The goal is to breed a whole series of fantastic new roses that will thrive in the coldest regions.
Russia and Scandinavia are the two key target markets along with cold regions of the U.S. and Canada, although the roses are also being bred with a classic 鈥淓uropean beauty鈥� that should make them equally big sellers in more temperate zones, such as here in coastal B.C.
The breeding work is being done at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, outside St. Catharines, Ont., but top B.C. nurseries, such as Bylands in Kelowna and Van Belle in Abbotsford, are playing an important role as testing stations.
There are also at least 10 other trial gardens throughout Canada working with Vineland to make sure the right roses get selected.
If all goes to plan, by 2018 the first of the super-hardy 91原创 roses will be introduced.
Sales are expected to be phenomenal as there is interest in the project being shown by horticulturalists all over Europe, especially in Scandinavia and Russia, where they can鈥檛 wait to get their hands on roses that can survive their harsh winters.
At Vineland, between 15,000 and 20,000 鈥渃rosses鈥� (cross pollinated roses) are made each year, resulting in 30,000 to 60,000 seeds. When these seeds germinate, the plants are closely inspected and only the top 50 selected.
This number is reduced again with only the best two or three hybrids being put forward for trials. It is an intense and complex process that has been going on for the past four years.
The results so far have been exciting, with roses emerging from the program that are not only super-tolerant to extreme cold but also highly disease resistant, even to such common rose ailments as black spot.
鈥淲e are targeting Russia and Scandinavia and have already established partnerships there,鈥� says Rumen Conev, head research scientist at Vineland.
鈥淲e want to take this program global. Success will mean selling roses in the biggest markets in Europe. We also hope to take our roses into at least 20 of the 50 states in the US. But overall, we think Russia will be our biggest market.鈥�
All of the genetic material being used to create the new roses came from work done over the past 50 years at government-funded horticultural research stations at Morden, Man., and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que.
It was out of these plant-breeding programs that the first hardy 91原创 roses were developed, starting in the 1970s with the 91原创 Explorer series, followed by the Parkland series, and more recently, the Artist series.
In 2009, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced that it was getting out of the plant-breeding business and planned to close the Manitoba and Quebec centres.
There was a strong reaction from the 91原创 Nursery Landscape Association, which represents more than 3,800 companies in the gardening business across Canada.
The CNLA decided to step in and save the plant breeding programs along with all the genetic material that had been collected and developed over the years.
In 2010, CNLA signed an agreement with the federal government to obtain all the genetic material and royalty rights from the previous programs. Next, the association formed a partnership with Vineland to breed extremely hardy roses as well as ones highly resistant to diseases.
The federal government, however, did agree to support the new initiative with a $500,000 grant to get the ball rolling. Last year, it approved another grant of $2.4 million for the program.
A Heritage Fund has also been set up into which will go all royalties from the roses developed at Morden and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu over the years.
This fund is expected to provide at least $30,000 a year and should safely see the program up to the launch of the new roses in 2018.
鈥淲hat is different about the way we are doing things today is that we have a much better business model,鈥� says Conev.
鈥淚n the past, the government for some reason never really actively pursued collecting royalties from the sale of roses.
鈥淭oday, we are making sure all our roses are legally protected to ensure all profits come back to self-seed this program.鈥�
Another key difference, says Conev, is that a lot of work has been done to set up a global testing network to guarantee that selected roses prove their worth before being introduced.
鈥淲e also have a much stronger emphasis on disease resistance as well as cold hardiness.鈥� says Conev.
鈥淭here is no other program in the world making this kind of investment in developing roses that are able to thrive even in places where temperatures dip to minus 35.鈥� The goal, Conev says, is also to produce beautiful roses, ones that are 鈥渃omparable to European plants in terms of the beauty factor.鈥�
At Vineland, the creative development team also includes market researchers and style analysts who study consumer trends in order to identify what rose colours and styles are popular.
And while Conev acknowledges the excellent rose-breeding work being done at European nurseries such as Kordes in Germany, he says the new 91原创 roses will be as hardy as the old Explorer roses and more disease resistant than Kordes roses while also possessing the beauty of top European-bred roses.
Says Conev: 鈥淲e鈥檙e right on track, and we have some very good plant material in the pipeline.鈥�
