To anyone who enjoys roses, a perfumed, dark red floribunda is a clarion call. With its velvety red mid-sized blooms and excellent leathery foliage ‘Cherie’ matches this specification to a ‘T’. The blooms open in loose rosette form, they are borne in plentiful clusters, and scented with a distinct, spicy aroma. This is an easy-to-grow red bedding rose with pleasing perfume. In fact ‘Cherie’ is something of a break-through among red roses. Many rich red, perfumed roses are unfortunately susceptible to disease, but ‘Cherie’ rarely shows signs of black-spot or powdery mildew. It is a sturdy, stocky bedding rose that’s ideal for general purpose planting, and great to cut for indoors.

For the past 11 years Cherie Booth and Sandra Horley OBE, Chief Executive of Refuge have together worked tirelessly to change social attitudes. Cherie became a trustee of Refuge in 1995 after speaking at a fundraising event at the invitation of Sandra Horley. Over the years she has visited several refuges and supported a number of public awareness and fundraising campaigns. Cherie is now Patron of Refuge and has written articles on domestic violence for national newspapers, spoken at conferences alongside Sandra Horley and acted as an international ambassador for the cause.

Refuge's Mission
National domestic violence charity Refuge opened the world's first refuge in Chiswick in 1971. Now the UK's largest single provider of specialist accommodation and support to women and children escaping domestic violence - Refuge is a national "lifeline" for up to 80,000 women and children every year. Refuge provides safe, emergency accommodation through a growing network of refuges throughout the UK and runs a 24 hour national domestic violence freephone helpline, in partnership with Women's Aid. Refuge offers services for children, individual and group counselling for abused women, and community based outreach services for women including specialist services for minority ethnic communities. Refuge runs award winning media and advertising campaigns to raise public awareness, whilst campaigning and lobbying for better provision for women and children experiencing domestic violence. For general enquiries call: 020 7395 7700 or visit www.refuge.org.uk for further information

Colouring shows subtle variations around white, blushing to soft pearl in the fresh opening bloom, and a nuance of light apricot in autumn or during cool periods. Fully open blooms are practically white, and this will be the dominant impression in the garden landscape, an effect of flowering profusion and airy charm in white.

The flowers are borne in the floribunda style in clusters of up to five blooms per stem. Each bloom is mid-sized, (average 8cm when open), and contains a ruffle of petals in the loosely cupped form. The perfume is fresh, light and pleasing, making this a good choice to cut for indoors as well as for general purpose planting.

This robust, repeat-blooming rose issues from Harkness’ high-health breeding line, meaning that it shows tolerance of disease and is therefore more continuous in growth and bloom, as well as being easy to maintain. Habit is vigorous, erect and well branched, producing plenty of flower-bearing stems so that bloom repeats with good frequency from mid-summer right through until early frost.

In early summer of 2006 Roses UK proposed to the nation’s leading rose-breeders that each breeder offer their best up-and-coming pre-introduction rose to be short-listed for naming. The name would be to honour a ‘well-known personality’, whose identity remained undisclosed.

The rose submitted by Harkness was selected, and great pleasure and excitement ensued following the revelation that the undisclosed personality was Michael Parkinson.

The Rose Of The Year 2007 is hugely bold and impressive, with masses of large, scented blooms. They are a gorgeous and seductive shade of pink, carried in enormous trusses on a mightily vigorous plant. ‘Tickled Pink’ is exceptionally easy to grow and exceedingly free-flowering. It’s bound to win plenty of admirers either adding flower-power to beds and borders, or bringing scent and beauty in to view when cut for the vase.

The Rose of the Year (ROTY) is an internationally recognised competition, staged jointly by the UK Growers and Breeders Associations, to officially endorse the top new variety of each year with the seal of approval of the British Rose Trade.

Usually attracting around two dozen entries, ROTY is an impressive selection of varieties from around the world, keenly contested by all the leading international rose breeders. Their latest varieties are cultivated for two flowering seasons in trial conditions by ten different specialist rose nurseries, including trials with the roses growing in pots, to verify suitability for container gardening.

Each of the ten nurseries invites judges from their local region. The judges include professional and amateur rosarians, experts in the field of general horticulture, garden designers and writers, and horticultural journalists. The judging guidlines are designed to seek out the key qualities: healthy foliage, plentiful flowers with perfume, plus the general effectiveness and suitability of the roses as garden plants.

