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The Romance of the English Rose

Looking for a little romance in your life? Find a spot in your garden for an English rose and you're bound to fall in love! Over 50 years ago, an amateur rose breeder in England named David Austin set about to develop a rose that combined the elegance and beauty of old-fashioned roses with the disease resistance and long blooming season offered by modern roses. Plus, he hoped to recapture the rose fragrance so often lacking in many hybrid tea and floribunda roses. Austin wanted to breed roses to suit home gardens rather than show benches, roses that would be at home in a mixed border with other shrubs and perennials or in a country garden. His first rose was a climber called 'Constance Spry', introduced in 1960. Although it only blooms once, it is vigorous and produces large pink blossoms with a strong myrrh-like scent. With its success, Austin's breeding career was launched, with hundreds of popular introductions since – all with thoroughly English names!

If you are just starting out with these roses, consider the following, which are highly recommended for all aspects of their performance.

Crocus Rose	Golden Celebration	W. Shakespear 2000	Queen of Sweden

• Crocus Rose has blossoms of soft apricot fading to cream outer petals. The tea-scented flowers are produced very freely, in large clusters on slightly arching stems. It can be grown as a medium-sized shrub, short climber or up a pillar. Good for seaside gardens.
• Golden Celebration has huge, cup-shaped flowers holding golden petals with scalloped edges. It forms a rounded shrub with arching branches and ample foliage. It can also be grown as a pillar and has a tea or fruity fragrance.
• Sophy's Rose reminds one of a Dutch Master painting, with open rosettes of soft red. This color is the perfect complement to other roses and perennials. Add to that elegant foliage and a bushy, compact habit.
• Molineux is exceptionally free flowering, with fully double, deep yellow blooms that have a tea fragrance. It grows to about 3 feet high and wide, making it perfect for rose beds or mixed borders.
• The Alynwick Rose is also pink, with a very deeply cupped flower and an old rose fragrance. It blooms intermittently from early summer until frost and its habit is higher than wide.
• Queen of Sweden is a small shrub with sweet little rosebuds that open to soft, glowing pink flowers that keep for several days in a vase, making it ideal for rose beds, borders and arranging. Good for seaside gardens.
• The Mayflower, as far as its breeders know, is completely resistant to black spot, powdery mildew and rust – whew! It produces deep pink flowers, a few at a time, all season. This medium-sized rose is bushy and has small, matt green leaves.
• Wildeve can be used as a tall groundcover, for it produces long canes that bear masses of flowers all along the cane. Buds are pink and open to blush pink; they are "quartered" in the old-fashioned way, with the petals swirling into four distinct sections.
• William Shakespear 2000 is velvety crimson deepening to rich purple-red with a strong "old rose" fragrance. The plant's habit is neat and upright.

Wildeve	A Shropshire Lad	Gertrude Jekyll	Tess of the D'Urbervilles

oses, Sky Nursery offers these new cultivars for 2008: Gentle Hermione, Lichfield Angel, and Tea Clipper, which is also good for seaside gardens.

While hybrid teas and floribundas require full sun, many shrub roses grow and bloom well with only four or five hours of direct sun each day. Make sure that they are growing in good soil (supplemented by organic matter and a good rose fertilizer) and that they are not competing with the roots of nearby trees. David Austin roses noted for shade tolerance include A Shropshire Lad, Crocus Rose, Gertrude Jekyll, Golden Celebration, Queen of Sweden, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Wildeve.

Come into Sky Nursery and check out our outstanding selection of roses. We can help you create a dreamy English-style rose garden in which to gather with friends, sip tea and eat cute little sandwiches!

By Carolyn Jones
Skylights Summer 2008, Vol 23, No. 2

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