Park Abbey's true Queen 👑

Park Abbey (Dutch = Abdij Van't Park) is a more than 900 years old catholic Premonstratensian abbey. It is the most intact abbey of the Benelux countries. Ten years ago it was decided by the Flemish government to fully restore the abbey and bring her back to her former glory. Two years ago the abbey celebrated her 900 birthday and the restoration works were almost completed. Two years earlier the "Friends of Park Abbey" decided to commemorate this event by giving the abbey it's own rose. So during a big solemn high Mass the rose was baptized by the abbot of the abbey in July 2021.

Since it was my idea to have a rose created for the abbey i was highly involved in the process. I contacted the world renowned Flemish rose nursery of Lens roses to create the rose. Ann Boudolf from Lens is a master in creating stunning new varieties and she gave us a cross between Charles Austin and Scepter d'Isle. When I first saw the rose in full flush I immediately knew it was a winner. She had everything to become a popular rose: A magnificent vibrant red/orange quartered bloom evolving into this lush salmon pink. They are borne solitary in small clusters and can be quite big. She has a good strong fruity fragrance, is rain resistant and extremely healthy. Her almost grey leathery foliage is blackspot proof. When she's blooming she already makes new fresh growth that will give more blooms later on. So she's seldom without flowers all summer and a big part of Autumn.

We decided to plant five beds with the rose combined with the beautiful and continuously flowering geraniums Azure Rush and her mother Rozanne. They would make the perfect surroundings for the roses. The first two years they were planted we saw that the Park Abbey rose isn't a small rose. She get quite tall and wide. She can easily get 130X100 cm or 4X3 feet. Her canes are strong and can hold up the flowers perfectly. They arch gently without flopping over. Last year we noticed that the geraniums came quite high and some had grown higher than the roses so we decided to prune less severe in February of this year. It would enable the roses to get tall enough to flower above and between the geraniums. After a very wet and rather cold spring we got beautiful dry sunny weather with temperatures around 21 degrees Celsius, ideal for roses. Today we went to see the roses and boy were we flabbergasted!

We found beds covered with magnificent blooms surrounded by the blue geraniums. The roses had became rounded shrubs carrying hundreds of perfectly formed quartered blooms. A sight to behold! After two years the roses are maturing and revealing their full potential. The Park abbey rose is the real queen of the abbey and she knows it and acts like it, as she should! The rose can be purchased at www.lens-roses.com