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Hi everyone,
It was mentioned here on the forum many times, also by administrators, that popularity of roses is in decline.
Is it something recent, does it have anything to do with recession? Or is it a long -term problem?
For those in the UK who are watching BBC Gardener's World, I can't remember when there was anything about roses , at all !
Are there any statistics about popularity of roses during the century?
Also, may be it is a commercial secret, but it would be interesting to know what are the best selling roses from PB Roses.
P.S.
Sorry about my english, I live in the UK just about two years :-)
northwall
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The popularity of roses rises and falls over time, but just drive down any street in the country and you'll find plenty of roses growing, so we are not worried.
Of course the popular roses, Iceburg, Peace and the Celebration's (Ruby Wedding, Golden, Silver, etc) all do very well too, as do the unique to us roses like St Ethelburga, Sir Paul Smith and Faithful Friend.
We are heading in the direction of dropping out of date roses that do not perform under today's climate conditions and focusing on roses that will thrive in our current climate.
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An interesting topic in my opinion. I don't think that the "popularity of roses" is in decline. But for us who are not in the horticultural industry it is very hard respectively impossible to quantify that popularity. No numbers/statistics publicly available. Being very curious I for example would really like to know how many garden roses are sold annually as well as the ratio of modern roses to Old Garden Roses grown in gardens worldwide. Let's say for the last twenty years, based on numbers of garden roses sold. Is it 80:20? Or more like 90:10? Have there been changes in the last few years? What about climbing roses, have their numbers increased during the last ten years? And so on. Lots of interesting questions come to mind. No answers, though.
Companies like Kordes, Meilland, Austin, Poulsen etc. know the figures and the answers to these questions. They have to know them to consider them for their breeding programs, marketing, ...
As Pete said, the popularity of roses rises and falls over time. Some like 'Schneewittchen'/'Iceberg' and 'Peace' are big sellers for many years, though. Based on my limited observations I'd say that the most popular roses for the majority of gardeners worldwide are Hybrid Teas and Floribundas. A good indicator for popularity in my opinion are the roses awarded "World's Favourite Roses" of the World Federation of Rose Societies. As far as I know about 100,000 members of rose societies in 40 countries vote on this award every year: Rose Hall of Fame.
BTW, sometime in summer 2007 we already had a short discussion on the forum about most popular roses from PBR's range of roses offered. Amanda mentioned some that are "... always among our top sellers. In no particular order - Rambling Rector, Mme Alfred Carriere, Bonica, Macmillan Nurse, Souvenir du Docteur Jamain and New Dawn." Simon added a few more: Louis XIV, Comte de Chambord, Blush Noisette, Jacqueline du Pré and Rosa Mundi.
greetings 
Hannes
Last edited by hannes (2010-01-16 00:21:42)
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Hannes,
You really speak my heart. I was always fascinated by these questions- statistics, percentage, graphs. Would not it be great to know exactly what is the most popular rose in Britain at the moment, for instance, or the best seller of last decade. Or how popularity of say New Dawn went up and down during the century.
Also, I would like to know how popularity of roses in general varies from country to country.
One of the reasons why there are no data available can be that those big names in the market would have to reveal numbers of roses sold.
Just yesterday I received RHS Encyclopedia of Roses, author Charles and Brigid Quest - Ritson. There are short articles about notable breeders around the world, and it says there about David Austin, that his company sells four million plants every year. Certainly respectable number.
No mention about P. Beales in the book, which I find very unfair !
Greetings
Northwall
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There is no denying, Austin started something off, so I think, the little article is earned...
As I understood, the main interest of PB is conserving and making available the conserved roses, else the outpour of own bred roses would be higher (even with the approach of highest quality PB has). Conserving usually is less obtrusive (if you are not Empress Josephine).
I personally find the excessive marketing strategy of Austin Roses annoying. Just because they can push their roses so much, it doesnt necessarily mean they are good, but I am not saying, they all are bad 
- That mainly is a matter of personal taste anyway.
