The Dutch Rose

The rose is one of the oldest flowers under cultivation and most popular of all garden flowers throughout the world. It is one of the natures beautiful creations and is universally known as "Queen of Flower". An experiment was conducted at Hi-tech Horticulture Unit, Main Agricultural Research Station, Saidapur Farm, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, during 2009-10 to study the performance of Dutch rose cultivars under naturally ventilated polyhouse(NVPH. Among ten different cultivars Naranga recorded the maximum number of cut flowers per plant (14.13) followed by First Red (13.47) and Grand Gala (13.00). However they were on par with each other. The cultivars Naranga, First Red and Grand Gala had given highest benefit to cost (B:C)ratio of 2.28, 2.12 and 2.01 respectively. Vase life study with four preservatives at two concentrations for shelf life indicated that aluminum sulphate at 300ppm was the best in maintaining the freshness of cut flowers with extended vase life of 12.89 days compared to 7.77 days in control. The present study revealed that the cultivars viz., Naranga, First Red and Grand Gala emerged as promising cultivars for commercial cultivation under NVPH.