The English Garden Rose

english garden rose

Old Fashion English Rose Bushes

The English Garden Rose, the English roses, are "broadly in the mood of old roses", or old fashion English rose bushes, so describes David Austin, the famous English rose breeder who invented and produced the English beautiful roses for the home garden.

A Victorian English rose garden planting is the dream of many cottage gardeners, because the English rose garden design, with roses and flowers artfully placed together, is one of the most charming and beautiful of all gardens.

English roses and English tea roses scented with lovely fragrances is what the garden rose is all about.

Austin Roses, or English Roses, are considered to be shrub roses, but the growth habit is very different within this large group of roses.

english garden rose

The picture of English roses in a flower bucket above is a great example of what the English garden roses are all about. As you can see they ooze of victorian elegance and charm. Just what you would expect old English roses to be like.

One of my favorite English roses is the Abraham Darby rose. I just love the lovely peach colored rose blooms. They always look so beautiful in a vase.

The 'Heritage' Rose

english garden rose

The 'Heritage' rose, has plump buds that opens into large and beautifully cupped flowers in the style of an Old garden Rose. The flowers come in a variety of pink shades, from the palest blush to warm rose pink deep in the center of the blooms.

The fragrance is a lovely citrus-lemon scent. This is a good rose for a border, bed or a hedge. It grows vigorously and fairly compact to an average height for a shrub rose. The foilage is semi- glossy and dark green. From David Austin UK, classified as an English Rose. Zone 4-9

Some of these roses are small and compact, others are tall and upright or bushy and wide. Then there are the arching ones that can be trained as small climbers. There are also large vigorous climbers and ramblers that can cover an entire porch or a large arbor; as well as low-growing roses that are very suitable for edgings or colorful groundcovers.

The 'Constance Spry' Rose

english garden rose

The 'Constance Spry' Rose. This variety of the English Garden Rose was the very first of its kind. It has proved to be enormously popular. This is a rose that every gardener should have, if they have room for this exceptionally rampant growing plant with large, softly luminous pink, cup-shaped double flowers.

Being a cross between a modern cluster-flowered rose and an old Gallica rose, it is not a repeat flowering. But this is not really a drawback, because the single summer blooms are long lasting, spectacular and have a delicious fragrance of myrrh.

The plant is covered with large, dark green foilage that is very winter hardy and has a good health record.

It's useful in a group at the back of the border, but because it can be quite sprawling it is better trained as a climber on walls.

This graceful rose was named after the famous pioneer of flower arranging of the 1950's and 1960's. Zones 4-9.

The climate usually dictates how tall and vigorous these roses grow, according to David Austin. He was surprised to find out that some of his roses grew quite a bit taller in the warmer climates zones of USA, compared to the more cooler weather in England.

The 'Pilgrim' Rose

english garden rose

The flowers of the 'Pilgrim' rose are softly textured blooms that are beautifully formed. The color is a creamy with rich yellow centers. The flowers come in clusters on strong stems and are sweetly fragrant; ideal as cuttings for flower arrangements.

This is an excellent rose to plant in a border either as a speciment plant or in a group. The plant has a compact and graceful habit to an average height with attractive medium green foilage. Zones 4-9.

Fragrance was an important factor for David Austin, when he created the beautiful English Garden Roses. So it's no surprise that all of these roses are wonderfully fragrant with lovely rose scents of all kinds.

The 'Tamora' Rose

english garden rose

'Tamora' is a superb English Garden Rose. and a great choice for warm-climate gardeners. The buds are plump and are a red-blushed peach color that open to display very double rosette-like flowers. The rich peach colored petals are the colors of pink and honey-gold.

The intoxicating fragrance is that of myrrh. The flowers bloom in late spring, with a good to excellent repeat flowering all the way through fall. The foilage is semi-glossy and dark green. Zones 5-10

The color of the English Roses reminds me of the old garden roses from the past, but these colors have more depth and intensity. They are rich and dark or pale and creamy, with every shade in between.

The 'William Shakespeare' Rose

english garden rose

Also classified as an English Garden Rose 'William Shakespeare rose produces attractive, very beautiful rich crimson flowers and was created by David Austin to develop the red strain in this series.

The new 2000 model is much more disease resistant than the earlier model of this rose which was prone to mildew.

The rosette-formed flowers have a rich, Damask scent. The lovely velvety, crimson blooms develop a hint of purple as they age. The flowers come in clusters of 3-7. It's a tall, upright plant with large, semi-glossy, dark green foilage and red thorns. Zones 5-10.

English Roses have a reputation of being romantic roses and they sure are. These English Garden Roses ooze with charm and Victorian elegance and romance. No wonder Austin Roses and the English Garden Rose are so popular and beloved by so many.