The Belgravia Rose - Exclusive to Neill Strain Floral Couture

The Belgravia Rose is an exquisitely beautiful, brand new, white garden Rose, recently created by one of the world's leading Rose breeders and available in only extremely limited quantities, EXCLUSIVELY at the Neill Strain Floral Couture Belgravia boutique and the concession at Harrods. Through his contacts in Holland, Neill is having this Rose officially named “Belgravia” after the elegant home of Neill Strain Floral Couture.

For many years I have been enjoying the excitement of seeing brand new varieties of Roses, either while visiting the breeders in Holland, or at my boutique when we are sent a few stems to preview to clients. Very often, we are the first florist shop to stock new varieties direct from the breeders and my clients delight in being the first in the UK to have them in their homes. When I first saw the Belgravia Rose earlier this year, a white garden Rose, which is grown both as a big single bloom and as a spray, I was tongue-tied. I know that white flowers are the most rare amongst the breeders because they cannot create white flowers by cross-pollinating two different colours. White comes as an accident of nature, a miracle of nature. As was the case with this exquisite white Rose that I am having officially named "Belgravia" due to my own love of London's most elegant neighbourhood and now the home of Neill Strain Floral Couture for 10 years.

The new "Belgravia" Rose was created by De Ruiter, an internationally-acclaimed Dutch breeder dedicated to creating fabulous Roses. De Ruiter, along with breeders Kordes, Olij, Schreurs and Spek, offer their new Roses to the Sassen brothers, Ed and Marc, who have a wide range of absolutely stunning garden Roses under their VIP Roses brand which they sell all over the world.

With 35,000 m2 of glasshouse, of which 25,000 m2 are devoted to Garden Roses, Ed and Marc Sassen have dedicated a very small area of their two glasshouses to the new Belgravia Rose. At present, there are only 400 plants which produce a mere 50 to 60 beautiful Roses per week, all of which are sent to me to share between the Belgravia boutique and our concession at Harrods in exclusivity. Some of the Roses are grown in the natural way as a spray while others have one single large bloom due to the grower removing the off shoots during early growth to create a bigger single head.

The Belgravia Roses growing at the Sassen glasshouse

In order for the Rose to be officially named, and thereafter traded as the "Belgravia" Rose, the breeder, De Ruiter, must register the name with the official Dutch Flower Bureau. This procedure is currently in progress and the name will soon be official. This "Belgravia" Rose will join the range of VIP garden Roses also named after London sites: Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park, Bloomsbury, London Eye and Hyde Park. All exquisite Roses.

The Belgravia Rose has a dense head of petals that opens into a beautiful, fluffy bloom. The vase life is 5-6 days as all Garden Roses have a slightly shorter vase life than traditional Roses, but I think you will agree their incredible beauty justifies this!

You can see and order these Roses at our Belgravia boutique or our concession at Harrods. You can also just give us a call on 020 7235 6469 and we will deliver them to you anywhere in London. But remember there are only 50 to 60 stems a week!

Florally yours,

Neill x