Tantau’s ‘Anuschka’ named Golden Rose of Baden-Baden

Pictured left to right are Manager of Baden-Baden’s Parks and Gardens Department, Markus Brunsing; the jury chairwoman Vivienne Black and the mayor of Baden-Baden Ms Margret Mergen presenting Rosa Eskelund with the competition’s Honorary Award.

The fragrant Rosa ‘Anuschka’, from Uetersen-based Rosen Tantau, was chosen as the most beautiful new breed at this year’s rose competition in Baden-Baden, Germany where 120 rose experts from 17 countries gathered to vote for the healthiest and most beautiful garden roses. Danish-born Rosa Eskelund (Roses Forever) scooped up the Bronze medal for  ‘Jim the Viking’ rose while her ‘Royal Diva’ floribunda rose deserved an ‘Honourable Mention’.

Winning a medal at this year’s 67^th Baden-Baden rose competition, held annually in the city’s ‘Auf den Beutig’ rose garden, means a lot to Rosa Eskelund as the judges’ criteria are extremely high. Eskelund told FCI that a carefully selected jury of rose specialists from around the world judge the new roses five times a year over two years, giving points for rose growth, flowering, health and fragrance.

Winning a gold medal in this garden is very important for a successful market introduction, and Rosa Eskelund from the family-owned Danish rose breeding company, Roses Forever, could proudly step onto the podium and receive the Bronze medal for her Rosa ‘Jim the Viking’, named after the Danish designer and author Jim Lyngvild, who personally selected his favourite rose in Eskelund’s trial garden in Denmark.

Here she keeps the very best of new, but unnamed varieties in a ‘live- archive’ and most of these roses have been created 10-15 years ago. “This is the time it takes to develop and select a garden rose. All of our roses are developed in Denmark and thoroughly tested for several years in fields across Denmark and the Netherlands,” Eskelund said.

She added that ‘Jim the Viking’ stands out for being a very vigorous, delicately fragrant and repeat-flowering garden rose which is suited for rose hedges or solitary plantings.
Deserving an Honourable Mention in Baden-Baden was Rosa ‘Royal Diva’ from Eskelund’s Plant’n Relax series, a healthy and fragrant floribunda rose. Eskelund stressed, “I have bred and selected scented garden roses for the last 10 years. Scent is an important feature in garden roses just like pest and disease resistance and compactness.”

It is not the first time Eskelund’s roses earnt recognition in Baden-Baden. In 2015, her “I Am Grateful”tm Plant’n’Relax® won a gold medal.