Last summer I visited Latvia with my favourite gardening society, Blomsterodlingens vänner. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the splendidly restored Rundāle Palace and its fabulous gardens. The Rosarium was looking especially gorgeous during our visit. Latvia has a famous rose breeder in Dr. Dzidra Rieksta and seeing the Latvian hybrids at Rundale was special. I think most of us found a few new roses for our wish-lists. One of my favourite and my mother’s favourite roses has already previously been the Latvian hybrid Ritausma (1964). It does very well in many Finnish gardens. It is usually a bit higher, this one had been severly pruned. (pictured below) During our trip we now also discovered ’Ābeļzieds’ (1968), ‘Līga’ (1994) and ’Pārsla’ (1980). ’Ābeļzieds’ is going very high on my personal wish list!