A rose by any other name ...
SWEET AROMAS: AN INDUSTRY LEGEND TELLS OF HIS LONG-TIME LOVE AFFAIR WITH BLOOMS
Ludwig Taschner says breeding roses is a heady blend of art and science.
The first flush of roses is around the corner, and with each perfect rose that opens, one wonders, how is a new rose born? Is it art, science or magic, or a combination of all three?
Rose grower Ludwig Taschner, who started breeding his own roses 10 years ago, says it is as much a science as it is an art.
The art is in understanding the language of roses, which dictates the selection of roses for crossing.
“The vigour and growth habit comes from the mother plant,” explains Taschner, adding that the “father” is chosen for its colour and fragrance.
How the genes of these two plants combine to produce the prize-winning rose is the miracle of nature – the unknown quantity – although breeders have their “favourite” gene pool, which is often a closely guarded secret.
The science comes in with the pollination process, the precise record-keeping of crosses and the tracking of subsequent seedlings.
“Roses are hermaphrodite, with both female and male organs. In nature, the wind ensures pollination but when science intervenes, the rose selected as male is stripped of its petals and the pollen carefully collected.
“The petals and stamens of the ‘mother’ plant are removed and the pollen from the male deposited on its pistil.”
Once ‘the marriage is consummated’, Ludwig covers the flower and waits for the rose hips to develop. In winter, the seeds are removed from their casing, ready for sowing in early spring.
Each seed hip yields about 20 seeds and at Ludwig’s rose farm, north of Pretoria, there is a nursery where the seeds of all the pollinated rose hips are sown and watched over during their first year of growth.
That’s the start of a long selection process that whittles down the prospective roses over the next five years, until there are maybe only three to five plants left that Taschner feels have that “something special”.
Each rose has personality!
The next step is naming the rose. Taschner believes each one has its own personality, and, when naming a rose after a person, choosing the right rose for the personality is just as important.
“The first rose I named after a personality was Vera Johns in 1977. The rose is still popular although young gardeners have no idea that she was Miss SA.”
The “Naas Botha” was a more difficult choice, he remembers. A soft pink floribunda was selected and although it was an excellent variety with a compact even growth, shapely blooms and a good fragrance, it made no impact outside Pretoria. The colour was perceived to be too soft and feminine to identify it with the captain of the Springbok rugby team!
His most romantic naming was in response to a young man who was in a desperate hurry to name a rose Husnaa after his fiancée.
“A suitable rose had to found the next day, a certificate was issued and a bunch of the roses was cut. Apparently, without this gesture, the lady was not prepared to marry him. It is a lovely rose. I hope the couple are happy.”
What’s new?
This season there are three new roses and one of them, a beautiful salmon-pink rose, will be named by a member of the public who wins the lucky draw at the rose farm on Sunday October 8 at 11.30am. The draw will be made by stage and TV actress Elize Cawood, who is also having a rose named after her.
The winner of the lucky draw will also receive 20 bushes of their newly named rose.
To be eligible, book for Ludwig Taschner’s talk, The Secrets of Rose Breeding, on Sunday October 8 at 10am at the rose farm.
Book tickets via www.ludwigsroses.co.za/product/secrets-ofrose-breeding-win-your-own-rosegauteng-8-oct-copy/ and submit your suggested name. Even if you do not attend the talk you are still eligible for the draw.
The third rose to be named is after legendary marathon runner Bruce Fordyce. It is one of a new category of “stamina” roses that is drought resistant. It grows into a leafy bush with creamy white blooms with pink-tipped edges.