Breeding of White Rose ‘White Christmas’ with Good Color and Shape

Abstract

A new standard rose cultivar White Christmas was bredfrom the cross between red standard cultivar Red Queen 　and pink standard cultivar Vivaldi at he National Horticulture Research Institute. The cross was made in 2001 and WhiteChristmas was finally selected in 2006 after investigating characteristics for three years from 2003 to 2006. White Christmas,a white standard cultivar grows vigorously and has good flowerstems/m2/year in yield, 82.3 cm in length of cut flower, 11.0 cm in flower diameter, 60.1 in petal number, and 12.2 days invase life. This cultivar can be propagated byboth cutting and grafting. The consumers preference of this cultivar is relativelyhigher than that of control cultivar, Tineke.