In 1972,
Samuel Darragh McGredy IV moved his nursery from Portadown, Northern Ireland and changed the name from
Samuel McGredy and Son, Nurserymen.
[From Botanica's Roses, p. 678:] McGredy, Sam II, III and IV (Northern Ireland and, then New Zealand). The McGredy firm has been going since the 1890s with S. McGredy & Son, Portadown [Northern Ireland] up to 1972, and McGredy Roses International, Auckland [New Zealand].
[From The Quest for the Rose, by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, p. 155:] Sam McGredy IV took over the family business in 1952. Much of the breeding stock had been lost during the war. [p. 192, there's a photo of Sam McGredy in his greenhouse] [p. 193:] Sam IV introduced his first roses in 1958... In 1972, he moved his whole operation to New Zealand, to a climate that more or less eliminated the need for greenhouses. There he has specialized in producing a new race of Hand-Painted Roses and Striped Roses.
[From A Family of Roses, by Sam McGredy and Sean Jennett, p. 34:] The things we do not work for, I and other hybridists, are pink hybrid teas, because they appear in breeding lines anyway, and we do not work for white, because there is a limited demand for white. I do not work for single or semi-double floribundas either, because they would have to be exceptionally good to be at all popular. The market shows clearly enough that what people want are floribundas with blooms of hybrid-tea shape. I work for climbers of many kinds, and at present I am working on miniatures. My idea for roses in my lifetime is that the gardener may order any colour he wants in any form -- as a bush rose, as a climber, or as a miniature. I would do away with the terms 'hybrid tea' and 'floribunda'. Instead I would classify roses according to use -- for house decoration, for garden display, for exhibition, for climbing or rambling, for ground cover, for greenhouses...
[Ibid, p. 37:] In its history McGredy's has produced 265 new varieties and 88 of those are mine. [Note: McGredy wrote this in 1971, he has many more roses under his belt since then...].
[In 1972, Sam McGredy IV Moved the nursery to Auckland, New Zealand and changed the name to McGredy Roses International.]
[[From
Modern Roses 10, p. 723:] McGredy Roses International, Auckland, New Zealand.]