In a gardencenter, where you formerly had three large benches with HTs, Floribundas and the odd OGR/shrub plus utility-roses (carefree flowercarpets and so on) and climbers, you still have the three benches now, one overflowing with expensive and not always promising looking Austins and the others squeezed on the two benches. The advantage on the other hand of the Austing craze is that (at least to my impression) it helped raising the interest in OGRs, the amount of them on the benches has grown as well. Just an observation , no stats at the back.
I think, the numbers of Kordes and Tantau Roses sold must be in the same range as the Austins, as they supply roses not only for wholesale but as well for projects where massplantings are needed (public and private sector). They offer a special range of roses for this purpose (ownroots! ).
Greetings
Britta
Last edited by Britta (2010-01-16 12:18:58)
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Not that I want to sound elitist, but in case I were confronted with a top-ten-parade I would, in all probability, delete any of them from my wish list. And were it only for the reason that I could admire them in other people’s gardens, if not at Tesco’s in the worst case scenario. (That I don’t follow my own advice can easily be proofed by the fact that I recognise some of our darlings on Amanda’s and Simon’s list, even though I read that later.)
But wouldn’t it be a good idea to give notice which roses are to be dropped from the catalogue. It seems to me that there exists in this country sympathy with the underdog as well as a celebrity culture.
Yet, things are probably a bit more complicated as the rose called “Cinderella” might exemplify…
Regards,
Bernhard
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Hello Bernhard
Bernhard wrote:
... in case I were confronted with a top-ten-parade I would, in all probability, delete any of them from my wish list.
Hmm ... The way I see it ANY rose we (might) have in our gardens (or on our wish lists) IS on someone's top ten list ...
greetings
Hannes
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Dear Hannes,
I can’t agree more. What I meant (or are slightly opposed to) is a kind of (inter)national bestselling-list-mania, though I recognise the importance of (the mine field) of statistics, particularly for commercial growers. And of course, the conclusions drawn from them may vary.
Kind regards,
Bernhard
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Hi again Bernhard,
I know what you meant, just couldn't resist ...
I don't care about these lists either but some roses on them inevitably have found their way into my garden too. Sneaky plants. 
On a more serious note, if you check out the Old Rose Hall of Fame, all of the roses on that list have been extremely popular over a long time and deservedly so, in my opinion. Excellent roses that do very well in many gardens.
greetings
Hannes
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Hi! I think in the US the promotion of Knock out roses has led many nurseries to carry only knock outs, and we have a harder time finding interesting plants.
I like a few of the austins- this is the second year I waited to long & missed out on Claire Ausitn 
.
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I think that when a rose gets a certain amount of popularity (or fame!) it develops a momentum of its own, due to the principal that advertising relies on - that we feel a kind of familiarity and re-assurance it will perform.
I admit am very prone to this, having had a few disappointments with roses brought at the local nursery on account of a sudden attachment to the flower.(Austins Claire and Perdita, Moss: Crimson Globe to name a few that are yet to perform).
This forum has become vital to my choice of roses!
On the other hand I do get the maybe 'elitist' thrill of having a thriving rarity - not difficult with with so many to chose from.
In fact with my limited rose identification abilities I can rarely put a name to any of the roses I spot in other's gardens, and rarely see two the same. Given that this area seems to comform to the statistic that 80% of gardens have a rose, thats a lot of variety!
Prudence
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A lady who walks her dog past our house told me that she always checks out our garden to see what's new. She particularly enjoys the roses. Not everybody who goes past has stopped to speak but I'm sure that quite a few do take a look. Although I grow roses predominantly for my own pleasure, it is nice to share.
Bearing this in mind, I do like to have unusual blooms in the garden. That's when people do get talking. It may be something they haven't seen before; they may ask for the name. I'm not quite planning to do tours or anything, but I've had a few ask to have a look around, including the milkman!
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