A warm spring and unbiased care by gardener Belinda Phillips have the unnamed roses in the trial beds at Victoria Esplanade looking better than usual for this year’s rose awards.
Working mostly single-handed in the Palmerston North rose gardens for 15 years, Phillips has mulched, fertilised, watered, sprayed and dead-headed with an even hand.
Those new roses that have responded best will be rewarded with a name, a place in the display beds and prizes for their breeders this weekend.
Those that do not make the cut will be returned to sender, or destroyed.
Phillips said the roses’ first flush was two to three weeks earlier than usual this season.
“After a good weekend, I come in on Monday and notice the difference.”
The whole garden is a riot of colour and perfume. Even a climbing rose that has not bloomed for four years has put on a show.
But despite looking their best now, the roses are judged on their performance during a full two years, with 20-odd judges visiting them at random intervals, whatever the season.
They are looking for colour and fragrance, flower form and novelty value, and also their health, vitality and disease resistance.
There are some bushes so laden with blooms their stems can hardly support them, a problem Phillips predicts the judges will not overlook.
This year’s 50 trial roses have been submitted by breeders from New Zealand, Canada, the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
They are competing for the top award of the Gold Star of the South Pacific, the Silver Star of the City of Palmerston North for amateur New Zealand efforts, certificates of merit and special awards.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony at the Esplanade rose gardens, at 2.30pm on Sunday.
Alongside, the Nola Simpson Rose Bed will be unveiled in memory of one of New Zealand’s leading rose breeders.
This year’s prize giving is the 50th anniversary of the trials. It was supposed to be a double bonus alongside the National Spring Rose Show and Convention, but that was postponed as another Covid-19 victim.
The spring rose and flower show will still go ahead at the Community Leisure Centre on Ferguson St on Saturday, from noon until 4pm.
