'John Innes' Centenary Rose

As former keepers of the National Rose Collection we are delighted to announce that in association with Beales Roses we will be celebrating our Centenary with the launch of the 'John Innes' rose at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2010.

The 'John Innes' bed was planted on 17th November 2008 on the present Colney site in Norwich. Gordon Rowley, 87, former 'Keeper of the Roses' when JI was at Bayfordbury, Herts, ceremonially heeled in 'John Innes', a new rose bred by Beales Roses, Attleborough.

Joining him from right to left were his former JI colleague and friend Ellis Marks; Steve Rawsthorne, Science Operations Manager @ JIC; Peter Beales of Beales Roses; Peter Innes, John Innes Foundation Trustee and a descendant of John Innes; Sarah Wilmot, JI 100 Outreach Curator and Brian Snoad, also a former colleague and friend from Bayfordbury Days.

At our former home of Merton Park, London, we planted a bed in the summer of 2009.

John Innes and the National Rose Collection

In 1945 the Agricultural Improvement Council formed a scheme to establish national collections of shrubs, roses, bulbs, etc. The aim was to make the collections as complete as possible at each centre so that they would be ‘unique and of international interest’. Collections were formed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Dianthus); Cambridge University Botanic Garden (Tulipa; Narcissus); the Royal Horticultural Society, Wisley (Dahlia and Chrysanthemum); and the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (Narcissus). The John Innes Horticultural Institution was selected as the centre for roses with the brief to co-ordinate research on practical problems of interest to rose breeders and growers. Staff at the John Innes worked on rose genetics and developed a method of propagating roses that is the basis of the technique used today to produce many millions of roses annually.

The nucleus of a ‘National Rose Collection’ was assembled at the John Innes Horticultural Institution in Merton, Surrey, shortly before the Institution moved to Bayfordbury, Hertfordshire in 1948. To look after the collection the JIHI received £300 a year for a whole-time foreman-gardener and £50 a year for ‘incidental expenses’. This was the largest grant awarded under the scheme. From 1948-1961 the Institution employed Gordon D. Rowley as ‘Keeper of the Rose Collection’.

By September 1952 there were 792 plants in the species collection, 339 Old Garden Roses, a ‘Genealogical Display’ involving 180 plants, and 428 plants in the nursery. Intended as an educational tool, the genealogical display covered nearly half an acre and represented an attempt at a ‘living family tree of the garden roses’. It proved so successful that it was copied on a smaller scale by the Botanic Gardens at Cambridge and Edinburgh. Until the 1960s the John Innes was the home of British rose genetics and an important destination for rose enthusiasts, including rose-breeders, nurserymen and private growers. The remnants of the collection were transferred to Colney when the John Innes moved in 1967 and were later given to Peter Beale’s Roses at Attleborough.