The Kiwi family breeding great roses since 1947

The passion of the Matthews family for roses is evident as you drive south from Whanganui.

Here at the side of the state highway, nestled in a sea of maize, sits a gloriously vibrant rose garden. Anyone passing can pull over and enjoy – an invitation if you like, to take time to smell the roses.

The generosity of spirit that this garden demonstrates is evident in every endeavour taken on by this enterprising family. For 75 years now, the Matthews’ dedication to developing roses specifically suited to the New Zealand environment has endured.

The story spans three generations, starting in 1947 with Tom and Pearl Matthews who began the nursery. After his training at Rasmussens Nursery in Whanganui was cut short by service in World War II, Tom came home and set up his own small nursery where he grew (out of necessity during those lean times) “anything that would bring in an income,” Bob recalls.

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As time went on, he started to specialise in roses.

Bob continued the horticultural legacy started by his parents. As a child, he would help his parents out in the packing sheds which, despite the long hours, triggered a fascination for roses and rose breeding. Even when, for a short time Bob was diverted to traditional farming, he never stopped propagating roses.

Cath, Bob’s wife, was drawn not only to Bob but became enamoured with his roses also. “I married the rose grower and he married the farmer,” she recounts.

In 1978, the couple took over Tom and Pearl’s business, and moved the rose nursery to Cath’s family farm just outside Whanganui.

Now, 75 years on, Bob’s daughter Samantha has succumbed to the lure of the rose, returning home to follow her own devotion to all things roses. “I always worked every summer in the nursery but there was never any pressure from Mum and Dad. I wanted to do it and it got to a point where I just couldn’t ignore the call of the farm,” she says. “It’s in the blood – we are all just mad about the farm.”

Samantha’s brother Thomas (named after poppa Tom) is also part of the mix, and manage their own cropping on the farm as well as agricultural contracting in the area.

Bob highlights that there have been no less than eight rose growers in Whanganui. The Matthews’ are now only one of a few remaining, but proud that they are continuing the legacy of the Whanganui industry that supported Bob in the early years.

“Sam McGredy was a great friend and mentor,” says Bob. “The industry, despite being cautious about sharing trade secrets, is very supportive and as breeders we will share knowledge with each other to build the strength of our unique New Zealand situation.”

The one secret that Bob is not willing to share is the Matthews rose root stock. It is unique and exclusive to them. It is the powerhouse or “secret sauce” as Bob puts it to the enduring suitability of their roses to our particular conditions.

It’s something Bob is keen to ensure is championed. “You can’t just take a rose from overseas and think it will perform here in the same way,” he says. “That is what is so important about spray-free rose trials and what we do here. We will trial a rose for many years before confirming whether it is good enough for our New Zealand situation.”

When you hear Bob, Cath and Samantha describe the rigorous process that they undertake with their trials, I can appreciate the importance of being picky in my choice of rose. As Samantha explains: “It’s similar to the raised awareness people have of where their food comes from.

“If we can ensure that people know where their roses come from and share how we do it, and the importance of quality plants and that they have been shown to be easy care and flower beautifully, then people will be more encouraged to try something new in the rose world.”

Each year, the Matthews launch new varieties and release roses from Bob’s own hybridising programme as well as those from overseas breeders that have gone through their rigorous trial system. The entire process can take between five and eight years to reach the home gardener, and during that time hundreds of seedlings will be rejected.

Bob starts the journey in what he refers to as his “play pen”, a greenhouse whose entrance and ceiling is framed by ancient and gnarly ‘Alphonso’ grapevines from his father Tom. It is in here that new varieties of roses are created.

The Matthews do this the same way that mother nature would. “We take two roses of different varieties selected by desired characteristics and place the pollen of one rose to the sigma of another, the ‘seed’ parent. This process is called hybridisation. Each time this is done, it is recorded as one ‘cross’ with a tag put on each parent.

“Once pollen has been introduced, the mother plant will begin to develop hips, which are the seed heads of a rose. Each hip contains a number of seeds and each seed will germinate to be a completely new variety of rose,” says Bob.

All this work is done by hand. Once the seeds are extracted from the hips, they are put into cool storage before planting out into seedbeds for the first growing and selection season. The shortlisted new varieties are then budded into fields so that they can grow into mature plants and can be regularly assessed.

The new seedlings are inspected for the next few years for health, vigour and growth habits. A few of the very best seedlings that meet Bob and Samantha’s rigorous criteria are chosen for release.

Bob is at his best as he strides up and down the trial beds, pointing out the qualities that are present or not in his seedlings. He’s a tough examiner and his sharp eye for detail, now also evident in Samantha, has led to some of their most beloved rose varieties such as ‘Kiss the Bride’ and ‘Cupcake’.

The Matthews make it all sound so easy, but the talent and precision involved in hybridising are clear. “The trick is to spend a lot of time observing and understanding the qualities of the different parent roses in order to make clever decisions for the crosses,” says Bob.

“My focus has always been on disease resistance. It sounds simple, but the tendency is for scent to be lost as you select for disease resistance.

“What I’m particularly proud of with the roses I’ve bred, is that we’ve been able to work towards a rose that is perfect for New Zealand conditions and not only looks good but smells good.”

I recall to Bob my experience of just that with one of his own roses, the Floribunda ‘NZ Gardener’, gifted to me on its release by NZ Gardener editor Jo McCarroll to celebrate the magazine’s 70th birthday. I describe how I’d never seen a rose flower so profusely, smell so lovely and grow so healthily in my (at the time) humid, clay Auckland garden.

Bob gives a wry smile and nods. “Yup, that scored a 10 in our trials,” he says. It is certainly a testament to the benefit that local expertise in plant breeding and trialling has for success in our gardens.

I’m staggered at the lengthy process involved in both breeding roses and the subsequent preparation of a rose for sale. “People don’t realise that the creation of one rose bush sitting in a pot in the garden centre requires the rose to be handled numerous times,” says Cath.

It takes three years to produce a plant ready for sale. The process of budding which is critical to this process is an art in itself. Cath explains that it takes years to train as a budder. “Expert budders travel around the world following the sun and a good budder can bud 4000 plants a day.”

At the solstice (shortest day) the rootstock tops are cut off and then regular trimming follows of the rose shoot to grow into the desired shaped plant.

Fully grown after two years, the plants are then trimmed back in May and lifted with a metal scoop with an agitator to loosen the roots.

“We then manually pull each by hand and place different varieties in bins,” Cath adds. “Back at the sheds they are then graded, processed, labelled, bundled and counted. The bundles are then heeled into pumice before sending out to the garden centre.”

The Matthews not only keep it in the family, they keep it local. Their staff come back every winter (the busy time for harvesting and preparing roses for market) from the nearby small rural community of Fordell, just down the road. They have years of experience, some having worked there for more than 20 years.

Another secret to the Matthews success is their location. Whanganui is central to New Zealand so a great location for trialling varieties that will end up across the country with its temperate climate providing a good balance.

“For rose farmers, soil is everything,” says Bob. “With our farm, we have the privilege of having fresh land and ground for our roses every year. It gives us a good advantage to be able to rotate with the sheep and cropping to ensure beautifully rich and healthy soil to plant our roses into.”