Back

Award-winning new Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé makes UK debut

A brand new rose – packed with horticultural merit – has arrived in the UK for the first time, launching at RHS Hampton Court 2024. Meet Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé

“This is the old rose for the new gardener,” says Mark Sage, Managing Director of Marshalls Garden.

It’s an apt summary: promising beauty and award-winning fragrance, pollinator provision, climate resilience and steadfast resistance to pests and diseases, SEE YOU® in Rosé certainly seems to have what it takes to make waves in the horticultural landscape.

Daniel Myhill, Rosa persica National Collection holder, with SEE YOU® in Rosé
 
What’s the story behind Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé?

SEE YOU® in Rosé was developed by world-renowned plant breeders Kordes Roses in Germany. With over 130 years of experience behind them, Kordes are one of the largest and most innovative breeders worldwide, and have a well-established reputation for the exceptional health and disease resistance of their roses. 

The rose was quickly snapped up by Daniel Myhill, UK National Collection holder of Rosa persica, in collaboration with Plant Heritage and Marshalls Garden. Daniel curates 55 persica cultivars, many of which are not commercially available in the UK, in his private garden in Norfolk. He brought SEE YOU® in Rosé to the 2024 RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival for its official UK launch.

Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé is the first rose that Kordes have introduced into the UK, winning an award at the Belfast Rose Trials in 2023 in preparation for its 2024 launch at RHS Hampton Court. Daniel’s display went on to win a gold medal at the Show, along with Best Plant Heritage Exhibit.


What’s so special about Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé?

Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé is also a first for Kordes in other respects: it has a large, semi-double flower, and unusually for persicas, is packed with fragrance. It will bloom continuously from June through to late autumn, providing for pollinators with its profusion of bright yellow stamens or making a fabulous cut flower.

“SEE YOU® in Rosé is a distinctive light pink with a deep red eye,” explains Daniel. “It is also award-winning for its fragrance, which for a persica is phenomenal.”

The eye in the middle of the flower attracts pollinators. Wherever I stand by this display, there’s a bee flying around

- Gavin Shaw, Horticultural Category Manager, Marshalls Garden

SEE YOU® in Rosé has semi-double flowers in light pink with a deep reddish pink eye

However, stunning looks and captivating fragrance are only the beginning of what this exceptional new rose has to offer.


The rose of the future?

Rosa persica is native to Iran, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, with the first breeding from this desert-dwelling species beginning in 1836. Rosa persica cultivars are set apart from other roses by their coloured eye at the centre of the flower, and often begin flowering earlier than others, with abundant flushes produced all season on robust, healthy plants.

“I think Rosa persica are massively underused,” says Gavin Shaw, Horticultural Category Manager at Marshalls Garden, the exclusive supplier for SEE YOU® in Rosé. “Coming from an arid environment, they have the ability to cope with much less water than other roses. Could persicas become a rose more for landscaping? They can cope with those conditions.

“Persicas are also hugely versatile – they can do multi-headed; they can do a

hybrid tea lookalike; they can do a groundcover. They can do all the mainstream rose functions in one group. Old genetics are being brought back more and more to confer greater resilience compared to many highly bred modern roses.”

This is a rose that celebrates what it does naturally

- Mark Sage, Managing Director, Marshalls Garden
“No pesticides and no fungicides have been used, and the quality of the foliage despite this is a credit to the species,” says Gavin. “In a massive year for mildew, blackspot and aphids, these roses have looked after themselves.”

Daniel Myhills’s Rosa persica display at RHS Hampton Court 2024
“This is a hobby. This is from my back garden. This whole display was grown out in the open on the patio outside my back door,” adds National Collection holder Daniel. 

“​You need to choose the right variety with the right health and the right vigour, and you’ll get your reward.”

Persica roses are not only good for the garden; they are good for the environment and for the world

- Gavin Shaw
“We need to take away the novelty and make persicas mainstream,” says Gavin. “They’re a world saver.”


How to grow Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé

Like most persica roses, SEE YOU® in Rosé is easy to grow. Choose a sunny location, but if you’ve had roses there previously, avoid replanting into the exact same spot that may have been occupied by another rose in recent years.

Reaching an ultimate height and spread of 70x50cm, this compact

cultivar is ideal for gardens of all sizes, and will look stunning in a large pot on a patio or balcony.

Prune in early spring and feed with a high potassium feed in late spring. Deadhead spent flowers as they fade to prolong the display.

Daniel’s Rosa persica display wins a gold medal and Best Plant Heritage Exhibit
Where can I buy Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé?
Rosa persica SEE YOU® in Rosé is exclusively available from Marshalls Garden. Bare root plants can be ordered now for delivery from November, meaning they will arrive at the perfect time for planting.

£2 from every rose sold will be donated to Plant Heritage, to support their work in conserving the diversity of garden plants.

“I think it will start proving itself in the garden, and this will become a snowball effect for sales,” says Gavin.

About the team behind SEE YOU® in Rosé’s UK debut

Kordes Roses are one of the largest and most innovative and successful rose breeding companies in the world. Every year, this family business produces over 25 million roses, and are celebrated for their disease-resistant cultivars. In the 1990s Kordes decided to stop spraying fungicides in their trial fields to better assess the robustness of their roses and determine which cultivars survive and which thrive. From there, they have built up a range of new roses that are some of the healthiest and most floriferous on the market, winning hundreds of international awards.

Daniel Myhill curates the UK National Collection of Rosa persica hybrids in his private garden in Norfolk, with the collection established in 2022 and containing 55 hybrids from breeders all over the world. Daniel is passionate about showcasing persica roses and telling their story – from their desert origins to the range of disease-resistant garden cultivars seen today – and the importance of growing and conserving them for the future. His enthusiasm stems from spending time in his parents’ courtyard garden as a child, with his mum’s love of roses inspiring his own. Daniel is Chairman of The Rose Society UK’s Breeders’ Group and is involved in rose trial judging across the country, including RHS Award of Garden Merit rose trials.

Marshalls Garden are an online specialist garden retailer, run by gardeners for gardeners. Founded 75 years ago, Marshalls’ heritage and ultimate expertise is in supplying vegetable seeds and plants to grow-your-own gardeners. In more recent years, they have expanded their range of ornamental perennials, shrubs and trees, along with growing accessories and garden care products.

Plant Heritage was founded in 1978 and is the world’s leading cultivated plant conservation charity, for plants that have been collected, bred or grown in UK gardens. It aims to conserve and safeguard the UK’s horticultural heritage and diversity of garden plants by keeping living examples of rare plants in the National Plant Collections or with Plant Guardians. It also aims to increase the variety of garden plants available across the UK, educate and raise awareness of rare garden plants via the annual Plant Exchange and other events, ensure rare plants and collections are supported for generations to come, and identify which cultivars are at risk of disappearing through their Threatened Plants Programme, so that plans can be made to protect them.

About the author – Olivia Drake

With a background in plant sciences, Olivia is passionate about sustainable horticulture, plantsmanship and conservation. She is trained as a botanical horticulturist and previously worked in public gardens around the UK and overseas.

Save to My scrapbook

You might also like

New roses at RHS Hampton Court 2024

New roses at RHS Hampton Court 2024

New plants: Rosa ‘Peter’s Persica’

New plants: Rosa ‘Peter’s Persica’

Get involved

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.