Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

Coinciding with the rose blooming season, Barcelona City Council organises the Barcelona International New Roses Competition, which takes place in the Roserar gardens in Cervantes park. 

This competition is internationally renowned. The roses entered have been created by plant breeders from crosses between existing roses. Therefore, these varieties have never been seen before and have not yet been commercialised. A reserved area in the gardens of the Roserar brings together the prize-winning roses of each edition.

2024 EDITION CANCELLED

A drought emergency was declared in Barcelona as of 1 February 2024, which means that drinking water cannot be used to water parks or gardens, whether public or private. Only groundwater may be used for this purpose, to ensure the survival of trees.

As such, given the shortages and the uncertainty concerning water availability, the Municipal Institute of Parks and Gardens, which looks after Barcelona’s public green spaces and maintains the Roserar de Cervantes rose garden, has been forced to cancel some of the activities scheduled as part of the 2024 International New Rose Competition.

This means that it will not be possible for the panels in the 2024 edition, scheduled for May, to make their final evaluations, or for the plenary sessions of the Expert Panel, the Schools Panel, the Senior Citizens Panel and the Citizen’s Rose Panel to carry out their evaluation work and award their respective prizes.

However, to avoid completely cancelling this year’s edition, and taking into account the fact that the Expert Panel’s Standing Committee has already evaluated four roses entered in the competition in the previous 2023 growing cycle, a final evaluation by the Standing Committee will be accepted for these roses, as an exception. This will at least make it possible to provide final marks for the competing roses during this unusual situation.

Nonetheless, we continue working hard to keep all the roses in the best possible condition, both those that are part of our permanent collection and those participating in the 2024 competition and the upcoming 2025 competition.

We thank you for your understanding regarding this exceptional situation caused by the drought, and very much hope to be able to hold the competition once again next year. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. Thank you for your support.