By chance
Three years ago, the product was created more or less by chance. "The most beautiful things come by chance", says Torben Ryg of Rosa Danica. "During the breeding of large flowers, for large pots, the roses were planted in a 6cm pot temporarily. A colleague asked himself: would there be a market for a product like this? Why not, was the response. With that idea, we went back to the start of the process. The stem needed to be strong enough to carry the flower."Difficult to cultivate
Developing the rose took three years. It is a difficult product to cultivate. "In contrast to the regular cultivation of roses, after pruning, the cuttings cannot be used for new roses. Then the stem will not grow straight upwards. We have to grow every rose from mother plants."
Even though, business is going well. "A year ago, we've done trials and 10 percent of the production met our goal. In the meantime, we are at 65 percent." The Danish company is very determined. "We like a challenge. When we developed the RosAroma- a scented rose, we received similar reactions: 'too expensive, not feasible'. We started with 300,000 units; now we supply half a million."
Belle
The1Rose received a lot of attention at the IPM Essen lost month, explains Ryg. "Many people relate to the fairy tale (Belle) Beauty and the Beast."
Sold out
The export market for the solitaire rose is spread out. "The majority of the requests originate from Eastern-Europe and in France, the rose is very popular too." The1Rose is simple, special and limited in availability. "We strive to put this product on the market as a unique living gift on a year round basis. For peak days like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day we are sold out continuously. In order to anticipate on such holidays, we are currently discovering ways how to change the cultivation to produce more in such periods.
For more information:
Rosa Danica
Torben Ryg
Email: tr@rosa-danica.dk
www.rosa-danica.dk