Rosa 'MACgoofy' PAPAGENO® hybrid tea shrub rose (McGredy)

PAPAGENO® is the first of the ‘parrot tandem’ rose bred by Northern Ireland rose breeder Samuel Darragh McGredy IV after he moved to New Zealand. There the milder climate helped his challenging work and he managed to breed many unique roses until his death in 2019. This variety was named in honour of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute and introduced to public in 1989.

The flowers are medium-sized, semi-double with 17-25 petals and bear a mild, sweet fragrance. They are carmine red with irregular white highlights. Each flower is unique and sometimes can be occupied with more white than red. Deciduous leaves are deep green, matte, and unfortunately very prone to both blackspot and powdery mildew. Therefore additional care is needed but will be rewarded by fantastic flowers which keep on producing until very late in the season – often until early November. PAPAGENO® grows into a compact bush about 100 cm tall and wide.
Planting instructions: Prepare a hole of size 30x30 cm. Put your rose in the way that the grafting point is 3 cm deep in the soil. Water well and cover new shoots with soil or bark mulch about 15 cm high. Roses tolerate wide range of soils but thrive in deep, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil, in full sun.

Pruning: It does not need pruning like tea hybrids. Just cut last year’s growth by one third to maximum one half in the spring (after frosts) to achieve desired shape, and strong and reliable framework. Cutting it back to 3-5 live buds is possible for re-juvenating. To support extra flowering during the season remove twigs past blossom: cut them off the first leaf with 5 bracts. Mulch well before winter, preferably with leaf-mould.


Last update: 19-04-2020