How Our Roses Grow from Dream to Garden
Welcome to Behind the Blooms! This is where we share how we grow and test new roses on our little rose farm.
Every rose seedling we grow starts with an idea. We plant it, watch it grow, and take care of it for a long time before it’s ready for your garden. Right now, we’re testing lots of new roses that we hope to offer in 2027. It takes a few seasons to really get to know a rose, and we’re excited to show you what we’re working on.
Each year, we pick roses that look beautiful, smell nice, and grow strong. We want them to be healthy and easy to care for. Some are blends of old favorites, and some are blended with brand-new roses that we’re trying out for the first time.
Testing takes about three to five years. During that time, we plant the roses in different spots around the farm and see how they do in sun, rain, heat, and wind. We look at how often they bloom, how long the flowers last, and which ones make us say “wow.” We also look to see how well they tolerate abuse. For instance, we look at what happens to the rose if you overwater. We also look at what happens if you don’t water enough. We aim to produce roses that tolerate a bit of neglect just because we understand that life events happen and sometimes rose care needs to be left on the backburner. Only the very best rose seedlings move on to become part of our collection.
We’ve shared some photos below (COMING SOON) so you can see what’s growing in our test garden. We’ll keep adding new pictures as more roses bloom, so come back often to see what’s new!
How New Roses Are Created At Catalonia Farms
Each seed begins with a rose. With the rose petals removed, you can see the anthers (hold the pollen) and the stigma (pollen receptor in the center). When pollen touches the stigma, it helps in the fertilization of the rose.
Once a rose is pollinated, it gets a rose hip or a swelling of the ovary.
After a rose hip has matured, we can collect seeds from that hip.
After the seeds have stratified (6-8 weeks), we can plant them!
After we have planted, we water and wait. From those seeds, emerge entirely new roses. Some are great and some are culled immediately due to their growth habit, disease resistance, or inability to endure wet and dry spells.
After that, the remaining roses are moved into successively larger containers, and we wait for them to grow more so we can study their blooms and how they grow. This is a one to three year process depending on the plant.
Once the test rose is rooted enough, we move it into soil to see how it performs there. Only 2% of successfully sprouted rose seedlings will make it to the in ground soil stage. These are the best performing roses. Of those 2% only 4-8% will be selected to move to the product stage. It is a lot of work, but is very rewarding to see the roses grow. I hope this helped you understand how we turn our beautiful blooms into brand-new rose plants.
As an aside, we love hearing from you. If you want early updates, sneak peeks, and rose news, make sure to join our email list (COMING SOON).
If you ever have questions or just want to talk about roses, we’d love to hear from you. You can send us a message through the button located on the bottom right of the page.
Happy Gardening!
Catalonia Farms