Roses for 'non-gardeners"
Twentyfive years ago, the rose world was shaken by a new release. Gillian Vine reports.
AT the back of her wardrobe, Sheryl Tesselaar still has a hot pink jacket she bought in 1992.
The jacket was chosen because it was exactly the same shade as the first Carpet Rose, launched by her and her husband, Australian nurseryman Anthony Tesselaar, at the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Auckland.
The new rose was considered an upstart by purists. After all, who would want a rose that needed no spraying and could be pruned with hedge clippers? Lots of people, it seemed. ‘‘That first year, we sold half a million plants,’’ Mr Tesselaar said.
The sales figures astounded others in the industry, who thought he had been absurdly optimistic in growing so many. The numbers have kept growing and in the 25 years since the first Carpet Rose hit the market, 25 million have been sold, more than 2 million of them in New Zealand.
The story of the world’s most successful roses started about a decade before the Ellerslie launch with a meeting between Mr Tesselaar and German rose breeder Werner Noak.
Mr Noak had worked to produce an easycare, diseaseresistant rose, as he believed that highmaintenance varieties were on the way out. He showed Mr Tesselaar the first of what were to be marketed as Carpet Roses and the Australian said he knew at once that it would be a great rose.
Ease of care was a huge attraction, Mr Tesselaar said, recalling that 30 years ago roses were all about getting the perfect bloom, achieved by pruning techniques and spraying.
The long flowering season also appealed — ‘‘I’m not interested in colour for one week . . . the week you’re on holiday,’’ Mr Tesselaar said.
Instead, he wanted a rose that would ‘‘give great results for nongardeners’’.
Although he was taken with the first Noak rose, its introduction did not happen immediately, with four years of testing preceding the launch of Carpet Rose Pink, the variety that became the foundation of the group. It now has been superseded by Flower Carpet Pink Supreme.
Tesselaar’s newest, Carpet Rose Sunset, more tangerine than Coral, has the same easycare attributes of its nine predecessors, which flower almost all year round.
Tough and easy are important to Mr Tesselaar, who said: ‘‘I want people to enjoy the garden.’’
It was not just the home gardener who found Carpet Roses a boon he said, giving the example of a North Island city council that pruned theirs almost to ground level using a hedge cutter. The plants bounced back in spring and flowered prolifically until autumn.
In New Zealand, white is the most popular variety but in Australia it is Carpet Rose Scarlet, ‘‘probably because it is very heat and coldtolerant’’, Mr Tesselaar said.
Passionate about plants, he said his company, Anthony Tesselaar International, was not just about roses but embraced many other shrubs, trees and perennials, including magnolias by Taranaki’s Mark Jury and the same breeder’s daphne
Perfume Princess.
All plants were grown under licence in the countries where they were sold and Mr Tesselaar believed this contributed to the way plants grew so well in different regions. In Otago, Wallis’ Nurseries, of Mosgiel, grows Carpet Roses that are distributed as far away as Auckland.
Nursery owner Clive Wallis said late last month he took 1500 to Auckland — ‘‘Up there, they do very well.’’
This winter, standard Carpet Roses are back on the market, with most varieties available. They are grown on rootstock from Matthews Nurseries, of Wanganui, to give what Mr Wallis calls ‘‘a highhealth, vigorous engine room’’.
Growing for local conditions and the time taken to test new varieties means Carpet Roses are here to stay.