What is breeding? Breeding is a science of creating of new varieties of plants with a specific desired trait or combination of traits. Usually when people think of roses they focus mostly on flowers, but it is not just colour or shape of flowers that are important. Many traits that customers are requesting today are not of an aesthetic nature, such as frost or drought tolerance, disease resistance, water and nutrient use efficiency etc.

In order to create something different and better then varieties that are already existing, one has to be innovative and keep in step with the times. This is why Pheno Geno Roses have decided to base its breeding programs both on conventional and modern breeding techniques. People often get confused when they hear terms like “genetics” and “modern plant breeding” because this gives them false conception that this is somehow related with genetic modification. PGR would like to highlight that we are an eco-friendly company that bases its breeding goals on sustainability and diversity. Our varieties are created using traditional hand-pollination technique taking pollen from one plant to another and not by transgenic manipulation.

So how does than PGR use science to create new varieties? Sometimes roses have to be looked from a molecular point of view. Study of rose genome and pinpointing of a specific location of a certain gene give us possibilities to find traits of interest and to understand how they are passed on to the next generation. Using marker assisted breeding and selection enable us to be more efficient at what we do and to predict the outcome of a specific cross.

The first results of our investment in the science can be found in our frost-resistant Winterjewel® Collection which is developed by using MAS, a feature that makes these roses unique.

Another project that we are also very proud of focuses on introducing rose petals and hips as novel source of food. Equally interesting is our research of fragrance and essential oils in rose flowers. First varieties of edible roses are ready and have just been introduced to the market.

If you are interested in acquiring licenses for PGR varieties, or other genetic and half-material, please contact us for more information.