Commercially available

• VIRheritage

Bred by M.S. Viraraghavan (India, before 2018).

Hybrid Gigantea.  

Pink, deep pink .  Mild fragrance.  Average diameter 5".  Very large, very full (41+ petals), borne mostly solitary, in small clusters bloom form.  Continuous (perpetual) bloom throughout the season.  

Upright.  Medium, glossy, medium green foliage.  

The colour pink is closely associated with the heritage of the rose. The first Bourbon rose, Rose Edward, is a clear pink. Indeed, one of India’s main language, Hindi, refers to the rose as ‘gulab’, which also means pink colour, so a rose is always considered to be a pink rose. In English too, the colour ‘rose’ is a pink colour.

In our search for new forms of the species Rosa gigantea, with which we are hybridising, one favourite parent ‘Reve d’Or’ (buff yellow) was used. But the ‘Rev d’Or’ colour was dominant in the progeny, so when this pink rose ( unfortunately its parentage is lost) arrived in the gigantea strain, but with typical ‘old rose’ form, we felt that finally rose heritage was re-emphasized. So ‘VIRHERITAGE’ was our code name for this pink rose.

We felt that for the beautiful City of Sakura with its heritage of flowering cherries, a pink rose in the best cherry tradition symbolizes both the past, and hopes for the future.

This rose is a shrub rose, a lovely pink in colour, free and continuous flowering with a distinctive fragrance and we are happy to name it ‘Belle Sakura’ for the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Sakura Rose Garden with which we are very pleased to have had a long and rewarding association.

In 2018 we had sent to our friend Mr Katsuhiko Maebara, who oversees the Kusabue Heritage Rose Garden in the City of Sakura, Japan, some rose stems of various of our varieties, including one codenamed ‘Virheritage’. This gigantea hybrid shrub rose was so named because the flowers had a heritage, old rose form look. In 2019 end, Mr. Maebara told us that this variety was doing well, and as the 15th anniversary of the rose garden was going to happen in 2021, would we consider giving it a name to celebrate the occasion? Naturally we agreed. He told us that the City of Sakura would have a poll and a vote from among a list of names suggested, and finally the name which got the most votes was ‘Belle Sakura’.

Due to Covid 19, the event had to be postponed from early 2021 to finally on Saturday 22nd May. It could not be as grand an occasion as Mr Maebara originally envisaged. But a small elegant function, where the Mayor of the City of Sakura visited the garden, and officially released the rose, was organised. It was a bright sunny day – the weather gods were benevolent – and a few of our friends like Yuki Mikanagi and Patricia McGahan were in attendance. They sent us these photographs.

Thank you Maebara-san for choosing one of our hybridised roses to be the 15th anniversary symbol of your beautiful rose garden in the lovely City of Sakura.

If you know the parentage of this rose, or other details, please contact us.

Parentage has been lost.
Prickles: moderate , brown, straight and pointing downwards. Foliage is rounded.