Most pot roses that are being sold end up in someone's home. Roses naturally don’t like to be inside, but rose breeder De Ruiter Innovations succeeded in creating good-performing pot roses that last inside your home for a long time. De Ruiter Innovations was the pioneer in the 80s with this type of rose, and now the total world production of pot roses is around 85 million worldwide. Per year!
Pot Roses
We all know pot roses and see that they look totally different from 'ordinary' outdoor roses, such as floribunda roses, ‘castle roses', and ground cover roses. These rose types are specially made for outdoor growing, including patio roses that are more suited for growing in a pot outdoors. Patio roses are potted roses, created especially for your patio, terrace, and balcony.
Pot roses come in smaller pots, 11-14 cm, and are sold as indoor plants for your home.
Pot Roses Are Really a Different League
The difference between pot roses, patio, and other normal outdoor roses is mainly the way they want them to grow. For the grower, the roses need to have certain characteristics like compact, and uniform growth, disease resistance, and longevity. Roses in general don't like to be in the dark for a longer time, so the pot roses that are being selected must be capable of surviving a couple of days in the dark when the plants are being transported to flower shops and other retailers. And do well inside where there is less sunlight than outdoors. Next thing is that pot roses are very compact, with many smaller leaves, always causing a little too much shade at the bottom of the plants.
And then, when the plants reach the flower shops, the roses must show flowers, and there must be plenty of rose buds waiting to open at the homes of the consumers buying the pot roses.
Pot Roses by De Ruiter
A difficult job. Nonetheless, the breeders of De Ruiter succeeded, and still do, in creating strong, and healthy plants that consumers like. In the 80s most varieties of pot roses that were on the markets all came from De Ruiter. They created varieties that were easy to propagate, and with 4 young plants in each pot, De Ruiter showed it was possible for growers to create strong, healthy plants, filled with blooms. That does well indoors. Then some competition came, but nowadays, still many growers of pot roses today use varieties that were bred by De Ruiter.
De Ruiter Around the World
De Ruiter is present all around the world. In upcoming markets like in China and Brasil, De Ruiter's market position is a leading one ( and reaches around 90% for pot roses in Brasil). De Ruiter understands the global markets in roses and knows the differences between the markets. And the difference between the markets sometimes is striking. Where customers from Europe demand uniform and compact plants, In China, for example, the plants can be more natural looking. Wider, and higher. The two pot rose markets in China and Europe are totally different.
Teaser
New on the markets in China is a pot rose in an 11 cm pot with only 1 cutting. A crossbreed of a 'normal' pot rose and a stem rose. A true invention by De Ruiter. The advantage is that the bottom part is a very strong outdoor rose variety, making it easier for growth on top of it. The foliage is then cut back several times before it blooms, and when it does, you have a much stronger and healthier plant.
It also needs less energy to grow than standard pot roses and when cut back by the end consumer it can grow back and it can survive outdoor conditions better than a regular pot rose.
As traditional pot rose growers do need a lot of heat and light for pot roses to grow, this might be a very interesting development for the pot rose growers in Europe, who are now suffering due to the high energy prices.
.jpg "Chinese pot rose on stem (pink)")
Fun Fact
With so many different rose shapes and varieties, one often wonders how it is possible to get so many different product ranges from one group of flowers. Large-headed cut flowers, garden roses, spray roses, ground cover roses, castle roses, and of course patio roses. All originating from the queen of flowers, the rose.
A good performing variety that is very popular in China also became very successful as a cut spray rose. 'Juicy Terrazza'. When you let this rose growing in a greenhouse, it gives very nice stems with many flowers. This patio rose variety is now being tested in Russia as a spray rose variety for the cut flower industry.
