The PRO family
Natal Briar’s successors.
For most of the 20th century, greenhouse cut roses grew in soil, grafted onto rootstocks originally selected for garden roses — Rosa canina, Indica Major, Inermis, Rosa multiflora to name a few. When growers moved to hydroponics, those rootstocks fell short. Natal Briar was the answer — and it quickly became the world standard.
More than forty years on, we’re doing it again — with new PRO rootstocks. Each PRO rootstock puts a stronger root system under the grafted variety, so the variety produces more.
Cut roses are grown the world over today — in soil and in hydroponics of every medium, from cocopeat to pumice. PRO rootstocks are at their strongest in the highland and cooler climates where the best roses are grown: there, more vigour becomes more stems, more length, more weight.
ProTatu · PRO3
The one that replaces Natal Briar.
Trialled side by side with Natal Briar, varieties on ProTatu produce considerably more stems — counted, not estimated. Growers tell us the stems often come longer, too. Our flagship: commercial today, gaining ground across Africa and South America.
ProTano · PRO5
The complement.
A strong companion to ProTatu that, on some varieties, produces even more. Building up alongside ProSaba.
ProSaba · PRO7
Bred for the stem, not the count.
Growers report longer stems and a heavier head. Demand is running ahead of us — we’re scaling up mother-plant stock now.
And the next one.
We never stopped breeding! New candidates are in large trials now in Kenya and Ecuador — the ones that beat today’s best become tomorrow’s rootstock.