INDIA
Delhi
ROSES IN WINTER !
Queen Elizabeth
Ever wondered that Mother Teresa, Christian Dior, Queen Elizabeth, and Jawaharlal Nehru all have one thing in common?
They have a type of rose named after them.
A winter rose show has been organized at the National Rose Garden this weekend where all such roses, along with about 50 other varieties, will be on display. The show is being organized by the Rose Society of India.
Institutes across the country have sent in roses of different colours and sizes for the competition, which has about 22 categories. – that are on display. within a big, white tent. There are roses so massive that it would be hard to fit them in both palms, and then there are the tiny ones barely an inch wide. Even the colours on display are spectacular – white with pink edges, orange and pink-shaded roses, white with speckles of yellow and pink, and beautiful coral roses, among others.
Forget the standard colours – red, pink, yellow and white – that are normally seen at flower shops, there is a multitude of different shades in single-colour roses as well – apricot, lavender, scarlet, deep pink, golden and orange. The competition also includes products made with roses, like incense, gulkand, candles, scent, candy and water.
Flower arrangements from the President’s garden at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and ikebana from the Ohara School of Ikebana are also on display.
The show might just be a weekend affair, but the rose garden has about 70 different types of roses – some in full bloom, while others still in nascent stages. “The bloom has been affected as the temperatures remained high for so long but suddenly dropped from last week. While some roses bloomed suddenly with the drop in mercury, others didn’t,” said Dhan Singh, general secretary of The Rose Society of India.
Despite so many varieties of roses, it seems strange that there are only two or three available for retail. But Singh says that few nurseries, at least in Delhi, are breeding different kinds of roses now. “With climate change and pollution, roses don’t grow very well here and nurseries cannot make much money from what grows. The cut flowers that come here are mainly grown in temperature-controlled glasshouses in Pune and Bangalore,” he says.#
Details of all our roses are available on our web site.
Over 1000 varieties to choose from.
