How this Danish breeder selects its potential bestsellers
The new orange mini rose.
Selecting bestsellers
According to Rosa, this orange mini rose with large flowers and shiny leaves is their 'best in test' variety. But how does Roses Forever selects its potential bestsellers? Rosa explains: "Every year, Roses Forever intensively trials around 400-500 brand new roses which are selected out of the thousands of best varieties from their breeding greenhouse. These selected varieties will be trialed for two years. "Then we have seen these ones flowering for more than twenty four times and they have experienced all seasons" says Rosa.
On the left a picture of the orange rose, as Eskelund calls it, a tiny baby some years 4 ago. On the right a picture of this variety in the greenhouse, where they now have a whole table with this new variety.
"It is important that the growing trials are not running in a incubator and that all the best novelties run through an effective normal production nursery, with all the daily challenges", adds Harley Eskelund, who is responsible for the growing tests in the mini rose production nursery in Denmark. "Beautiful is not enough", he continuities "Rosa bring a lot of new varieties that needs to be trialed. And this is good, because the more varieties we have, the more chances we have to find potential bestsellers, like the Infinity roses we have. To become a bestseller, a 'world star' in mini-roses, all our criteria need to be in one variety. This means the variety needs to be beautiful, eye-catching, easy to grow and healthy. Then, both the growers and consumers are happy."
"So, in the end, after two years of trialing, there are just a few varieties that are good enough to be offered to licensed growers all over the world", says Rosa.
IFTF
The name is still secret and will be revealed in January, at the IPM Essen in Germany. However, you can already see this new orange mini rose variety at the IFTF, where Roses Forever will showcase the plant at their booth, number B2.31. "I am looking forward to hearing the feedback from the market", says Rosa. l
For more information
Roses Forever
Rosa Eskelund
T: +45 51 57 19 90
Email: [email protected]
www.roses-forever.com