The garden rose Friendship Forever Plant’n’Relax of Danish Breeding company Roses Forever has been chosen as the Rose of The Year 2021 by the Swedish Rose Society.
Friendship Forever
Friendship Forever is developed by the rose breeder Rosa Eskelund and was named on July 1 at the World Rose Convention 2018, Copenhagen. The event took place in front of more than 600 people from all over the world at the celebration of the WFRS 50th anniversary. It is also a charity rose, which means that for every Friendship Forever rose that that Roses Forever sells, a part of the royalty is added to WFRS (World Federation of Rose Societies).
A lot of interest for Friendship Forever during the WFRS 50th anniversary event in 2018
Friendship Forever is a floribunda rose with several flowers on each stem. Swedish Rose Society’s Vice President Christer Jonsson describes the color as warm deep golden yellow. “A wonderful color,” he says. “The flowers are large 6-7cm and have between 17-25 petals.” He is also fond of the leaves. “It is nice, with very glossy dark green foliage. Friendship Forever is a rose that has captivated me with its beauty during the year, the deep golden yellow, almost bronze-colored flower set against the dark green foliage is breathtaking!”. The rose has, you could say, a color scheme in three steps-bronze-yellow buds-golden-yellow flowers- to light yellow color towards the end of flowering. “There is a saying that yellow roses are only loved by us men, but Friendship Forever I think many women will fall for too!”
The rose will be 50-80cm high and will bloom remodeling from the end of June until well into the autumn. “If Friendship Forever is pruned continuously during the flowering season, the Rose will bloom abundantly well into the autumn. This year, the rose had flowers well into October.”
Members of the Swedish Roses Society have now grown 'Friendship Forever' in their gardens in different zones in the cold Swedish climate, and they found that the beautiful long time flowering golden rose also have healthy, thick, strong and shiny dark leaves. “The rose seems to be completely healthy, it has not shown any tendency to black spot disease or other diseases.”
Friendship Forever will be available for sale in several Garden Centers and commercial gardens in Sweden in 2021.
More awards for Eskelund’s roses
Also in Denmark, one of Eskelund’s roses was awarded as The Roses of The Year, namely Inger Forever Plant’n’Relax. It is a large fragrant Floribunda rose which grows to 1.20 m height and 0.5m wide. “It is a healthy rose with dark green foliage, and long lasting flowers that even open up so bees easy can come into the flower. The fragrance is wonderful and it is therefore very suitable for a fragrant hedge. As a bonus, Inger Forever makes nice hips in late autumn,” Rosa adds.
For more information:
Roses Forever
Rosa Eskelund
+45 51 57 19 90
re@roses-forever.com
www.roses-forever.com