Last week Interplant Roses organized the 'Rose of the Future event'. Interplant Roses is the market leader in the breeding of spray roses, but also breeds very beautiful single-flowered roses. We were give a very interesting tour by Jurjen Ilsink who told us all about their breeding process.
60 years of Interplant Roses
Breeding beautiful roses has been passed down for generations. Jurjen's great-grandfather was interested in the breeding profession and started breeding shrub roses. Jurjen's grandfather continued with this, but also saw a larger market in the breeding of cut roses. He wanted to bring something unique to the market, something that wasn't there yet. At that time there were spray chrysanthemums, spray carnations, but no spray roses! Twenty-five years after setting up his breeding program, the first spray rose could be commercially marketed: 'Lydia'.
Breeding
We are taken through Interplant’s breeding process step by step. Everything starts with the 'father' and 'mother plants'. The pollen from the mother plant is cut and collected. Then pollen is applied to the pistils of the mother plant. This pollination creates rose hips in which seeds grow that take care of the offspring.
After the seeds have had their rest period in cold storage, they are ready to be planted. The first flowers are visible six weeks after planting. Just like with humans, roses with the same 'parents' all have different offspring. Each seed from the rose hip produces a different flower.
At this stage a first selection is made and we look at things such as: what does the breeder want to achieve with this parent combination, what is the color like, what is the flower structure, is the rose disease resistant, etc. Only 2% of all these varieties go on to the next selection. In the following selection, another 25 properties are looked at, including the (quality of) thorns, leaf, color, shape, production, etc. Of these, only a very small part remains. These roses are distributed to growers in various countries where they are assessed over a longer period.
Broad segment
150.000 crosses are made per year, which produces 1,5 million seeds. The range consists of approximately 45% spray roses, 45% single roses and approximately 10% garden roses. Interplant strives to offer the widest possible range and thus to be able to respond to market demand as much as possible.
Rose of the Future
The entire event was organized down to the last detail. The decoration was done by a Ukrainian designer Elena Driuchan together with Yusif Khalilov. We received a beautiful bouquet, made by Yusif Khalil. All species were exhibited, of which we were allowed to indicate our top three. Who knows, one of these varieties might become the rose of the future!
FloraPodium, 06 June 2022
