All About David Austen English Roses

English Roses are technically a type of hybrid rose that was introduced in 1969 by a rose grower named David Austin. This is a hybrid of old English roses (that were grown before 1867)  with smaller modern roses.  Therefore he began mating varieties of roses such as Hybrids, Floribundas and Grandifloras with smaller contemporary tea roses.

The David Austin English rose hybrids are known for their much brighter stronger colors, which are not common among the old roses and also their very strong fragrances.  They are also distinguished because they have fully double flowers with a lot of petals. This is very different than the much simpler petal formation of the older roses.  English roses now come in new shades of yellow as well as the traditional soft pastel corals and pinks and the classic dark red and blue white.

The scents of these roses are amazing. Many of the smell like a typical rose but with added hints of citrus, tea and damask. The Getrude Jekyll is one of Austin’s creation is one of the strongest smelling roses ever grown. It smells like damask.  However it’s stem is long and thorny and it only blooms once or twice a year.

Another very fragrant rose is the cream colored St. Cecelia which has very white heavy flowers that smell like myrrh mixed with the usual rose sent.

Evelyn is another scented masterpiece that produces small clusters of apricot, peach and yellow flower that smell like a combination of fruit and tea.  The problem is that it sometimes withers in the damp English climate. It does better in the warmer parts of England.

One of the darkest of blood red roses is an English Rose. The Prince, which is also very fragrant is a dark or purple red giant rose with big glossy flowers.  A similar flower is The Dark Rose which has crimson and purple petals and has a very definite Old Rose fragrance.

The rose that Austin developed that he thought was most perfect is the one named after David Austin himself. This plant produces clusters of beautiful medium to large pink blooms that smell strongly of lemon. It is an excellent repeat bloomer that brings joy several times a year.  In fact creating repeat bloomers like this was Austin’s greatest accomplishment. Old types of roses tended to only bloom once a year. David Austin took many of these favorite roses and bred them so that they would be hardier and bloom as much as possible.