‘Allison Scott’ a triumph for top rose breeder
A rose named after a prominent rose cultivator has turned out to be the sweetest grown at the New Zealand Rose Society international rose trial grounds at Palmerston North’s Victoria Esplanade in the past two years.
New Zealand rose breeder Bob Matthews won the top award, the Gold Star of the South Pacific for the highest scoring rose on trial, for his orange rose variety, named ‘‘Allison Scott’’ after a prominent rosarian.
The win capped off a year of celebration for Matthews, whose family nursery near Whanganui has just marked 75 years of commercial rose growing.
The award was announced by chairperson of the trial ground committee John Ford and Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith at the Dugald Mackenzie Rose Gardens yesterday afternoon.
Ford, himself a Palmerston North rose breeder, also had cause to celebrate, winning the Silver Star of the City of Palmerston North for the best rose from a New Zealand amateur rose breeder.
His winner has an apricot-coloured bloom and is named ‘‘Autumn Glow’’.
Of the 50 roses submitted, another three were awarded more than 70 points by the team of 20 judges who have been assessing their growth, health, form and fragrance during the past two years.
High scores won certificates of merit for Tauranga rose breeder Rob Somerfield for a pale pink rose called ‘‘Smitten’’ and a yellow bloom called ‘‘Spellbound’’.
Rosen Tantau from Germany also won a certificate of merit for the yellow rose ‘‘Lampion’’.
Ford said the awards for roses grown at the trial grounds gave the winners a huge boost of recognition as the roses were launched on to the market.
Now in their 52nd year, the awards enhanced the reputation of Palmerston North and the Esplanade gardens in particular as an internationally important rose-growing area, he said.
The New Zealand Rose Society trials are among 40 such trials located around the world, mostly in the northern hemisphere.