After having been quiet for a year, the Excellence Roses inspections will get a new start this year. The KVBC will control the inspections. This guarantees a follow-up on a professional basis.

Excellence roses are strong, healthy, rich and blooming roses that give good results to end users without the use of plant protection products. The last Excellence Rose of the year was GARDEN OF ROSES from Kordes, in 2016. In order to qualify for the predicate Excellence, roses were previously tested for 6 different rosaries in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch Rose Association conducted the secretariat.

New situation
In the new situation the inspections under the auspices of the KVBC take place at first 4 rosaria: Rivierenhof Antwerp, Rosarium Boskoop, Rosarium Winschoten and Rozenhof Lottum. In the coming weeks, Ronald Houtman of the KVBC will take a tour of the participating rosaria to get to know more and go through appointments. The KVBC has a lot of experience in inspecting a wide range of crops including roses.

Inspections
The triennial inspections are carried out just as before by the inspection committees of the rosaries. For the time being, the criteria and method of approval remain unchanged. From the Dutch Rozenvereniging, 1 or 2 judges are delegated per committee. This year, the inspection committees assess the assortment that was planted in 2015 at four fixed moments and was first tested in 2016. On June 28 is the first inspection round. In the autumn, new entries from breeders can be planted that will be inspected for the first time in 2019.

Activity Culture group
Like Promotion Roses, Excellence Roses is an activity of the Culture Group for Roses and Rose rootstocks under Anthos Secretariat. Promotion Roses and Excellence Roses reinforce each other. The Excellence Roses Foundation will be lifted.

(source: Hester van Gent, Anthos, May 29, 2018 | About the photo: Garden of Roses by Kordes, source photo www.derozenhoflottum.nl)