Biography

Daniel BOULENS is a very active member of the WFRS, where he is Chairman of the Awards Committee.

He is President of two French Associations: the « French Rose Society » and the « French Heritage Rose Association ».

He was the Director of Public Parks and Gardens for the City of Lyon (France) from 2001 to 2018. In 2015, He organized the ‘Lyon Roses 2015 Convention’, which was a huge success.

He knows the history of French and European roses inside out. He is a qualified judge in many international rose competitions.

He is a speaker at many world congresses. His experience is always in great demand.

Biography

Doug Grant is an amateur rose breeder, lecturer, writer, consulting rosarian, and rose gardener.  He is currently WFRS Vice-President (Australasia).

Doug graduated from of Massey University, New Zealand, having completed his graduate studies in biometrical genetics. Professionally he is a scientist and consultant specialising in genetics and breeding of onions and cucurbit crops.

Doug is developing free-flowering roses with disease tolerance and fragrance.  His roses have received awards at the NZRS International Rose trials in Palmerston North, the New Zealand Rose of the year trials in Hamilton and at Le Roeulx in Belgium.

Biography

Martin Vissers is a renowned Belgian rose breeder known for his exceptional contributions to horticulture. With a lifelong passion for roses, Vissers has developed numerous award-winning varieties celebrated for their vibrant colors, exquisite forms, and resilience. He breeded roses that are both beautiful, disease-resistant and innovative with a major contribution to biodiversity. Active in the horticultural community, Vissers shares his expertise through lectures, workshops, and publications, inspiring future generations of rose enthusiasts. His dedication to excellence and creativity has solidified his reputation as a leading figure in rose cultivation worldwide.

Biography

Matthias was born in 1977 and ‘worked’ with his grandmother Louisette Meilland as early as 4 years old, until 1987, helping her and her team to collect pollen and doing pollination.

In 1983, at the age of 6, Matthias selected the rose that would bear his name, a simple floribunda, easy to grow and fiery red. In the 90’s, Matthias followed his father Alain in Mezzo and South America to learn to understand the Cut Flower business. Between 1997-2000, Matthias studied Movies and Photography at Monterey Peninsula College, California where he met his wife Devi. They live in Antibes in the south of France.

Matthias has been the head of Public Relation of The House of Meilland since 2013 and market development in Asia and Oceania. He is also board member of CIOPORA (International Community of Breeders of Asexually Reproduced Horticultural Plant Varieties) which advocates Plant Breeders’ Rights before UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) and the national Plant Variety Protection authorities.

Biography

Takunori Kimura is a Japanese rose breeder who specializes in breeding roses, productions and sales of rose plants in Sugito-machi, Saitama.

Kimura was born to a farmer where had been continued from approximately 400 years ago in Saitama in 1973. At his age of 19 in 1992, he started his career as a farmer. He established a garden rose sector and started rose breeding. Around the same time, he visited several breeding companies (Meilland, Kordes and Tantau) in France, Germany, and Holland.

In 2005, he started to sell rose plants through online markets. In 2008, he conducted study tours in advanced rose breeding countries such as the UK, France (Delbard etc.), Germany and the US.

In 2012, he named the brand name of roses he bred “Rosa Orientis” meaning Oriental rose. He challenged to breed shrub roses which could recurrently bloom even in an Asian climate of high temperature, humidity and low latitude.

In 2013, by meeting French breeders Andre Eve and Jerome Rateau, he worked on a coexistence of beauty of roses and their disease resistance. In 2019, he achieved to produce an evolutionary cultivar of Rosa Orientis, and named “Rosa Orienris Progressio”. He aims for complement of roses in Asia.

Takunori Kimura has received various awards at international new varieties trials including in Bagatelle, Barcelona, Monaco, Kortrijk, Nyon and etc.

Kimura has been publishing many rose books such as “New Roses”.