Speakers

Keynote Speaker:
Matthias Meilland - "Selection in a Diversity of Pedoclimatic Conditions"

The Meilland family started to do breeding in 1850, in Lyon, France. In 1937, the first rose variety «Golden State» was chosen to be the image of the San Francisco International Show in 1939. In 1945, the Peace rose was offered to each delegate of the future United Nations Organisation for their first meeting in San Francisco. In 1948, the first patent ever granted for a plant in Europe was «Rouge Meilland ® Var. Rim 1020». In 1958, Alain Meilland, took over the House of Meilland to encourage more countries in favor of Plant Breeders' Right. Great varieties were created by Meilland over the years, PAPA MEILLAND® meicesar, BONICA® Meidomonac, YVES PIAGET® Meivildo, PIERRE DE RONSARD®/EDEN ROSE® Meiviolin and newer beauties such as BRICK HOUSE™ Meiscarlebo. STILETTO™ Meizolnil and SWEET MADEMOISELLE™ Meinostair.

Today, Meilland is creating between 100,000 to 200,000 new ‘potential’ cultivars each year ! We are looking for: beauty, novelty, fragrance, but also floriferousness, tolerance to heat, cold, diseases and pests. Our main goal is to see roses grown under many different natural conditions. From Kazakhstan to Canada, From Minnesota to Florida, Japan, Australia and China, from wetlands to dry land. Today, Meilland’s 6th generation is at work.

Matthias is the grandson of Francis Meilland and son of Alain Meilland. Matthias was born in 1977 and ‘worked’ with his grandmother Louisette Meilland as early as 4 years old, until 1987, helping her and her team to collect pollen and doing pollination. In 1983, at the age of 6, Matthias selected the rose that would bear his name, a simple floribunda, easy to grow and fiery red. In the 90’s, Matthias followed his father Alain in Mezzo and South America to learn to understand the Cut Flower business. Between 1997-2000, Matthias studied Movies and Photography at Monterey Peninsula College, California where he met his wife Devi. They live in Antibes in the south of France. He has been the head of Public Relation of The House of Meilland since 2013 and market development in Asia and Oceania. Matthias is also board member of CIOPORA (International Community of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Horticultural Plant Varieties) which advocates Plant Breeders' Rights before UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) and the national Plant Variety Protection authorities.

Christian Bedard - "The Making of a Rose"

Christian Bédard grew up in Quebec City, Canada, where as a young child he was introduced to gardening by his parents and grandparents. He started his professional career as a teenager working in a garden center. After reading articles about his idol Dr. Felicitas Svejda, the well-known Canadian rose breeder who developed the Explorer Roses, Christian decided to become a rose breeder. He accomplished his dream after obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a master’s degree in Biological Sciences (Plant Genetics) from the University of Montréal. He is proficient in English, French and Spanish.

Christian is currently the Research & Licensing Director for Weeks Roses following Tom Caruth’s retirement. Under his direction, 40,000-45,000 flowers are hand-pollinated each year to produce around 250,000 seeds. Private no-spray trials are conducted in Tennessee, Washington, Oregon, New York, Michigan, North Carolina and California. In these locations, the seedlings are thoroughly tested and based on Christian’s observations, the final selections are methodically and painstakingly made. To date, Christian has registered and introduced over 75 rose varieties, with 7 more coming in 2025.

Debbie Lonnee - "The History and Future of Easy Elegance Roses"

Debbie has a B.S. in Horticulture from the University of Minnesota. The first thirteen years of her career she worked in the retail garden center business, managing a large Twin Cities garden center. For the last thirty one years she has worked at Bailey Nurseries, starting first as a production coordinator working primarily with the perennial and bedding plant crops, as well as roses and woody plants. She was promoted to manager of the Planning and Administration department in 2006, and in January 2015 became ‘Product Development Manager’, responsible for Bailey’s new breeding farm in Georgia as well as working with breeders around the world, bringing new plants to Bailey brands.

She is an avid gardener, and has recently moved from South St Paul to southwest Virginia and is starting a new garden in zone 6, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. The hosta collection was moved to Virginia and a new shade garden has been developed! She considers herself a ‘plant geek’and collector of woody plants, perennials and annuals! The new house is on an acre so there is plenty of room for the dogs and plenty of mowing for the significant other!

She has been a member of the Perennial Plant Association, the Garden Writers Association and served16 years on the board of directors of the MNLA, serving as President in 2012 and 2013. Her work as an MNLA volunteer started over 30 years ago and she has served on quite a few committees. She was chair of the Publications committee for many years. She was recently honored by being inducted into the MNLA ‘Hall of Fame’, being the first woman to join that prestigious group of volunteers.

Garden writing is her second job; she is the horticultural editor for Northern Gardener magazine, and has written the ‘Plant to Pick’ article for many years. She has also co-written the revised editions of Growing Shrubs and Small Trees in Cold Climates as well as Growing Perennials in Cold Climates.

