‘Pink Flower Carpet’, the Mother of all Flower Carpet roses, has been awarded a place in the Rose Hall of Fame as voted by members of the 39 countries in the World Federation of Rose Societies.
‘Pink Flower Carpet’ joins only 17 other roses (in 46 years), deemed worthy of holding the Hall of Fame title. The coveted accolade is a credit to the rose’s outstanding performance. It is the first ever ground cover rose to be bestowed this honour.
Now sitting in the Hall of Fame, Rosa’s ‘ Pink Flower Carpet’ proves that its German breeder, Werner Noack of Noack Rosen, was not only radical in his view but that his horticultural philosophy was spot on.
Long before ‘Pink Flower Carpet’s launch in 1989, Werner Noack had the foresight and the commitment to breeding a mega-blooming, easy-to-grow, low-maintenance, chemical-free rose. His aim was to produce a holistically great rose for home gardeners and professional landscapers, a disease-resistant rose that needed no spraying and minimal pruning — a rose that anyone could grow.
Then, shortly after its commercial release, the rose proved its creator had achieved what he’d set out to do when, in 1990, ‘Heidetraum’ – the moniker under which the rose was sold in Germany- was given the highest points ever awarded at the prestigious Allgemeine Deutsche Rosenneuheitenprüfung (ADR) awards.
To gain the award, ‘Pink Flower Carpet’ had been put through one of the industry’s most challenging trials. The results, independently analysed by the German Federal Office of Plant Varieties, ranked the rose’s strengths as disease resistance, hardiness and attractiveness.
In the years to follow, new members of the Flower Carpet family – including White Flower Carpet (aka ‘Schneeflocke’, also named Golden Rose of The Hague in 1995) and Yellow Flower Carpet (aka ‘Celina’) – would also achieve the same illustrious award. In total, the Flower Carpet rose series has received over 30 international rose awards.
Awards aside, another proof that ‘Pink Flower Carpet’ deserves its spot in the World Rose Hall of Fame is the phenomenon around its sales and world introductions. Iconic pink pots helped to increase the rose’s brand awareness. The story goes that Noack sold 15 times more (pink potted) Flower Carpet roses than usual.
Anthony Tesselaar Plants, the Australian horticultural project management company that developed the production and promotion of the Flower Carpet rose programmes since the beginning, has watched over the years as people planted these in landscapes and home gardens in huge numbers. Where typically sales for any newly released plant will grow over three years then drop off, Flower Carpet rose sales were high from the beginning. They have continued to sell continuously and grow relatively steadily over the 33 years since — a remarkable sales profile that has been repeated wherever Flower Carpet roses have been introduced. They are a rose series performing consistently in landscape and home gardens.
Werner Noack died in his hometown Gütersloh on 19 July 2022, aged 95. He may no longer be with us, but his brilliance as a breeder has left us with a legacy that now sits in the World Rose Hall of Fame, where his horticultural philosophy can be appreciated.
Noack will always be remembered for reigning supreme at the world’s most prestigious rose competitions. He earned his first ADR recognition for Rosa ‘Ravensberg’ in 1986, and he and his son Reinhard won more ADR accolades than any other rose breeder – even more than the reputable Kordes firm – between 1986 and 2002. In 1991, his Rosa ‘Apfelblute’ and Rosa ‘Wildfang’ earned ADR certification. In 1995 and 1999, Noack scooped up no less than five ADR awards.
Today, Noack Rosen, through Reinhard and Steffen Noack, together with Anthony Tesselaar Plants, continue to expand on this legacy by focusing further on environmentally-friendly roses that are even more heat and cold-tolerant while retaining the same floriferous, easy-care, and now fragrant, characteristics.
