Samantha and Cath Matthews of Matthews Roses (left) with Kate Smith, Marion Gibbard and James Kirkwood from the Friends of the Sarjeant rose team.
Samantha and Cath Matthews of Matthews Roses (left) with Kate Smith, Marion Gibbard and James Kirkwood from the Friends of the Sarjeant rose team.
The Friends of the Sarjeant have teamed up with prizewinning Whanganui rose breeders Matthews Roses to produce The Sarjeant Rose, especially for the gallery’s reopening year. Helen Frances paid a visit to the nursery.
Bumping along farm tracks in the nursery’s four-wheeler, driven by assistant manager Samantha Matthews, we (the rose team members Marion Gibbard, James Kirkwood, Kate Smith and Helen Frances) go past fields where rose varieties have been reared since 1947, when the nurseries were founded by Bob Matthews’ parents.
The lineage of these roses, including The Sarjeant Rose, is commercially top-secret. Its human parents were, however, only too happy to show our small group around its place of birth and early childhood.
We arrive at the field where The Sarjeant Rose, a gorgeous, lightly-scented floribunda, blooms among many others that have reached the nursery’s exacting standards.
The bushes are covered in flowers with multiple buds and blooms on every stem. Delicate apricot initially, the buds open out into abundantly clustered petals in tender shades of pink. The scent is deliciously citrus.
This robust, modern rose combines strength - evident in its healthy, glossy leaves - and disease resistance, with delicate colouring and a fragrance that will attract many olefactory senses and inform many memories when planted in gardens throughout New Zealand and beyond.
There are conceptual underpinnings to this rose, Samantha explains.
“This rose has almost got the old-fashioned multi-petal vintage form, but then it’s on a really healthy plant. So this brand-new rose is just like the gallery - the old and the new with the feeling of something very romantic. When you look at it on the plant, depending on the season, it can have these shades of colours, so that got us thinking about the artist’s palette so there’s all sorts of layers that relate to the rose.”
Whanganui rose breeder Matthews Roses has bred The Sarjeant Rose, especially for the Sarjeant Gallery’s reopening year.
On the practical side of breeding The Sarjeant Rose, she said it was difficult to get the health gene and the fragrance gene to align, but that was part of the lengthy process of rose breeding.
“It can take six to 12 years from when you do the first pollinations in the glasshouse right through to the trialling process. So when you first start out that pollination process, you select healthy parents that you think might make some beautiful roses. And then you plant the seeds and see the seedlings grow. From there, you pick the ones you like. Then they get planted outside. So it takes years before you can even get a feel for the plant and the flower and have it all come together.”
They shortlist varieties that have promise for potential release and then plant them in the spray-free trial blocks.
“We haven’t sprayed our trial blocks for over 20 years. So that really tests the plant. The Sarjeant Rose was one of the varieties that came through that process.”
Samantha said her mother Cath and father Bob Matthews, who was raised by his parents “in the cowshed and among the roses” and took over the rose breeding business in 1978, had a feeling about this particular rose.
“And when you put that with what’s happening with the gallery, it all just comes together.”
Samantha, who is an award-winning, contemporary fine art photographer, said the whole family felt very connected with the Sarjeant.
“We’ve missed going up there, you know, with all the redevelopment. So it’s going to be exciting to actually go back into the building.”
Marion Gibbard, of The Sarjeant Rose sub-committee, said they have found working with the Matthews extremely interesting and also entertaining (Matthews’ humour seems to be a strong point). The sub-committee, which also includes publicist Margaret Samuels, has had informative meetings with the rose breeders, learning a lot about the process along the way.
The sub-committee was presented with half a dozen roses to consider and immediately narrowed the contenders down to two, eventually choosing The Sarjeant Rose.
“It’s been an amazing journey. We’ve learned so much about the rose breeding business and the Matthews’ knowledge is incredible. We’re very, very lucky to have this business in Whanganui and their historic knowledge. We are thrilled that Bob Matthews won the Royal NZ Institute of Horticulture Plant Raisers Award for 2024.”
The Sarjeant Rose is only available online at Sarjeant.org.nz/SarjeantRose. Order now and bare-root plants will be ready for courier delivery or Whanganui collection in early July 2024. Roses will bloom in November. Become a Friend of the Gallery to get a special price and support the Sarjeant.
