 |
| William Radler in his living room |
There was snow on the ground outside, but plenty of blooms
inside the home of William Radler, developer of the popular Knock Out® shrub roses, when I visited recently.
Botanical drawings of roses lined the living room walls. A bouquet
of silk roses sat on a table. There was a rose inlay on the wooden floor. And
in the basement, the real deal – row after row of rose seedlings, many of them
in full flower, under fluorescent lights.
This is the rosarium or “greenhouse” where Radler is developing
his next generation of roses. Only the best will ever make it to market. Some
may even be good enough to become Knock Out® roses, which are noted for
their disease resistance.
More than 80 million Knock Out® roses have been sold since the
first was introduced in 2000, making it the best selling rose series in the U.S.
It’s also becoming more popular overseas, especially in Europe, Australia and
Japan. Two of the seven varieties have been chosen as All America Rose Selections.
With such overwhelming success, you might expect that
Radler, now 70, would be slowing down or at least would have moved his rose breeding
operation to a larger, more high tech facility.
If so, you’d be wrong on both counts.
Radler is planning to step up his rose introductions from
one or two a year to as many as five. He especially wants to expand beyond the shrub and climbing roses in his portfolio.
The goal? “I want everything,” said Radler. He hopes to have so many rose varieties that it will require a separate catalog to list them all.
“Everybody hears about the Knock Outs®,” Radler said. “They don’t
realize I have 27 roses in production. They might not all be Knock Outs® but
most of them are low maintenance roses, the kind of roses people are looking to
put in their gardens.”
 |
Brite Eyes, a Radler climbing rose
Photo courtesy of The Conard-Pyle Co./Star Roses and Plants |
Eventually, he wants to produce
low-maintenance hybrid teas, floribundas, miniatures and polyanthas. Radler’s particularly hot on miniature roses at this point.
“Everyone’s got a place for a miniature rose,” he said. “If
they were black spot resistant, I think more people would plant them.”
The success of Knock Outs® has sparked its share of criticism
in rose circles. Some rose fans feel that Knock Outs® are pushing other worthy rose
varieties out of the market. Others complain that his most popular roses aren’t
fragrant.
Radler countered that Knock Outs® are shrub roses, not
exhibition roses which often require extensive spraying and care. People no
longer have the time or inclination to fuss with roses in their garden, he
said. Low-maintenance shrub roses like his often fit the bill.
He also noted fragrance is somewhat subjective, with some
people able to detect a fragrance while someone else can not. Radler said
the original Knock Out® has a fragrance and that Milwaukee’s Calatrava, a white shrub rose he developed, “can compete with any other rose on
the market for fragrance.”
Shrub roses, he added, are not usually introduced for their
fragrance.
“There’s all the David Austins, but they don’t make good
shrub roses,” he said. “At the end of the season, they’re either the Eiffel
Tower or they’re flopping all over the place.”
 |
| In the basement with the latest crop of rose seedlings |
 |
| Flowers galore |
Radler has been hooked on roses ever since he bought his first one at age 9. He was winning prizes for his roses while still in college, perhaps one of the reasons why he switched to landscape architecture after only one semester as an art major. He has been breeding roses since the mid 1970s.
His growing set-up remains low tech: saw horses, 2x4s, shop
lights and recycled Styrofoam slabs.
Meticulous details about each seedling are kept on index cards off to one side.
At this stage, h
e cautioned, it’s not always possible to
tell which roses will perform the best in the garden.
“The miniatures grow larger under the fluorescent lights than
they do in the garden,” he said. “And the regular ones grow smaller under the
lights than in the garden.”
Flower color also can be more intense outside than under the
lights, he added.
 |
| Newborn rose seedlings under the lights |
Not all of Radler’s crosses work of course. During a recent
visit, he showed me a rose with buds that have never opened and a
yellow rose with a green, grassy center.
On the other hand, there was a white rose with a fragrance
to rival any at a high-end perfume counter. There also was one with a single
layer of purple (yes, purple) petals held straight up at a 90 degree angle as well as
several interesting color combinations.
These 500 seedlings will eventually be acclimated to
sunlight and join the approximately 1,600 roses outside on his 2-acre lot. They
won’t be coddled in any way, but assaulted with numerous enemies including
overhead watering and black spot. Lackluster performers are culled. Those that
flourish are sent off for six years of field trials and may eventually be marketed by The Conard-Pyle Co./Star Roses and Plants.
 |
| A very delicate bloom |
 |
| What would you call this color? Vermilion? |
 |
| Loved the color combination on this seedling |
 |
| This rose was especially fragrant |
 |
| Striped petals anyone? |
Radler, a life-long Milwaukee resident, said he has no plans to move anywhere else. His first job after college was with the Milwaukee County
parks department. He eventually went on to serve as garden director of the nearby Boerner
Botanical Gardens from 1981 until his retirement in 1994.
“People who need to get away…I don’t understand that. I like
to be in one place and have everything that I need in one location,” he said. “I
could easily afford a place in Door County or a place in Palm Springs but that
means I’m away from here.”
Success has resulted in some changes at the “headquarters” of
Rose Innovations LLC, however. He used to do all the work himself but now has a
staff of 8 people. He also has remodeled his house. One of those changes was to
add a one-car garage because the original two-car garage is overflowing with garden supplies.
 |
| The sun room |
Lest you think Radler is a plant snob, he does have many
other plants besides roses. A two-story sun room holds everything from African violets
and cactuses to lush tropicals. An extensive perennial garden in the front yard has every plant labeled with its common and botanical name.
He is introducing his second perennial this year, Amethyst Kiss™ spiderwort (Tradescantia ‘Radtrad’)
which has larger flowers, larger flower clusters and flowers that are more blue
that other varieties. He had previously introduced Sweet Thing™ verbena (Verbena ‘Radverb’).
 |
| The back yard |
One of his upcoming projects will be to put prairie grasses and
plants on the tall berm just behind his property. It was formerly used by
one of the Milwaukee's interurban railways but is now abandoned. He said the utility
that owns the land has just given him permission for the project to go ahead.
Another, possibly even bigger project involves breeding tropical
fish and gold fish. He has added several large tanks throughout his house over
the past three years.
“My goal is to create tropical fish and goldfish that the
world hasn’t seen before,” Radler said.
Does he have any names in mind for these new fish? Perhaps something
like Knock Out, I asked?
He pondered the question for a minute and just smiled.
By Karen Geisler