Irwin Ehrenreich - "Rose Gardens of Cape Cod"

The Rose Man is a Rose Garden Design and Rose Care Service located on Cape Cod. Irwin and his wife Cindy have designed and planted rose gardens throughout Cape Cod and SE Massachusetts including gardens at Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich and at Edaville, USA in Carver.

The Ehrenreich's Barnstable, MA rose garden, with over 500 roses, was featured on New England Dream House, in A Garden Lover's Cape Cod, Country Garden Magazine, Cape Cod Magazine and HGTV Gardens.

Irwin has worn many hats including doctor, musician, rosarian and now author of Diary of an Obsessive Compulsive

Mike & Angelina Chute - "The Brownells: American Rose Pioneers"

In the early 1900’s, Walter and Josephine Brownell of Rhode Island became trail blazers in the development of winter hardy and disease resistant roses. In this PowerPoint program, learn how a young attorney and his wife, and later their sons, introduced more than 80 varieties over 35 years. These became known as Sub-Zero© roses and were sold throughout the United States from the 1930s through the 1960s. This presentation follows the Brownells’ pioneer development of sustainable roses and explains how they successfully created roses with a distinctly American character to satisfy the unmet needs of the colder regions of the country. A century later, Sub-Zero© roses remain popular and the Brownell legacy continues to influence contemporary rose breeders.

Mike and Angelina Chute are co-owners of RoseSolutions, a landscape consulting company that specializes in roses. They are both certified American Rose Society Master Rosarians. Mike is an accredited ARS horticultural rose judge. They also serve as consultants for both municipal and private rose gardens. Accomplished garden writers, the Chutes’ second book, Rose Gardening Season by Season: A Journal for Passionate Gardeners joins Roses for New England: A Guide
to Sustainable Rose Gardening. In addition to their books, the Chutes have written numerous garden articles and authored the chapter “Roses” in the University of Rhode Island Sustainable Gardening Manual and were Contributing Editors to the American Rose magazine, They maintain a web site ( www.rosesolutions.net ), a blog ( www.therosejournal.wordpress.com ) and publish a quarterly e-newsletter, The Northeast Rose Gardener. They were also co-founders and past presidents of the Rhode Island Rose Society.

Mike and Angelina maintain an active schedule of lectures and workshops throughout the New England area, including the Boston Flower & Garden Show, the Southeastern Connecticut Home & Garden Show, the Connecticut Flower &Garde n Show, the Newport Flower Show, the Maine
Flower Show, the RI Home, Flower & Garden Show, landscape and gardening conventions as well as numerous garden clubs and other horticultural organizations.

Dr. Diana C. Lopez Arias - Topics on current research on black spot disease resistance

Dr. Diana C. Lopez Arias joined the University of Minnesota as a postdoctoral associate to work on various projects related to woody ornamental plant genetics and breeding under the supervision of Pr. Stan Hokanson. She completed her Ph.D. at l'Institut Agro-Angers in France and did her research at the Research Institute of Horticulture and Seeds under the supervision of Dr. Fabrice Foucher. Her research focused on the phenotypic and genetic characterization of the partial resistance to black spot disease in a member of the Rosa wichurana species.
Her specific interests include quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and genetic map construction, bioinformatics behind RNAseq analyses as well as fluorescence microscopy for pathogen development and disease resistance studies.
While at the University of Minnesota, she would like to gain more practical experience in various aspects of different ornamental plant breeding but also challenge her knowledge in rose genetics with polyploid mapping populations for diverse traits.

Backyard Hybridizers Panel

Dr. James Sproul will be the moderator for our panel of backyard hybridizers. Our 3 participating hybridizers are Julie Overom, John Smith and Ray Guillebeau.

Dr. James Sproul is well known for his work with hybridizing hulthemias including his Eyeconic Lemonade series. He is a physician by training who has dedicated his extra time to breeding roses since his very early years. Jim has especially been interested in Rosa Hulthemia, a wild rose species from the plateau of central Asia. After twenty long years of work, he has brought us great introductions like Pink Brick House™

For twenty-two years, Julie Overom of Wisconsin has been on a personal mission to develop the perfect rose for northern climates: a disease-resistant rose as pretty as a Hybrid Tea and hardy enough to survive northern winters. The result of her efforts is Cherry Frost™, the first cane hardy climber suitable for zone 4.

Ray Guillebeau from Deep South District breeds miniature and minifloras including Angels Breath, seen at the Shreveport National show.

"Been growing and showing roses since 1985. Even though I grow all types of roses I have a particular affinity for minis and minifloras. My hybridizing efforts started a few years ago just fooling around with open pollinated hips.

In 2017, my first deliberate cross of Fairhope X Tammy Clemons resulted in Southern Girl. Since then I’ve been making more crosses but still working with the open pollinated ones. After all, like Forrest Gump said, you never know what you’re gonna get."

John T. Smith of Maryland breeds hybrid teas, including the lovely Dina Gee, Randy Scott & Snuffy. Sunny Sundays is frequently seen in courts around the country and now the Philosopher's Rose is showing successfully as well.