The beauty of grassheart roses - Olij's Assortment

This year, when celebrated florist Neil Strain staged his exhibition at The Flower Lounge for The Chelsea Flower Show, he aptly dubbed it 'A celebration of Roses'. Among the impressive collection of roses in Neil's amazing showcase, you couldn't miss the grassheart roses from Olij breeding. According to Neil, these unique roses blended exceptionally in making their luxury hand-tied Haute Couture Bouquets.

Increasing demand
Olij's Philipe Veys was quoted by Floral Daily at the Proflora 2015. He said
"Americans are quite conservative and new varieties do not become popular easily or fast. Four years ago, our Ecuadorian growers started to grow and export the grassheart roses to one of their main export markets; the US in low quantities. We clearly saw that Americans have to get familiar with a new variety first. Slowly but steadily the demand increases, year after year. For this reason, the "grassheart" rose is becoming an interesting crop to grow and also more Colombian growers are now considering going into production with this kind of rose."

Back in the day, these types of roses would get zero chance from any breeder. They were considered ugly or deformed, and would not see the light of day in the tedious and long process of variety selection. But then people came to appreciate the aesthetic value of these roses. Florists in their creativity started coming up with amazing arrangements and bouquets. The roses plus their arrangements initially appealed to a niche segment of flower consumers, but now nearly everyone has a soft spot for the grasshearts.

The green grass-heart is actually the flower base pushed through the petals by an 'overzealous' stem that shoots through the flower. Grassheart roses have no ovaries, pistils or stamen; this sexless nature makes them hardy and longlasting. We sampled some grassheart roses at Olij East Africa showhouse.