Introduction

Roses have existed on earth for millions of years and have been cultivated for at least three thousand years.
One of the largest collections of roses in Europe can be found in Quinta do Arco’s Rose Garden.
This collection displays over one thousand five hundred and fifty different species and varieties of roses, Old and Modern. A total of seventeen thousand rose bushes have been cultivated in this Rose Garden.
Many of these roses are rare and some of them nearly extinguished some years ago.
It is our intention that Quinta do Arco’s Rose Garden continues to stand out as a centre of preservation and divulging of an unic vegetal collection, aiming to cultivate nearly every known rose species.
This live patrimony has unquestionable public interest and constitutes a valuable, cientific and cultural contribute to Madeira Island and our country, Portugal.
We are very proud with the presentation of this first catalog. It is the result of several years of exhaustive work, of study, selection and identification of all the different species of roses which can be appreciated in our garden. The most important and rare are identified by name, variety, date and producer.