Roses

Books on the rose in India are not many and this small book provides to the amateur as well as to commercial growers the latest technology in rose growing. Written lucidly, the book covers the legend, literature and art of the rose besides its technical and scientific aspects.

Dr Amitabha Mukhopadhyay (1939-1988) was a senior scientist in the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research at Bangalore from 1975 to 1988. He has to his credit several research publications and articles and is the author of a book Floriculture in India.

The rose is as popular in India as it is elsewhere in the world. According to Dr. B.P. Pal, though several rose species are found to be growing in the wild, mostly in the Himalayas from time immemorial, the actual cultivation of roses appears to have been taken up in this country more recently. Another pioneer rose grower of India B.S. Bhattacharji, feels however, that roses have been cultivated in India from ancient times. Thus, he says that, in our ancient Sanskrit literature the rose is mentioned as Atimanjula, Taruni Pushpa and Semantika. But it is certain that the Mughals were responsible for making this flower popular again. The first Mughal Emperor Babur introduced the musk and damask roses in this country. The Empress Nur jehan is supposed to have discovered the altar of roses. During British rule many famous English botanists introduced the latest cultivars and species of roses.

Our first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, too, was a lover of roses, and used to sport a fresh red rose in his buttonhole everyday. The late President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussein, took a keen interest in roses. He would visit rose gardens, tend the roses in his own garden and showed keen interest in the new varieties released. Scientific interest in rose cultivation and breeding received a great boost as a result of the breeding and research work done by B.P. Pal and Bhattacharjis of Bihar, as well as the work undertaken at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, and K.S.G’s roses in Bangalore. Today, roses attract more attention than ever. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has an All India Coordinated Floriculture Improvement Project (AICFIP), under which research on roses receives top priority. Breeding on roses has been undertaken in a big way in one of the pioneer Research Institutes of ICAR at Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (UFIR). This institute is at present testing a number of new hybrids, before releasing them for cultivation The National Botanical Research Institute at Lucknow is also researching mutation breeding on roses.

It may be mentioned here that west European countries imported 19,080 tonnes of cut roses in 1980, from different countries of Europe and other developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America. However, India did not figure in the list of exporting countries. This is because Indian growers do not follow the modern scientific methods of rose growing and cannot match the high standard of roses in the export market. Besides the European market, we should be able to export cut roses to the Middle-East countries, where the quality control is not as rigid. A small beginning has been made by growers around Pune and Nasik, who export about 2000 cut stems per week to the Middle-East. To capture the export market of rose and other cut flowers to Europe, awareness has been created in the higher echelon of the Government. Efforts are under way to create facilities like research, reduction of airfreight to carry cut flowers, and signing of protocols with governments like the Netherlands and France to import horticulture technology including Floriculture.

There is a vast internal market for rose plants and cut flowers, The buyers of rose plants are large industrial estates, government departments and individual rose lovers. Roses are even cultivated in containers (pots) by rose enthusiasts in cities and towns. They are needed by almost everyone for puja (worship), making of garlands, bouquets and for hair adornment. No function is complete without roses. The oil-yielding roses are used extensively for making attar, rose water, gulkhand etc.

Books on the rose in India are not many and there is a need to make available to the amateur as well as to commercial growers the latest technology in rose growing. In this volume, efforts will be made to introduce the reader to the latest information on this flower. Besides the technical and scientific aspects, the book covers the rose in history, legend, literature and art.