We have some blooming marvellous news to share with you: to commemorate our 75th anniversary, we have teamed up with Harkness Roses to share our very own RPO Celebration Rose! What’s more, if you order the bare root rose before 17 December, it will arrive before Christmas, making it the perfect gift for any green-fingered friends or family to enjoy.
The RPO Celebration Rose is a beautiful new hybrid tea – which is a crossbreed of two types of roses. Hybrid teas display traits of both parent flowers which makes it hardier and more inclined to repeat-flowering in Summer and Autumn, allowing you to enjoy these brilliant blossoms through the year. The flower blooms to a pleasing rounded shape, opening to 7 – 9cm across with around 40 petals. Its picturesque white effect with a cream centre and fragrant perfume will certainly make a welcome addition to any garden. In planting a bare root rose now, you can watch the entire flowering process as the plant establishes over winter and produces its first blooms in early Spring.
View and purchase RPO Celebration Rose below:
If the stunning flowers have not sold you, you will be happy to know that for each rose sold, Harkness Roses will donate £2.50 to us. As we recover from the most significant period of disruption in a generation, we are embarking on an ambitious journey to bring people together through the joy of music. With your support, we will be able to continue planning for the future to ensure that everyone, everywhere, can discover music’s transformative promise and impact.
The entire process for making our RPO Celebration Rose took seven years! In the first year, two parent roses were chosen, with the pollen and stamen from each rose used to create a new hybrid tea. The rose was then left in a controlled environment to prevent cross-pollination from wind and bees. Around October, rosehips form which contain seeds, with anything between 5 – 80 seeds per hip. These seeds were harvested and placed in alternating cold and warm environments for two weeks to germinate them - this process alone may take seven years in the wild but by alternating environments, by the following spring, it was ready to be sewn into the ground! Around 30,000 - 40,000 seeds were planted and out of these, only around 500 or 600 grew flowers which were then planted in fields. For three years, the flowers are tested on to check disease resistance and fragrance before the selection is narrowed down further to 100 to 250 flowers, which are tested for another three years. Finally, at the end of these three years, a handful of roses are chosen to launch, including our RPO Celebration Rose. Safe to say that it is not an easy process!
We even have a new rose-themed Spotify playlist for you to enjoy!