New roses to shine at International Rose Trials

For immediate release:

National and international rose growers will shortly find out which of their roses has been judged the best grown at the New Zealand International Rose Trial Grounds in the Victoria Esplanade Gardens.

Over the past two year’s 40 roses submitted by growers and hybridisers from around the world have been grown and cared for by City Council staff at the trials. Most of these roses have never been seen before in New Zealand and represent the latest trends in the rose industry. “Rose breeders worldwide are breeding roses with more flowers and improved disease tolerance, plus more and more varieties have fragrant blooms than ever before” says John Ford, Chairman of the Trial Ground Committee.

The roses are evaluated by a panel of 20 judges on characteristics including colour, fragrance, health, flower form and novelty over a two year period.

Certificates of Merit are given to roses which accumulate 70 points or more and are available commercially with special awards made for roses which have scored highly for fragrance or novelty. These special awards, the June Hocking Fragrance Award and the Nola Simpson Novelty award are named for two well known local rosarians, June Hocking and Nola Simpson, who each gave over 30 years service to the the trial grounds.

Any winning rose bred by a New Zealand amateur breeder is eligible for the Silver Star of the City of Palmerston North.

The Gold Star of the South Pacific award is presented annually to the top rose grown in the Esplanade’s International Rose Trial Grounds. John Ford says the Gold Star award gives the winning rose’s breeder and agent instant recognition and will help market it throughout New Zealand.

“The ongoing awards reflect the reputation of the city and the Victoria Esplanade Gardens as an internationally recognised rose growing area” says John. “This year we have Matthias Meilland from Meilland International in France attending the awards presentation and Matthias will also present a lecture while in Palmerston North”.

Mr Meilland is the head of International Public Relations for Meilland International, one of the most famous rose breeding companies in the world and Matthias is the sixth generation of his family to be involved in the business. The world’s most well known rose ‘Peace’ was bred by Matthias’ grandfather Francis Meilland.

The four categories of awards will be presented by John Ford and Councillor Brent Barrett at the gazebo in the Dugald Mackenzie Rose Gardens on Sunday December 4th at 2.30pm.

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