TRUE FRIEND™ – apricot-pink bedding floribunda rose – rooted cutting
Collection TRUE FRIEND™ offers nursery producers a compact, upright floribunda well suited to flowerbed and container-based programmes where reliable, repeat performance is required across retail seasons. Its dense, glossy foliage and remontant, clustered blooms support colour-driven ranges for beds, borders and smaller landscaping schemes, while the medium maintenance requirement aligns with mainstream park and public-space applications that still demand a tidy, resilient appearance. As an own-root pharmaROSA® NEONATAL cutting, it provides a predictable base for nursery production, with young plants settling rapidly into standard 2–3 L routes before moving on to larger feature containers, including 40–50 litre formats for show-garden or collection planting. In typical UK conditions it performs reliably for institutional and residential plantings, supporting schemes where moderate disease tolerance and steady performance are more important than novelty. The three-year development arc from root establishment, through shoot build-up, to full ornamental expression allows you to plan volumes and release timings with confidence, giving a stable long-term friendship-themed cultivar for thematic rose gardens and collection beds, including those in cooler regions where robust winter hardiness offers dependable stock across Scotland and northern England.
Usage options
Finished-product ideas
- Peach-Pink Bedding 2–3 L Line – volume 2–3 L bedding floribunda line using the compact, upright habit and reliable colour evolution to anchor main-season benches – retail and reseller chains.
- Municipal Border Pack – project-focused supply for park and public-space borders, combining moderate disease resistance with own-root longevity for reduced replacement – public-realm and contractor frameworks.
- Fragrant Patio Feature Pot – 40–50 L patio containers leveraging the bushy structure and medium, fruity fragrance as an accessible scent-led feature – garden centres and landscape specifiers.
- Friendship-Themed Collection Bed – thematic rose beds built around the “True Friend” naming and steady remontant flowering, using own-root durability for long-term collection plantings – show gardens and institutional collections.
- Dual-Purpose Garden & Cut SKU – 2–3 L product positioned for both garden planting and light home cutting, based on clustered L-sized blooms and stable own-root performance – independent nurseries and specialist resellers.
Technical cultivar profile
| Parameter |
Data |
| Name and registration |
Floribunda bedding rose, collection Bedding rose; registered as SMI35-2-02, currently marketed as TRUE FRIEND™ Bedding rose SMI35-2-02, with cultivar authenticity verified for professional propagation use. |
| Origin and breeding |
Bred by Edward Smith in the United Kingdom around 2002; introduced commercially in 2016 via Style Roses (UK); parentage and detailed breeding institution data are not provided in available records. |
| Growth and structural characteristics |
Upright, bushy shrub rose habit reaching about 75–105 cm in height with a 50–70 cm spread, moderately thorny shoots and dense, glossy dark green foliage that emerges with a purple-bronze tint when young. |
| Flower morphology |
Double-flowered, remontant floribunda with 20–30 petals per bloom; L-sized cupped flowers borne in clustered inflorescences of approximately 5–10 blooms per stem, providing generous second flowering cycles. |
| Colour data and phenology |
Soft salmon-pink and warm peach tones (RHS 38B outer, 23A inner), opening mid pink with peach hues, deep salmon-pink buds, fading through rich peach-pink to pale peach-cream with a yellowish, butter-toned centre. |
| Fragrance and aroma |
Medium-strength, refreshingly fruity fragrance character, providing a noticeable but not overpowering scent level suited to gardens and containers where a clearly perceptible aroma is desired without being dominant. |
| Hip characteristics |
Rosehip set is expected to be sparse due to the double flower form; when formed, hips are small ovoid to egg-shaped, approximately 10–14 mm in diameter, with an attractive orange-red external colour. |
| Resistance and winter hardiness |
Moderate disease resistance with moderate tolerance to powdery mildew, black spot and rust; winter hardy approximately to -21–-18 °C, corresponding to RHS H7, Swedish zone 3 and USDA zone 6b for site planning. |
| Horticultural recommendations |
Recommended for flowerbeds, parks, public spaces, containers and limited cut use; medium maintenance, requiring occasional pest and disease control; supplied as bush-trained, compact plants suited to standard container routes. |
TRUE FRIEND™ combines compact floribunda structure, remontant, colour-evolving blooms and proven winter hardiness with long-lived, predictable own-root performance, making it a practical option for aligned capacity planning and scheduling discussions.
