Friday

Friday, August 8th

Nordic Rose Weekend 2025

Roses, Climate and society

Conference Friday 8th of August

Venue: Grand Hotel Reykjavik

From 09:00 – 15:00 followed by a program at the Botanic garden, including dinner, until late.

From 08:30 the front desk for registration opens and at 09:00 the conference begins with the opening and welcome talk of the president of the Nordic Rose society, Asta Thorleifsdottir followed by a whole day of interesting and exciting talks. The speakers are all rose lovers with varied experience of growing, breeding or simply enjoying roses.

The keynote speaker Margit Schowalter is the daughter of Walter Schowalter, one of the last pioneering, private rose breeders of the Canadian Prairies. Margit has for the last 20 years been studying and writing about the remarkable rose breeding heritage of the Canadian prairies i.e. by searching for and helping to preserve rare and thought- to-be extinct roses across the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This includes the cooperation of the early amateur hybridizers: Georges Bugnet, Robert Erskine, Percy Wright, Frank Skinner, Robert Simonet and others including her father Walter Schowalter. She is currently advising and assisting the botanical gardens of the University of Alberta and the City of Calgary in their efforts to preserve this important rose heritage. Margit is known to us in the Nordic countries for her efforts to make available some of the important heritage roses to us through cooperation with Rosenposten in Denmark – assisted by the Icelandic Rose Club.

Erling Östergaard is one of the leading experts on the Rugosa family see www.rugosaroser.dk Erling together with his wife, while alive, has for the past 25 years been collecting Rugosas, and his collection now contains more than 400 Rugosa hybrids. He is also an amateur breeder, Lundgaards Rugosa being one of his creations. Erling has visited Iceland where Rugosa hybrids do surprisingly well. His talk will focus on the wonderful adaptability of the Rugosa roses to the harsh climate of Iceland: The Rugosa; a gift to Icelandic gardens.

Hjörtur Þorbjörnsson is a plant biologist and the director of the Icelandic Botanic garden in Reykjavik has wide experience with growing roses of many breeds in the Botanic garden. His talk will be based on his knowledge and trials on Growing roses in Iceland.

Kristin Maute is a Norwegian psychologist and rose enthusiast who is dedicated to the benefits of gardening on both mental and physical health.Her talk will be about the activities of the national rose association in Norway and how these activities contribute to social sustainability:How can the work of the rose association contribute to an increased quality of life and improved public health?

Kristín Sigurðardóttir is an experienced first response doctor who has become a leader in improving public health during an epidemic of lifestyle and social diseases due to stress, consumption and competition in our prosperous societies. One reason for the downfall is the lack of outdoor activities and time in nature a “Nature Deficit Disorder”. The positive effects of nature and the outdoors on health are not to be ignored and gardening is a key element, especially growing colourful and lovely smelling roses.

Vilhjálmur Lúðviksson is well known to Nordic rose lovers. He is an engineer and the former Ret. CEO of the Icelandic Research Council. Vilhjalmur is a passionate rose-grower and has served both as the former President of the Icelandic Horticultural Society (IHS) and former Chairman of the IHS Rose Club. The title of Vilhjalmur’s talk is “Evaluating Roses for Survival in Icelandic Gardens – Nordic Relevance?”