Why the west is wild about English roses - Special Issue: Fall/Winter Garden Guide

Sunset, Fall-Winter, 1994 by Steven R. Lorton

"WHAT'S IN A NAME? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Obviously, Shakespeare never sniffed David Austin's English roses. Most gardeners who've gotten a whiff will tell you that they're among the most intensely fragrant roses that have ever come near a nose. But the reasons that many Western gardeners are growing so fond of these plants go well beyond their aromatic qualities.

ENTER DAVID AUSTIN

More than 30 years ago, a British farmer named David Austin started to experiment with hybridizing roses. He crossed hybrid teas, floribundas, and climbers with antique or old garden roses such as the damasks and gallicas. His goal was to breed roses with superior characteristics: beautiful form and leaves; full, richly colored, and fragrant flowers that would bloom repeatedly; and, most ambitiously, disease resistance.

By 1970, he had formed a nursery and begun to introduce his first roses--'Canterbury' and 'Wife of Bath' among them. He continued to hybridize, crossing and back-crossing, winnowing out undesirable plants, and nursing the promising ones along.

Eventually, a new group of roses emerged and became known as David Austin's English roses. There are now more than 80 varieties, most of which are available in the western United States.

In form, flower, and fragrance, these are vigorous plants. The blossoms are often prim in bud, exploding into large, peonylike flowers. The scents are rich and usually described as musky, spicy, or fruity. Austin's hybrids that have old rose parentage are said to carry the scent of myrrh (one of the three gifts of the Magi).

Gardeners accustomed to heavily pruning hybrid tea roses should allow the English roses room to express themselves. If you prune them back too much or too often, you'll be left with an ugly thatch of winter branches; let the plant fountain up and out or get bushy, and you'll have a handsome addition to the garden. As David Austin told us, "I love seeing my roses in American gardens. Since you have so much space in your country and generally larger gardens, the roses can assume their natural exuberance and grow freely."

HOW ENGLISH ROSES FARE IN THE WEST

From the cool, moist Pacific Northwest to the desert heat of the Southwest and on to the cold-winter Rocky Mountain states, these roses perform consistently well. At Heirloom Old Garden Roses in St. Paul, Oregon, you can see more than 80 varieties of English roses thriving in display garden beds.

The plants also adapt well to containers. At the Antique Rose Emporium in Independence, Texas, Austin's roses have been growing in half-barrels for four years; they take hard freezes and hot muggy summers in stride. In the coldest climates, the plants die to the ground each winter and spring back when weather warms, but they never get as large as the plants do in the mild-winter West.

More and more nurseries are selling English roses in containers. You can also order plants by mail for delivery at the proper planting time for your climate.

Give these roses full sun. Dig a generous planting hole and enrich the soil with ample amounts of compost and well-rotted manure. Water plants well when you transplant them and for the first year or two until they are established.

Fertilize plants with a complete rose food applied between mid-February and mid-March (earlier in mild climates, later in cold climates), then again in early July.

Allow Austin's roses two years to develop before you prune them. Then prune early in the year before plants begin leafing out. Meanwhile, remove faded flowers to keep the plants looking neat and to encourage repeat bloom.

10 good choices for the West

Home gardeners and nursery professionals who grow English roses are passionate about them. Here are 10 favorites.

'ABRAHAM DARBY' (1985). This plant grows 5 feet tall, 4 feet wide. Flowers are a blend of coppery apricot, yellow, and warm pink; strong, fruity fragrance. Good repeat bloomer. In warm-winter climates, it can be grown as a climber.

"Even though my passion is for the true antique roses, if I had to pick my three favorite roses, 'Abraham Darby' would be one of them."

John Starnes, publisher of The Garden Doctor, Denver

'CHARLES AUSTIN' (1973). This 5-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide plant, an early introduction, produces large apricot blooms with a fruity fragrance.

"The bush is upright and vigorous, the blooms are fully double, very large. This is a plant to use in a tight space, a city garden. The leaves are leathery, deep green on mahogany stems."

John Clements, nursery owner, St. Paul, Oregon

'CONSTANCE SPRY' (1961). The first of the English roses, this plant reaches 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide. Billowy, old rose-style flowers are soft pink with the fragrance of myrrh. Onetime bloomer in late spring to early summer. Extremely winter hardy.

"It's very vigorous, but easy to manage. I've trained mine as a climber. It would really like a fence to sprawl on. The fragrance is sweet, strong; you'd like to wear it."