Every three years, rosarians from around the world gather at the World Rose Convention to share ideas and knowledge on the rose. 2012 has seen the turn of Sandton in South Africa to host the 15th World Rose Convention from which I have just returned.
At these conventions, awards are presented in various areas and this includes inducting the latest entrant into the Rose Hall of Fame. Actually, there are two – one for modern roses and another for old fashioned roses. Each of the 39 countries that make up the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS) nominate roses to go forward to the Hall of Fame.
The 2012 inductee for modern roses and a very popular one at that is Sally Holmes. This rose is known widely around the world and in New Zealand where it is grown as a shrub or climber. It covers itself in single creamy lemon blooms all season long.
Bred in England in the 1970’s by Robert Holmes, it is the first rose bred by an amateur rose breeder to enter the Hall of Fame and was a popular choice among member countries for the award. 
The first entrant into the Modern Roses Hall of Fame was ‘Peace’ in 1976. Since then ‘Queen Elizabeth’, ‘Fragrant Cloud’, ‘Iceberg’, ‘Double Delight’, ‘Papa Meilland’, ‘Pascali’, ‘Just Joey’, ‘New Dawn’, ‘Ingrid Bergman’, ‘Bonica’, ‘Elina’, ‘Pierre de Ronsard’ and ‘Graham Thomas’ have all been entered into the Hall of Fame.
There was a tie at the top for the Old Fashioned Rose Hall of Fame so there are two entrants for 2012. The first is the well known and grown Mutabilis, a china rose with distinctive single blooms that start yellow and change colour as they age to coppery crimson. It repeats bloom throughout the season and grows into a large shrub but is very easy to grow.
The other entrant for this year is Rosa gallica officinalis, a gallica with deep pink to carmine red blooms that blooms early in the season. Gallica roses were bred in France and are some of the oldest cultivated roses to come out of Europe.
‘Old Blush’, ‘Cecile Brunner’, ‘Gloire de Dijon’ and ‘Souvenir de la Maimaison’ were first inducted for the Old Fashioned Rose Hall of Fame. Since then, ‘Gruss an Teplitz’, Mme Alfred Carriere, Mme Hardy and Rosa Mundi have joined them.
In three years time, the 17th World Rose Convention will be held in Lyon, France. I wonder what will be selected for the Rose Hall of Fame then?
By Hayden Foulds
Maureen J - 12 years ago
Very interesting topic look forward to doing a bit of this and that with a few new roses in the garden hopefully.