Hans Christian Andersen writes about the nightingale who praises the rose as a symbol of beauty and love. That is the reason why the nightingale features significantly in the logo for WRC2018.

“A Fairy Tale of Roses” will open in Copenhagen Town Hall – with Hans Christian Andersen sitting guard outside. The programme for the afternoon will take place in Rosenborg Castle, in the King’s Garden, in the centre of Copenhagen. The breeder of the convention rose, Poulsen Roses will be hosting a reception and Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary is invited to name the rose.
Afterwards there will be guided tours of Rosenborg Castle and the King’s Garden. Rose trials in accordance with WFRS international rules will be held on the lawns in front of the castle. The roses are new scented roses from the following northern European rose breeders: Poulsen Roses, Kordes und Söhne, Rosen Tantau, and David Austin Roses. It will be both exciting, festive, and in fitting surroundings for the Rose. The roses will later be planted in a new garden for the senses for the blind and the weak-sighted.

Naturally, the complete programme, from the opening day on 29th June to the closing ceremony on 4th July, has not yet been finalized. But there is no doubt that every day of the congress will be busy, enjoyable, and rich in experiences, with interesting and instructive talks.

Before and after the congress in Copenhagen, 5-days pre- and post-tours round Denmark and southern Sweden will be offered. Details about the programme as a whole will be published continuously on the homepage.

Scandinavian and international speakers have been invited to share with us their knowledge about different conditions, the latest research achievements, and the most interesting current rose themes.

The 25th jubilee of the Danish Rose Society  and the golden 50th jubilee of the World Federation of Rose Societies will be launched from the slipway decorated with roses in the Rose Garden in Valby Park, and be closed with a grand firework display in the Tivoli Gardens. There will be outings to a number of public and private rose gardens, as well as Christiania, the Oval Gardens, and Queen Louise’s Rose Garden at Bernstoff Palace. We also plan a royal rose naming ceremony at Fredensborg Castle.
The tour will also include a visit to the unique rose collection at Gerlev Park. Wednesday evening, 4th July, will see the end of 6 days’ compact congress, with a ceremony where the next host of the next world congress, Australia, will receive the WFRS banner.

Programme

A fairytale in Copenhagen

Whether single or double – a rose is a fairytale. And fairytale roses make us dream. Dream of beauty, romance, love, passion and long forgotten tales of woe. And of the loveliest gardens, gentle scents, summer days and get-togethers.

This fairytale will come thrue from the 28th of June to the 4th of July 2018.
The setting for this beautiful fairytale will be in the Tivoli Gardens in the heart of Copenhagen. The Garden is one of the oldest existing leisure gardens that arose in Europe in the 18th century. This is the place where our famous Danish fairytale writer, Hans Christian Andersen, was inspired by when he wrote “The Nightingale”.
The fairytale starts the moment you leave the outside world and enter Tivoli.
The fantastic and historic Glass Hall Theatre in the Garden will be used for the plenary sessions.

Another setting will be the Copenhagen City Hall – here the City of Copenhagen will host a reception for World Federation of Rose Societies. The reception will be held on the 29th of June in conjunction with the opening ceremony.

For WRC 2018 we have – in cooperation with the gardener in Tivoli – planned an absolute stunning rose exhibition with several different roses – walking through the Garden will be nectar to the senses. We have also invited Hans Christian Andersen to come and tell his fantastic fairytales. We have also arranged tours to several of Copenhagen’s parks and gardens together with a visit to the Northern part of Zealand, to see Fredensborg Castle, Bernstorff Castle and other different sites like:

The Gerlev Park (Gerlevparken)

The Gerlev Rose Park is landscaped and owned by The Foundation of Trees and Environment. The large 10 hectare park includes the Danish Tree Collection, a collection of indigenous trees and plants and 2 beautiful rose gardens. The first rose garden was brought about by the late Queen Ingrid, who was the patroness of the foundation from 1979-2000. The garden is a collection of Valdemar Petersen’s old roses. Valdemar Petersen (1901- 1986) is the grand old man of old roses in Denmark. As a young gardener he worked in France, where his interest in old roses was born. Late in life he collected lots of old roses in his nursery, and thanks to him the interest in and knowledge of old roses in Denmark increased. Today his nursery is owned by Torben Thim, who will be the keynote lecturer on Roses in Denmark in Copenhagen in 2018.

‘Naomi Renaissance’ – the top award winning rose in Monza for fragrance. Photo: Poulsen Roser A/S.

Fredensborg Castle

Fredensborg Castle is the official summer residence of Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. The palace gardens, which include a rose garden laid out in 2011, are among Denmark’s largest historical gardens, and are Denmark’s finest example of a baroque garden. The rose garden was a present for Queen Margrethe in celebration of her 70th birthday in 2010. The design is a new version of the old rose garden which the late Queen Ingrid created in The Reserved Garden of the Palace Gardens This rose garden was inspired by the pattern on Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome, designed by Michelangelo around the year 1530. The remount roses in the garden display a firework of colors and intense scent experiences throughout the summer.

The Valby Park

The Valby Park is Copenhagen’s largest public park covering an area of 64 hectare. It includes a rose garden with 12.000 roses.

Rosenborg Castle

Rosenborg Castle, built in the beginning of the 17th Century by the famous King Christian IV, is situated in The King’s Garden in the center of Copenhagen. The garden of course includes a rose garden.

The Bernstorff Park

The Bernstorff Park surrounds Bernstorff Castle. In it you find the recently restored Queen Louise’s Rose Garden, a garden laid out in the 19th Century. The roses are standard roses because the ladies at that time wore large crinoline dresses and therefore could not bend down and smell the roses. Queen Louise’s Rose Garden is a parterre garden in a unique design, where all standard roses are cut and shaped to look like crinoline skirts.