When David Austin started the breeding programme over 60 years ago, he wanted to combine the charm, elegance, beautiful flower shape and disease resistance of old-fashioned shrub roses, with the flowering attributes of hybrid teas and floribundas. Today, David Austin Roses are among the most popular and most beautiful available. A garden of these outstanding roses is hard to beat for sheer exuberance of flower and fragrance.
Characteristic of a David Austin Rose:
• Renowned for their rich fragrances
• Unique multi-petaled beautiful blooms
• Good health and disease resistance
• Repeat blooms from early summer providing a long season of interest
• Versatile for different growing conditions and uses including large containers and mixed borders
Here at Coolings we are excited to be one of the few local garden centres to have recently received a fresh delivery of David Austin roses. As part of our Summer Celebration of English Roses, we have highlighted some of our favourite, most fragrant varieties below.
(All images on this page are courtesy of David Austin Roses)
Red buds open to beautifully formed, upward facing, coral-pink rosettes. The myrrh fragrance has delicious hints of hawthorn, elderflower, pear and almond.
H&S – 3.5ft (110cm) x 3.5ft (110cm).
Their yellow flowers are very full and rounded at first, later opening up to shallow cups. There is strong, delicious fragrance, varying between soft floral Tea and pure lemon. Named after the naturalist who was born in Shropshire.
H&S – 3.5ft (110cm) x 4.5ft (140cm).
Peachy pink buds open to a beautiful, white blooms with a pinkish hue. The strong Old Rose fragrance has hints of almond blossom, cucumber and lemon zest. Named after the tragic heroine of Shakespeare’s Othello.
H&S – 3.5ft (110cm) x 3.5ft (110cm).
Beautiful, distinctive, neat, flat blooms. The strong Tea scent becomes more Old Rose, with delicious hints of lemon and grapefruit. Named for the Brontë Society to celebrate the bicentenary of the novelist’s birth.
H&S – 4ft (125cm) x 3.5ft (110cm).
Rosa ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ (Shrub)
Always one of the first English roses to start flowering, perfect scrolled buds open to large, rosette-shaped flowers of bright glowing pink. The strong, perfectly balanced Old Rose scent is often described as being the quintessential Old Rose fragrance. Named for the famous garden designer and author.
H&S – 3.5ft (110cm) x 3ft (90cm).
Shallow, mid-pink flower cups. Flowers freely from early Summer until well into the Autumn with a strong, pure Old Rose fragrance. Named after the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden in Yorkshire.
H&S – 3ft (90cm) x 3ft (90cm).
Rosa Princess Alexandra of Kent (Shrub)
Unusually large, deeply cupped, bright pink flowers. There is a strong and delicious fresh Tea fragrance, which changes to lemon, eventually taking on hints of blackcurrant. Named for Princess Alexandra – a keen gardener.
H&S – 4ft (125cm) x 4ft (125cm).
Rosa ‘The Poet’s Wife’ (Shrub)
Bears rich yellow flowers, which pale over time. There is a strong, wonderfully rich fragrance with a hint of lemon, which becomes sweeter and stronger with age.
H&S – 3.5ft (110cm) x 3.5ft (110cm).
Click here to shop a selection of David Austin Roses online or view the full range in-store
