding theme ‘Wedding Celebration’ features large blooms of dark red, fully double with a pleasing perfume borne mostly solitary on long stems. A good variety for picking. Tall growing with glossy dark green foliage and has good health. Bred by Poulsens of Denmark, this variety has a name that is bound to sell it as a wedding gift and is a welcome addition … [Read more...]
Hybrid Tea Roses
December – St Margaret’s Gold
Every now and again, a rose variety will produce a sport which is a naturally occurring change in a certain characteristic of the variety. Sports are often propagated and if worthy enough, become a new variety on the market. Probably the most common type of ‘sporting’ is a change in flower colour and ths month, we feature a rose that ‘St Margaret’s Gold’ is a sport of the popular ‘Hayley Westenra’ and shares all its characteristics except … [Read more...]
June – Platinum
70 years in business is a milestone worth celebrating and in 2017, Matthews Nurseries near Wanganui does just that. This month’s featured rose is a new release Hybrid Tea rose bred by Bob Matthews to mark this occasion. ‘Platinum’ has large cupped shaped blooms of soft pink, sweetly scented on long, strong stems ideal for picking. The glossy dark green foliage compliments the blooms well and the plant grows to around 1.1 metres. A winner … [Read more...]
March – Magnifi-scent
Everyone loves fragrant roses and this month we feature a new release for winter 2017 that is bound to please the noses of everyone. 'Magnifi-scent' is a Hybrid Tea with blooms best described as ‘French Rose’. Not red, but not pink either but a great colour to mix with other roses and garden plants. Blooms usually come one to a stem and with quick repeat, the plant is never without flowers. A bushy, medium growing plant with glossy disease … [Read more...]
July – Glorious
Yellow is always a colour that brightens up any garden and for the middle of winter, our featured rose is one of the best new roses to come onto the market in recent years in New Zealand. ‘Glorious’ is well named with large, well formed blooms of clear yellow produced on strong stems. They last well and are good for picking. There is some fragrance to enjoy from the blooms. Medium growing in the garden, glossy large foliage compliments the … [Read more...]
January – Loving Memory
We start 2016 by featuring one of the most popular red roses grown in New Zealand today. 'Loving Memory' is a good garden rose and one often found exhibited at rose shows. The name also makes it a sought after rose to give when there is bereavement. ‘Loving Memory’ has large well formed lightly scented blooms of cherry red on long stems which make it great for cutting or exhibition. A tall upright growing plant, ‘Loving Memory’ does need a … [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...]
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...]
August – Big Purple
In roses, the colour purple is one of those colours that people either like or loathe having in their gardens. While there have been many heritage type and floribunda roses in the purple shades, there are very few large flowering Hybrid Teas. This month we feature ‘Big Purple’, one of the few real purple Hybrid Tea roses and also one of the best to grow. The large blooms are a beautiful purple – magenta in colour complimented of course by a … [Read more...]
July – Tintinara
This month in the depths of the New Zealand winter, we feature a rose that lights up any garden when in flower and one of the best in its colour range available on the market. 'Tintinara' is a stunning orange salmon rose, vibrant in colour and fades little as the bloom ages. Classified as a Hybrid Tea, but the large, loose petalled blooms often come in clusters making for a great display. They are lightly fragrant but the colour is the main … [Read more...]