Invitation from Royal De Ruiter

Last week we had the honor to be invited at the showroom of Royal De Ruiter, the premium rose breeder from Holland. Their showroom is located in the Cayambe area of Ecuador, where the majority of the rose farms are located. It was a great experience, seeing first-hand how the process starts with more than 500 codes, from where a further selection is narrowing down the search to the varieties that we will see being introduced into the market towards the end of 2018, and beyond.

The entire selection process takes place in 5 different stages, and during each stage careful reviewing and selecting is being done, where many different factors are being taken into consideration. Factors that determine the success of any particular variety include the stem length the plant produces, durability in the vase, productivity of the plant, the color, cut stage, stem thickness, how many thorns, opening shape, plant performance in general, as well the foliage (ideally looking for nice, crisp dark green foliage).

An interesting side note might be that the Ecuadorian Government Agency that monitors the copyrights (the “IEPEI”) is also involved with this entire process, as they need to verify and confirm that these “new varieties” are truly “new”, in order to establish proper copyright entitlements going forward.

Our buyers work closely with a rose breeder such as Royal De Ruiter to stay in touch with the growers who have planted these new varieties to ensure that we can help our wholesale florists-partners continuously staying ahead of the curve when it comes to trends and forecasting. Additionally, we want to make sure we are amongst the first to receive a few stems of the first cuttings, so we can take the photographs in our photo studio, and add the rose to the OnlineFlowerSearch Flower Gallery.

Here are some names to look out for: Mandala, Maggi, Miss Blanca, Lumia, Lorraine, Cupido, Snow Bliss, a mutation of Nena that has no name yet, Super Sun.

Please have a look at the picture to get a feel for the commitment involvement to find tomorrow’s winners!

Please contact us if you should have any further questions.

We hope everybody will have a GREAT Valentine’s Day!