Dr. Yoshihiro Ueda

Project manager, the World Rose Convention Promotion Office in Fukuyama/ Director, Gifu World Rose Garden, Japan

Rose breeding in Japan began by the hobbyists in the late 19th century, and commercial breeding was conducted by horticultural companies affiliated with each east and west railway company in the middle of 20th century. Since then, rose breeding has been practiced actively by both professionals and amateurs. Dr. Ueda tells how rose breeding unique to Japan has been practiced over time.

Date	20 May, 8:30 - 9:15

Dr. Nobuo Shirasuna

Ph.D. in Environmental Symbiosis, Assistant to the President at Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Professor at Kobe International University, Japan

Through Dr. Shirasuna’s analysis of historical Japanese paintings, he shows that roses have been carefully cultivated and depicted by Japanese artists from the past, and roses have been an important plant in Japan. He also provides the historical overview of roses appeared in Japanese paintings, while resolving a misunderstanding that roses are a European plant.

Date	20 May, 9:15-10:00

Dr. Yuki Mikanagi

Curator, the herbarium and head of the department of botany, the Natural History Museum & Institute, Chiba, Japan

16 varieties of wild roses are native to Japan, and the first to receive a scientific name is Rosa mulflira Thunb. This lecture is the second chapter of the story of roses beginning with R. multiflora, and she tells the Rambler rose group that was created from Rosa multiflora Thunb. (The first chapter was presented in the lecture in Sweden.)

Date	20 May, 10:30-11:15

Zhengzhi Jiang

General manager, Suzhou Huaguanyuan Chuang Horticultural Technology Co., Ltd., China

He reports the distribution areas, current status and his experiences with rare wild roses he has collected so far, such as Rosa kwangtungensis、R.anemoniflora、R.chinensis var. spontanea. In addition, he presents that how diploid Chinese ancient roses should be categorized and what role they have been played.

Date	20 May, 11:15-11:55

Brigid & Charles Quest-Ritson

United Kingdom

Many heritage roses still remain unexplored and unconserved. How to conserve those valuable heritage roses and take them over to the next generation is an urgent issue.
In this lecture, they give an opportunity to discuss this issue, and they propose some resolutions.

Date	21 May, 8:30 - 9:15

Daniel Myhill

The UK National Collection Holder of Rosa persica hybrids, with the status awarded by Plant Heritage, United Kingdom

A series of persica hybrids have been bred from wild species Rosa persica, the only species which have red-coloured eye in the centre of the flower. This lecturer, who is the UK national collection holder, talks the breeding history of persica varieties and the significance of conserving them.

Date	21 May, 9:15 - 10:00

Gregg Lowery

Curator, The Friends of Vintage Roses, United States

In the lecture, he discusses the history of roses in California starting with their daily uses by native Americans, followed by the introduction and the use of garden roses by Europeans. He also presents the appearance of rose industries in California and the role that roses have played in daily life and gardens.

Date	21 May, 10:30-11:15

Svein Osen

President, the Swedish Rose Society and the Nordic Rose Society, Sweden

He describes actions for roses in Sweden’s national programme for diversity of cultivated plants (POM). He also talks about a conservation action of rose gene resources and other actions that should be continued for the futures, such as evaluation of collections, DNA-studies.

Date	21 May, 11:15-12:00

Dr. Maria Eva Giorgioni

Associate professor, the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, the University of Bologna, Italy

Her lecture picks up topics native wild roses in Italy and changes of rose varieties in Italian gardens, and representative gardens. She introduces the selections of disease-resistant hybrids on the UNIBO International New Rose Trials held in the Rose Garden ‘Raffaele Bazzocchi’, which this lecturer is related.

Date	23 May, 8:30 - 9:15

Hayden Foulds

President, the New Zealand Rose Society, New Zealand

Plant disease are caused by three elements, which are pathogens, plants with low-resistance, and environments that cause diseases. If any of those elements is lacked, diseases never occur. In his lecture, he indicates importance of not only use of varieties which are selected through disease resistance breeding, also how to grow plants.

Date	23 May, 9:15 - 10:00

Dr. Thomas Debener

Professor, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany

Disease resistances are come from defense systems each plants have. He introduces the latest studies of disease resistances of roses, and some examples on commercial breeding. In addition, he picks up German ADR trials and the Earth-Kind rose trials in the USA as measures for selecting varieties that have disease resistances.

Date	23 May, 10:30-11:15

Dr. David H. Byrne

Professor Emeritus, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University, United States

He reports on the outbreak and damage caused by Rose Rosette Disease (RRD), a serious problem in the US. He also discusses how this problem has been addressed, such as the convening of the RRD conference, research on the disease, development of molecular tools to breeding RRD-resistant roses, highlighting the responses of American rose industry.

Date	23 May, 11:15-12:00

Dr. Naomi Okubo

Institute of Vegetable and Floriculture Science, The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Japan

She explains the genealogy of rose fragrances based on scent characteristics and the composition of scent components, ranging from wild roses to the old roses and the modern roses. She also introduces research findings on new distinctive scent components that were discovered through previous analyses of fragrance components.

Date	24 May, 8:00 - 8:45

Dr. Koji Kawamura

Associate Professor, Osaka Institute of Technology, Japan

He explains the genetic mutations that led to the development of the recurrent-flowering characteristic originated from Chinese roses and double-flower morphology having multiple origins, reports on research using wild roses native to China.

Date	24 May, 8:45 - 9:30

Dr. Pascal Heitzler

Research Director, Institute of Plant Molecular Biology (IBMP), France

He discusses the usefulness of the European native Rosa arvensis as a model plant for genetics. He also reports on his achievements for 30 years, including his studies using collected wild mutants, as well as the establishment of the national collection aimed at applications in breeding programmes.

Date	24 May, 10:00 - 10:45

Daniel Boulens (Moderator)

Chairman of the WFRS Awards Committee, President of French Rose Society and French Heritage Rose Association, France

Doug Grant

WFRS Vice-President (Australasia), New Zealand

Martin Vissers

Rose breeder, Belgium

Matthias Meilland

Head of Public Relation of The House of Meilland, board member of CIOPORA, France

Takunori Kimura

Rose breeder, Japan