Sam McGredy lends his weight behind the venture commenting on the regions strong base of rose growers and the strength of the Waikato Rose Society. It easily has the potential to become one of the world s top rose competitions, comments Sam. The garden is named after Dr Denis Rogers, Hamilton s mayor at the time the rose garden was completed in 1971 to mark the inaugural World Rose Convention held in the city. Once the trials are established, half of the rose gardens will be occupied by the latest and best roses submitted for the competition by top rose breeders and growers in New Zealand and from around the world. The competition trials will be based on garden performance and judged on one day each year, around mid-November.
Categories are likely to include the most fragrant, best climber, ground cover and so on.
Sam McGredy is enthusiastic about the forthcoming Rose of the Year event to be held in Hamilton, linking it with the Waikato Rose Society spring rose show and four great rose gardens of the Pacific. These would be Rogers Rose Gardens here in Hamilton, Portland Oregon, Adelaide Australia and Gifu in Japan.