Harley Engle

Talk of the Gardens

       While walking through the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, I came across a beautiful flower called Irish Elegance. It is classified as a rose with salmon colored petals that fade into yellow at the center. I ended up buying a painting of this rose and on the back they had the history of Irish Elegance. It described how in 1905, a family by the name of Dickson in search of the perfect tea rose created the flower. I found this to be very interesting. I had never heard of selectively breeding in plants before. I was super intrigued and wanted to find out more.

       Selective breeding in plants is often referred to as hybridizing. It is very similar to selective breeding in animals. The makers of Irish Elegance wanted a beautiful flower that smelled nice and could be made into a delicious tea. It all starts by finding plants that have the “desired” characteristics. Then, they would have collected the pollen and cross-pollinated many times. Each cross-pollination would have been slightly different. It probably took many trial and error cups of tea before the family was satisfied with their creation! Once one of the desired traits is achieved, a rose breeder can build on that by cross-pollinating with more plants. Eventually, the perfect flower is created. It does not stop there though. Then, the Dickson’s would have had to breed their perfect roses together multiple times to ensure that they offspring were all pretty much identical. After all of this, the Irish Elegance officially became a new species of rose!