New Zealand Roses
Aotearoa Rose
My love of roses is shared with many gardening friends from all over the world. There are some roses which we all know and love, while others are famous only in their country of origin. Here are some of the best loved New Zealand roses.
New Zealand has many gifted rose breeders, and their efforts for the rose world deserve to be recognised. My own local Botanic Rose Gardens have been a great place to check up on New Zealand rose collections. While I don't yet grow many in my own garden, I am interested - and I do plan to invest more Moosey money in the local product! Any excuse...
Here's my selection of favourites, with most of the photographs taken at other gardens. Particularly if you're a lover of hybrid teas you'll enjoy these new roses. Hybrid teas have been rather thin on the ground in my rose pages - you should finally see some real beauties!
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Special Gift Rose...
- Special Gift is a glowing orange red rose which I was given as a present from my jazz choir a few years ago. The buds are so pretty, beautifully bi-coloured red and yellow.
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NZ Gardener Rose...
- To celebrate seventy years of the popular NZ Gardener magazine, a rose by the same name has recently been introduced. I was given one as a gift, and planted it in the Hump's Rose Garden. I can identify with the name of this pretty pink floribunda. Sometimes I even imagine that it was bred specially for me...
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Paddy Stephens Rose...
- Some roses arrive in my garden without fuss. They grow, they demand little, and they bloom beautifully. Taken for granted? Yes, it's definitely that way with the coral-pink hybrid tea Paddy Stephens.
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McGredy's Michelangelo Rose...
- I'm worried about naming a rose after one of the most impressively amazing creators of all time, Michelangelo. Could there be a rose grand and impassioned enough to encapsulate this famous Renaissance man? Which colour or flower form could do him justice?
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Ivey Hall Rose (Golden Smiles)...
- On one of my budget recycled rose-buying sprees I undertook to give a good country home to the yellow rose Ivey Hall (AKA Golden Smiles). This rose has a strong local connection, taking its name from the original building at nearby Lincoln University, in Canterbury, New Zealand.
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Royden Rose...
- Royden is one of the new roses I chose for the Birthday Garden - my sneaky birthday present to daughter, where I spent lots of money on heaps of roses, pretended it was a real birthday present, and felt completely justified - generous, even!
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Oranges and Lemons Rose...
- Ha! Oranges and Lemons must be the gaudiest, brightest, most artificial looking striped rose in the world. Certainly it would look wonderful mass planted in its own box-hedged rose bed, as one would find in a properly designed rose garden. My garden only has room for one...
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Sam McGredy's Roses - 3...
- Blue toned roses, roses which look hand-painted with vibrant crayons, big blousy beauties - and delicately shaped hybrid teas - there's a Sam McGredy rose for every rose lover, just waiting to be purchased and planted in your own garden!
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Sam McGredy's Roses - 2...
- Sam McGredy's roses are strong and vibrantly coloured. This man isn't a slave to pastel - his flame reds and sunset colours are warm and evocative. The rose bushes have big flowers, with big blooming impact.
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Sam McGredy's Roses - 1...
- Sam McGredy came to New Zealand from Ireland in the 1970s. He has brought stunning, fruity colours and exquisite lush flowers to the rose world, from his flouncy hybrid teas to the subtle hand painted roses like Old Master.
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Old Master Rose...
- My first Old Master was a standard rose I bought for five dollars from a sale at a local Crematorium. One of Sam McGredy's 'hand painted roses', it looked superb in Middle Border surrounded by self sown white and lime green Nicotianas.