Change in rose preferences:
"Shapes and colours don’t have to be perfect, but natural and alive"
Although the big rose continues to be the queen of the flowers, always #1 at the auction and with the florist, over the years the rose has taken a variety of shades and shapes. Tastes change. The last few years the head size became key, but of late, Erling Olstad of the Norwegian chain Mester Gronn no longer takes out his 5 cm card. Trend watchers see consumers bringing the garden inside. Shapes and colours don’t have to be perfect, but natural and alive. Irregularity, opening and vaselife have become key, if possible fragrant.
It remains unclear whether this new market remains niche or will move to the centre stage of the traditional hybrid tea. For sure, at the recent Molo River Promotion days at FloraHolland Naaldwijk all major rose buyers chose to take a bunch of the new garden-look Rosa Loves Me With Heart and Soul with them and at its recent 3-day workshop for flower arrangers the world-famous Gregor Lersch also chose to work with the nostalgic Rosa Loves Me varieties. Their breeder? The passionate Sicilian-Danish Rosa Eskelund, a true artist (“I am a little bit crazy”) and only female rose-breeder.
Genetically, the Rosa Loves Me series are completely different from garden types of other breeders in that they open and seem to last forever in the vase. They are all Rosa’s babies, hence the name and a story for each of them: ‘Two Times’, ‘Over the Moon’, ‘Tender’, ‘With Heart and Soul’, ‘Purely’, ‘Just a Little Bit More’, ‘Out of Control’. The breeding history? Maybe one day Rosa will reveal this mystery.
For more information:
Viking Roses
John Pouw
John@VikingRoses.com
www.VikingRoses.com