Guest Post: Paul Zimmerman on the Biltmore International Rose Trials

Paul Zimmerman is a well-known rose grower, with a colourful background in aerospace engineering and standup comedy. He is also the man behind the Biltmore Rose Trials, where some of my favourite creations are being tested for a larger market.  The very best will be released under the "Biltmore Plants" label, and will be sold at fine nurseries all over North America!

Three of my roses, Paula Smart, Loretta Lynn Van Lear, and Southern Peach, have already made the final cut! They were debuted at a trade show for garden centres in Chicago just last week!

We asked Paul to share a bit more information about the Biltmore Rose Trials with our friends here at Select Roses, and this is what he had to say...

Paul Zimmerman, PaulZimmermanRoses.comThe idea for establishing an international-style rose trial in the United States came about while judging several in Europe. What appealed to me about it is that this type of trial judges the entire plant, using the same criteria most home gardeners do: disease resistance, attractiveness of growth habit, fragrance, and repeat flowering, make up the bulk of what the roses are judged on.

There is another difference between International Trials and the All-American Rose Selections (AARS) Trial -- which has been the most prominent trial in the United States: accessibility.  The AARS trial could only be entered by a rose nursery with sales of more than one hundred thousand plants per year.  This not only ruled out smaller nurseries but it also ruled out any rose breeder not established with a large nursery.  Many of  these large nurseries had established "in house" breeding programs, and naturally dominated the AARS entries.  International Trials are entered by the breeders themselves, and there is no entry charge.  So the backyard breeder, and the established one, both have equal access. 

In the Biltmore Trials we have taken access for smaller breeders to another level by allowing them to enter smaller roses that we will grow on for them, so they can compete on even footing with larger, field grown plants.  Smaller breeders don’t always have the ability to produce a larger plant grown in a field for one or two years.  But they can all root cuttings and transplant them to one-gallon pots.  We have made provisions to accept those one-gallon pots, transplant them to three-gallon pots, and grow them on in the Biltmore’s greenhouses for up to five months before they are planted in the Trial gardens.

This emphasis on judging a rose bush for its garden qualities, coupled with giving smaller breeders access to a national stage, are what I feel makes the Biltmore International Rose Trials an exciting, and important, event on the North American Rose Calendar!

~Paul Zimmerman

Keep watching this space for more updates on how our roses are faring at the Biltmore Trials, as they become available...