Rose lovers like to think of their favorite flower as a gift from God. And that’s true for those whose favorite is rosa rugosa, the wild rose which grows in dense thickets along the highway and is considered an invasive pest.
For everyone else, the rose is a product. Except for their wild ancestors, all the roses in our gardens are the result of cross-breeding and commerce. Some were bred for color, some for scent, some to grow in a certain climate, some for long or abundant flowering. In that sense, roses aren’t much different than automobiles, hairstyles, or furniture.
Sometimes, though, an entire product goes into decline. As a product category, for instance, men’s suits may be forever diminished by the trend to casual attire.
The rose had a similar problem as the 20th century drew to a close. Sales were in free fall; live plant sales dropped from 40 million in the early 1980s to about 20 million, despite a larger population. Roses had developed a reputation as hard to grow. They required a lot of water. They were subject to disease. And they attracted bugs such as Japanese beetles, which devoured blossoms and leaves alike.
“Over the past 20 years, care became an issue,” says Steve Hutton, president of Conard-Pyle, West Grove, the nation’s largest marketer of roses with 10 million plants under cultivation. “People just didn’t have time, with two working family members, to garden the way they used to.” Increasingly, Conard-Pyle grew and sold other types of plants—perennials and rhododendron.
Then came “Knock-Out,” a cherry red shrub rose tailored to satisfy the neglectful habits of modern gardeners.
Then, in 2000, came “Knock-Out,” a cherry red shrub rose tailored to satisfy the neglectful habits of modern gardeners. It was impervious to bugs and black spot, bloomed from frost to frost and was winter hardy. Knock-Out even cleaned itself, dropping its spent flowers, so gardeners don’t have to dead-head it. In that first year, says Hutton, Conard-Pyle sold 135,000 plants. In 2007, it sold four million plants. Add the three pink varieties of Knock-Out introduced since 2000 and last year’s total was nearly six million.
Conard-Pyle “would be a much smaller company today,” says Hutton, if not for Knock-Out.
“To tell the truth, it saved Conard-Pyle (as a rose grower),” says rosarian Patricia Bilson, vice president of the Philadelphia Rose Society. “Even landscapers are using it.” Bilson, who gardens in Paoli and has three Knock-Outs in her own yard, sees the new rose as the most important industry development since Conard-Pyle introduced the Peace rose in 1945.
Ultimately, Bilson says, Knock-Out may save the rose, period. Success with Knock-Out will encourage average gardeners to try other roses, which, in turn, will also improve as Knock-Out’s low-maintenance qualities flow through the gene pool. And mass demand is what encourages rose breeders to continue to experiment and develop new products. So, even rosarians unfazed by roses’ maintenance issues are cheering for Knock-Out’s success.
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Bill Radler, breeder of Knock Out Roses
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Founded before the Civil War as a tree nursery, Conard-Pyle did not even sell roses until 1868, when then-owner Charles Dingee added them at his wife’s request. The company later distributed the nation’s first mail-order rose catalog, but its dominance in the industry is due mostly to Hutton’s predecessor, Robert Pyle (1877-1951).
Pyle came to the business in 1898 after graduating from Swarthmore College. His primary contribution was as a businessman and a marketer. As soon as he took over, he narrowed the company’s focus exclusively to roses and moved to “brand” what had previously been a generic product. It was Pyle who coined the trade name “Star Roses,” which Conard-Pyle uses today.
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