'Challenging times can create the greatest innovations'

"From 2008 to 2013, our production company Rosa ApS have experienced some challenging times because of a special Danish tax", explains Rosa Eskelund, who runs Roses Forever, together with her Husband Harley and son Anders. In these years of the crisis, they've got creative and innovative. In fact, they developed the Infinity line during that time. "We needed to offer roses which were fast growing."

Now, this Infinity line has become their bestseller all over the world. The production period of this crop, is 9 weeks and this is achieved by the combination of genetics and a special growing technique. "As a result, a greenhouse grower can make much more plants on the same square meters for a much better profit and more environmentally friendly, something many large retailers ask for. Infinity roses are naturally compact growing, resistant and the big and long lasting flowers create this ‘X factor look’."

Rosa and Harley are often asked, if they see themselves as a big breeder. According to Rosa, this is a question which is difficult to answer. "Is big related to square m2, numbers of workers, or a lot of different crops or many licensed growers? We concluded that we are big in roses. It is our passion and our life and we have always been determined to hold focus on this crop, even in challenging times."

Over the years, Roses Forever expanded their rose assortment with new lines of pot roses and lines in garden- and cut- roses. But is there still room to grow? According to Rosa, there is. "As a breeder, you are never done. We keep optimising our lines and we keep adding new varieties to our existing lines. We are always looking for roses that are more easy to grow, better colors, bigger flowers, more fragrance, more buds and so on."

Also on the global markets, there is still much to gain, according to Rosa. "We are not on Mars yet", she laughs "The world is big. We entered China recently and are growing in this market. But their are still countries, Russia and South America for example, that we have not explored yet. However, we definitely will in the future, when the time is right and with the right people. And of course, different markets means different tastes, so the addition of new varieties, like the yellow and red Infinity enables us to do it. "