Queen Roses

Queen Roses – Sole e Luna – Smiling Eyes


Every year International Competitions are held in many countries of the world, generally for new roses, as in Monza Trials, but more recently also for roses  already on the market since a few years. The roses participate according to their categories: HT, Floribunda, Shrub, Climber, Ground Cover, and the most beautiful are awarded for the flower, for the scent, for the landscape effect.

A permanent jury follows the development of the plants, sent by the breeders during the two years preceding the Contests, planted in the trial ground anonymously, and treated at the best. On the day of the competitions, another jury of international experts judges the roses as they are at that moment and their score, added to the previous scores, defines the winners.

A few years ago it was decided to dedicate an area of the Niso Fumagalli Rose Garden to the collection of the most awarded roses in international trials, defining them as Queen Roses.

The area was designed to be distinguished  from  other areas of the Rose Garden, with a succession of arched flower beds, interspersed with yew hedges. Not every year has the same number of varieties, as sometimes the winning roses are not marketed and cannot be sent to us.

Our collection has for now stopped with the Queens of 2019 because in 2020 many competitions did not take place due to the pandemic. We hope to resume as soon as possible with the new plantings.

Behind this area are the climbing Queens.

Among the Queens of 2015 is “Sole and Luna”, a floribunda of the Italian breeder Barni, which has won 6 prizes, in Monza, Madrid, Rome and Barcelona. It is a rose that blooms continuously, slightly scented, with five petals, salmon pink that becomes almost white over time.

Among the most interesting roses of 2016 is Warner's “Smiling Eyes”. It is a hybrid of Hultemia persica, a rose from the arid areas between Iran and Afghanistan, characterized by five petals and a darker central eye, with yellow stamens, to attract pollinating insects more easily. Many of the roses derived from these crosses have the word 'eye' in their name and are very particular.