DAVID AUSTIN ® H ANDBOOK OF ROSES 1 ST AUSTRALIAN E DITION THE DAVID AUSTIN AUSTRALIAN COLLECTION David J.C. Austin and David C.H. Austin. elcome to our first collection of English Roses ‘Princess Alexandra of Kent’ won the top award for Wfor Australia. We are proud to be a family fragrance at both the 2009 Glasgow Trials and the 2010 owned company with a long heritage of breeding and Desert Rose Society show in California. It has a growing roses. Our objective has always remained the delicious fresh tea scent, which changes to lemon over same: to combine the best of the old with the best of time with a hint of blackcurrants. At the 2009 Concurs the new, to create roses that will provide the greatest Internacional de Roses in Barcelona ‘Young Lycidas’ possible pleasure for the gardener. with its intriguing mixed scent of tea, old rose and Today’s English Roses provide a succession of cedar was also awarded the top prize for fragrance and beautiful fragrant blooms in a wide range of natural, Wisley 2008 was presented with Best Rose for pure colours. They have graceful, natural, shrubby Landscaping. growth which makes them ideal for large pots, beds and If you are finding it hard to choose the best rose for mixed borders. Our English Roses are particularly well your needs from the many varieties available, you suited to the Australian climate. They have performed might like to consult pages 52 and 53, where we suggest wonderfully well even throughout times of drought the perfect varieties for different situations such as ideal and heavy rain. In recent years we have made some roses for hedging; excellent shrubs and climbers for great improvements to the health and vigour of the growing in shady positions and the best roses for roses. As a result, we believe the new varieties for 2011 cutting and creating arrangements for the home. and 2012 are some of the best we have ever introduced. We would like to wish all rose lovers a very happy Three of our new varieties have already received gardening year. several important accolades from around the world. CONTENTS ABOUT DAVID AUSTIN ROSES .................................... 2 BARE ROOTS, CONTAINERISED ROSES .................... 2 THE WORLD’S FAVORITE ROSE .................................. 3 Graham Thomas ENGLISH ROSES IN AUSTRALIAN GARDENS ...... 4 – 5 NEW ENGLISH ROSES .............................................. 6 –9 For release in 2011 For release in 2012 ENGLISH SHRUB ROSES ........................................ 10 – 39 ENGLISH CLIMBING ROSES ................................ 40 – 47 WAYS OF USING ROSES ........................................ 48 – 53 Hedges Pots and Containers Mixed Borders Landscaping Roses for specific positions in the garden CULTIVATION ADVICE ................................................ 54 ENGLISH ROSES IN GARDENS .................................... 55 BREEDING, SHOWS AND WEBSITE .......................... 56 ENGLISH CUT ROSES .................................................... 57 ROSES IN THE GARDEN CENTRE .............................. 58 WHERE TO FIND DAVID AUSTIN’S ROSES .............. 59 INDEX OF ROSES .................................................... 60 – 61 Variety information chart 1 ABOUT DAVID AUSTIN ROSES BARE ROOTS David Austin Roses is an internationally and allure that attracts a passionate Roses are sold in pots all year round but recognised, family-owned business which following. David Austin’s roses can be many garden centres and mail order takes a long-term approach to breeding found in prestigious private and public specialists still sell roses as ‘bare root’, and marketing our award-winning roses. gardens throughout Australia. bagged or freshly potted during winter The first David Austin roses to hit The company has won many awards, months. This is the time of year when the Australia were widely acclaimed and still including fifteen gold medals from The best range of roses is available and prices have great recognition amongst many Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea are keen. Australian gardeners. Flower Show. In 2007, David Austin Whether you buy bare root or potted, The company maintains a consistently received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday there’s no doubt that care at planting time high level of investment in breeding and Honours List and in 2010, he was makes a huge difference to how your trialling new varieties. As a result, roses honored as a Great Rosarian of the roses will perform. Careful soil released during the last ten to fifteen World. preparation is the key. See page 54 for years have greatly improved health and We have three offices worldwide and a advice. disease-resistance. The release of many presence in almost every rose growing compact new English Roses has country in the world. David Austin’s broadened the appeal of the collection. head office is in Shropshire, England, The English Roses are not like other where the company displays the National roses. They