World renowned Ulster roses

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 11

World renowned Ulster roses

Roses bred in Northern Ireland are known all over the world. Favourites like Violet Carson or Silver Lining are treasured as far away as British Columbia, Tasmania, India, Burma and behind the Iron Curtain, and of course in all the rosegrowing countries in .Western Europe. There are only about 15 large rose hybridists in the world. Why should two of the most important be in the small country of Ulster? This was a question put by the 8.8. C. World Service radio magazine, Ulster Today, when the programme visited a display of roses at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Show. The success is due not so much to climate or soil as to the skill of two families, the Dicksons and the McGradys. The first rose breeder in Northern Ireland was Alex Dickson 111, the third generation of that famous family. Sam McGrady II started to breed roses in

the 1890 s. Since then successive generations of those firms have continued to produce beautiful roses and they bring out five or six new varieties each year. Early this century they introduced the new varieties of hybrid teas. Then in the 1950 s they both together started to breed florabunda roses, the garden rose of today, free flowering and with a tremendous range of colours. Always on the quest for better and better roses, a breeder produces new varieties by his skill in hybridising and cross-polina-tion. He seldom produces bushes for sale to gardens, that is the grower’s job. The breeder sells propagation wood, “bud wood” in the trade, to various rose-grow-ing countries, and it is there that the roses are increased for sale. Between 60 or 70 countries are at present importing from Ulster about 2$ million roses a year for the gardeners who love the queen of the flowers.