South Australian rose breeder, Kim Syrus, spent two months overseas in late 2024 thanks to a Churchill Fellowship where he delved into overseas developments in roses. He finds that there could be changes afoot for the queen of flowers.
Being part of the rose industry for more than 30 years, I have seen many changes, from plant styles and colours to vastly improved flower and health performance; it has been an exciting and horticulturally rewarding time. However, one aspect of commercial rose production that has become a major issue is finding essential skilled workers.
Traditionally, roses are produced through a method known as “budding”, where the bud of a variety is grafted on to a rootstock. The job of deftly slicing away the bud from a stem then carefully cutting and sliding it under the bark of a rootstock is done by a rose budder. Throughout summer, bent over in South Australian fields and across the country, these clever people bud millions of rootstocks, leaving the emerging bud to develop into the garden-ready roses we buy.
The inability to reliably source these skilled workers is causing commercial producers much grief. It is like having a sheep farm without shearers – not a good result.
Ever resourceful, many growers have investigated alternative ways to produce field roses without the need for an understock and budder, by producing plants on their own roots. Growing roses from cuttings is something many gardeners have done for generations. While it is fine to take 10 cuttings and end up with two or three plants at home, such a low percentage is not commercially viable.
Roses being grown by NeuHouse Farms create a stunning picture from the Wasco sky.
Aware that rose growers in both the United States and Europe have successfully transitioned portions of their crop to cutting-grown plants, I applied and was successfully awarded a Churchill Fellowship, supported by Hort Innovations, to see what I could learn and bring back.
After recently spending seven weeks travelling and meeting rose growers, retailers and home gardeners I can attest to the phrase “travel broadens the mind”. Returning with a head and hard drive filled with innovative ideas my task is to produce a report and roadmap to assist the rose industry in adjusting to an ever-changing world.
While I wade through and construct my report, I am constantly distracted by memories of the wonderful places and people I met on this rose-rich journey. Given the sheer volume of those unforgettable encounters, I’d like to share some key places among the many ones visited across the USA and Europe.
What better location to start than Portland, Oregon, home of the famous “Rose Parade” and rightly dubbed the City of Roses.
Alex Kordes and Thomas Proll from Germany’s Kordes Roses.
Set in Portland’s sprawling Washington Park, boasting more than 10,000 rose plants and around 650 varieties flowering happily, the International Rose Test Garden (in peak bloom from May to October), is a must-visit for any rose lover. The first roses were planted in 1917, and each subsequent year hybridisers and growers have added other new varieties.
As a “test” garden, roses are constantly assessed for their suitability, successful candidates are retained in their landscaped beds, while those that don’t make the grade are removed.
Rose Curator, Rachel Burlington has been at the helm for six years and is assisted by a small but highly skilled staff. The gardens also rely heavily on a dedicated band of volunteers who willingly give up their time for weeding, deadheading and general maintenance to ensure the high standards expected in such a prominent garden are kept.
Next, to Greenheart Farms, Arroyo Grande, California, which has a rich rose heritage with current owner, Bill DeVor’s grandfather, Paul, being a pioneer of the American rose industry. Little wonder, grandson Bill has embraced the changing face of rose growing by developing propagation methods to suit. Central to the successful transition from budded to own root plants in the US has been Greenheart Farms’ ability to produce large and consistent numbers of cuttings across a range of rose varieties.
Wasco’s NeuHouse Farms own root rose plant fields stretch into the horizon.
Starting each plant from a piece of stem and leaf, Bill has trialled and refined growing systems so his skilled workforce can successfully make millions of small, rooted rose plugs, like a plant in a vegetable punnet. These plugs, of assorted rose varieties, are distributed to growers to be planted in their fields.
Located in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Wasco has been an influential rose growing district for decades; its hot summers and mild winters mirror Adelaide’s Mediterranean climate and our region’s rose lineage.
They say everything is big in America, well, when it comes to rose growing, there’s no one bigger than Wasco’s NeuHouse Farms where Dan Waterhouse and wife, Nancy Neufield, demonstrate what can be achieved when large farming practices are adapted to rose growing. Along with their sons, Will and Zeb, this multi-generational business has revolutionised the way field-grown garden roses are produced.
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Kim Syrus with curator of the Portland International Rose Test Garden, Rachel Burlington.
Buying in small rose plugs from Greenheart Farms and other businesses, the plugs are loaded and machine-assisted planted in prepared ground. Hectares and hectares fill with precisely spaced plants and rows culminating in an eye-watering 11 million roses.
I am still awe-struck recounting the spectacle of millions and millions of rose plants, tightly lined, growing and blooming a treat, ready and waiting to be lifted, trimmed and sent across the US.
Bred by Will Radler, owner of Rose Innovations, Greenfields, Wisconsin in 2000, the Knock Out rose was the impetus for American growers moving toward cutting-grown plants. Knock Out’s ability to successfully grow across the USA, coupled with its ease of own root propagation, quickly saw it, and the emerging other Knock Out varieties, take a whopping 30 per cent share of the American rose market.
Kim Syrus with Alex Kordes and Thomas Proll at Kordes Roses’ German headquarters
No rose has ever done that before, nor likely to again. Knock Out was the catalyst for change in the way roses can be grown. I was honoured to see the original Knock Out plant on my visit to Rose Innovations.
European rose breeders, such as Rosen Tantau and Kordes Roses in northern Germany, along with Meilland International in Provence, France, were also on my itinerary. Spending time with each respective company’s hybridiser, listening to them explain breeding and selection methods and hearing their passion for producing the best of today’s garden roses and, importantly tomorrow’s, was a rare treat.
Kim with Bill DeVor, who owns Greenheart Farms in California.
There was also much to enjoy at Universal Platas, located near Seville in Spain. Producing roses similarly to Australian growers, the move to own-root production is not as advanced in Europe as it is in the USA, but Paco Ferrer and his son Carlos are leading the way by growing a select number of high-quality roses from hardwood cuttings.
I look forward to seeing what changes will occur in how we produce roses, and whatever they are, it will take time.
Kim Syrus is the Australian Master Agent for French-based rose breeder Meilland International.
This article first appeared in the January 2025 issue of SALIFE magazine.