The judge's points from all ten nurseries are aggregated to decide the winner. The geographic spread of the ROTY trials proves reliability in a range of soils and in varying climatic conditions. Only an exceptional overall performer will convince the judges at all 10 nurseries, and will then be worthy of the title 'Rose of the Year'.

During its nursery trials ‘Carris’exceeded all expectations in its capability to re-bloom, which it does very rapidly, producing wave upon wave of brilliant scarlet. Re-bloom cycle is among the most important characteristics in roses, it holds the key to maximising effectiveness and performance in the garden .

‘Carris’ is bold and bright, suitable to plant in any situation, and fantastic for cutting stems for indoors.

Colour quality is rich and pure, the scarlet of the fresh blooms eventually softening to cherry red. Growth habit is strong, broad and freely branching. Foliage is glossy and leathery, forming a dense foil of mid-green as a background for the blooms. Resistance to disease is good.

The right to choose the name for this new rose was auctioned in a great flurry of excitement by Terry Wogan in November 2006, as part of BBC Children in Need on radio 2.

The generosity of Mr and Mrs Worrall secured a whole package of gardening delights, part of which is the splendid ‘Carris’.

This myrrh-scented rose is a delight at all stages. The opening buds are tinted light lime green, then the petals reflex to reveal blooms of glowing amber. It is a subtle and distinctive colour change, delightful for the garden and exceptional to cut for indoor decoration. In both situations, the effect is colourful and fresh as the clusters of blooms on each stem open progressively. The form of the open bloom is rounded and loosely cupped in a scoop of petals, echoing the style of old roses.

‘Henrietta Barnett’ is an excellent choice for any situation where an elegant and heavily scented rose is needed. Growth habit is sturdy and erect, suitable for beds and summer borders, either as a single specimen or in a small group of three or five roses. It is also ideal to grow in containers.

Dame Henrietta Barnett (1851 – 1936), a visionary philanthropist, saw her dream to create a better way of living in the outskirts of overcrowded London begin to take shape in Hampstead Garden Suburb when she cut the first sod in 1907. On the Suburb she founded both Henrietta Barnett School and the Hampstead Garden Suburb Institute. A woman who was determined to help the poor out of poverty by education she also, with her husband Samuel, founded Toynbee Hall in the East End of London and the Whitechapel Art Gallery. All her creations still play important roles today. To celebrate the 100 th anniversary of Hampstead Garden Suburb, a Centenary Committee has commissioned this new rose.

This perfumed, pearly-blush bedding rose is perhaps the surprise package of the year, its serene beauty masking a formidable array of qualities:

‘Rosa Belmonte’ is a bedding rose par excellence. Its habit is amazingly dense and leafy, an astonishing luxuriance of leathery foliage being crowned by a confection of blush pink blooms. They are mainly in clusters of 3 to 5 per stem, prettily urn-shaped at the bud stage, opening as a canopy covering the bush. Colour when fully reflexed is pearl. The perfume is distinct, tendency to fruity with citrus undertones.

‘Reliability’ means high performance in return for little effort. This makes gardening with roses rewarding and fun for people with no particular expertise. To simply plant a rose and get great results is what today’s gardeners expect, and it’s what ‘Rosa Belmonte’ delivers.

‘Environmentally acceptable’ goes hand in glove with ‘reliability’. Reliable roses grow without fungicide treatment. The latest ‘green’ products (see www.roses.co.uk) do not require intensive use on roses with natural disease tolerance. They are easy to use and effective.

Such qualities will introduce new generations of gardeners to the joy of roses. Rose breeders must rise to the challenge of explaining that improved new varieties have better productivity and performance, if not new colours. The message is that a healthy rose keeps on growing, and a rose that keeps on growing keeps on blooming. ‘Rosa Belmonte’ will be an important messenger in this respect.

www.rosabelmonte.com Visit the rosa Belmonte website for the full story of this rose, with images.

Celebrating many happy hours in the gardens of Palazzo Belmonte, Rosa Belmonte was dedicated to Donna Francesca at her wedding, as a sign forever of her husband’s true love. 

Fund-raising for The Prince’s Trust
Donna Francesca has specially requested that Rosa Belmonte be sold in aid of The Prince’s Trust, to help young people overcome barriers and get their lives working.

Alan Titchmarsh, Special Ambassador for The Prince’s Trust: 
Rosa Belmonte is an irresistible story:  romance in the garden put to a good purpose to help young people today.  This is a rose to encourage gardeners to plant roses: robust, elegant and romantic.  In support of The Prince’s Trust, the strength, beauty and love story of Rosa Belmonte make it a classic addition to any garden.