quickly form magnificent, Collection of English Roses in two acres fragrant shrubs and climbers which make of themed rose gardens, open to the great impact in the garden. Their large, public free of charge. We have regional fragrant blooms have an old world charm offices in Japan and the USA. David Austin’s Plant Centre, England 2 GRAHAM THOMAS – voted the world’s favourite rose David Austin’s ‘Graham Thomas’ received the highest accolade in the rose world when it was voted the World’s Favourite Rose by the World Federation of Rose Societies (WFRS). Founded in 1968, the WFRS represents over 100,000 rose lovers in 41 member countries. The award was announced at the 2009 World Rose Convention in Vancouver, when the rose was inducted into the society’s ‘Rose Hall of Fame’. It holds this prestigious title for three years. The cup-shaped blooms of this well- loved English Rose have an unusually rich, pure yellow colour which is not found in the Old Roses and is rare, even among modern roses. The strong, fresh tea rose fragrance received the Henry Edland medal. ‘Graham Thomas’ forms an upright, bushy shrub which can be maintained at 1.5 x 1.25m with summer pruning. It is highly versatile and can also be trained as a spectacular climbing rose, ideal for a wall, rose pillar, obelisk or fence. It enjoys full sun but like all David Austin’s English Roses, it will also perform well in partial shade, provided it is not planted directly underneath the canopy of trees. The rose was named for one of the leading British horticulturalists of the 20th century. The late Graham Thomas, born in 1909, was an enthusiastic collector of Old Roses and a frequent visitor to David Austin’s Nursery in Albrighton, England. Inset: David Austin with rosa Graham Thomas (Ausmas) Graham Thomas (Photo by permission of Jeanne Trevaskus) 3 USING DAVID AUSTIN ENGLISH ROSES IN THE AUSTRALIAN GARDEN English Roses are remarkably adaptable plants, growing in ROSE BORDERS extreme climates around the world. Once they become well A border of English Roses is hard to beat for sheer exuberance of flower and fragrance. The roses will flower from late spring/early established in the garden, which usually takes a year or so, summer through to the cooler weather of winter, providing a they are remarkably drought tolerant, though they will whole range of delicious fragrances. Some people prefer to use a reward extra care by being more floriferous. They can be limited range of harmonising colours, such as only varieties of used to excellent effect, in a wide variety of ways. Here are white, blush pink, pink, crimson and purple, or just white, yellow, apricot and peach - but this is in no way essential. With the a few suggestions that you may find helpful. sophisticated shades of the English Roses, a mixture of the whole range of colours works wonderfully well. Always plant in groups MIXED BORDERS of three or more, if space permits, to create structure and English Roses are shrub roses and so look particularly at home in movement in the border and enable each variety to make a a mixed border; indeed, this is where most people grow them. definite statement. Their sumptuous blooms provide a welcome contrast to the lighter and more airy flowers of most perennials. The softer ROSE BEDS colours of the English Roses harmonise perfectly with the colours There are a number of English Roses that grow, even in the warmer of most other plants.They have the great benefit of continuing to summers of Australia, to no more than 1 –1.3m, which make flower when many plants and shrubs are over. No rose likes too wonderful bedding roses: Darcey Bussell, Miss Alice, Molineux, much competition and it is advisable to surround them with plants Munstead Wood, Sophy’s Rose and so on. These are short and that are not too invasive. Wherever possible, we advise planting in bushy and repeat-flower well. In larger beds, the range of groups of three or more although, in small borders, single plants possibilities becomes much wider and taller varieties can be used. are very satisfactory. Noble Antony in a mixed border at David Austin Rose Gardens in the UK The Renaissance Garden at David Austin Roses 4 ROSE GARDENS FOR POTS AND CONTAINERS For those of us who have sufficient space, it is possible to plant a Plants in large pots or planters on hard areas around the house rose garden entirely or partly of English Roses. This may be a have become increasingly popular in recent times. Many of us, conventional rose garden or perhaps two long borders facing a path particularly in large cities, have either very small gardens or a and intersected occasionally with other paths. Such a garden could patio garden. English Roses, with their bushy growth, are be quite small, or something altogether more extensive. particularly good for this purpose. AS CLIMBERS (P ILLARS ) ASAHEDGE OR FOR LINING A PATH One of the most important developments in English Roses (and Some of the stronger English Roses form excellent hedges.