My new David Austin roses

There is something special about David Austin roses. I guess if you grow roses you know what I mean, if you don’t grow roses you might not even have heard about David Austin and his rose project. I have wanted one of his roses for a long time, for years! Last autumn I redesigned a large part of my garden, got rid of the last bit of my lawn (yeah!), and decided I actually could squeeze in a few more plants in my already very full garden.

A timely email newsletter from David Austin Roses made me finally decide that I was going to take the plunge. Now I just had to choose....I wanted a pure white rose, with strong scent, not too big. And I found one! Ehh…well, I couldn’t resist the temptation, so I bought three roses! A white one and two pink :-) They are not the cheapest of plant purchases, in fact, I think they are the most expensive plants I have ever bought, even though I bought them bare root, but they will last for years to come and I am so happy I finally did it.

I have pulled some info about David Austin from Wikipedia for you:
David C.H. Austin OBE (born 1926) is a rose breeder and writer who live in Shropshire, England. His emphasis is on breeding roses with the character and fragrance of Old Garden Roses but with the repeat-flowering ability and wide colour range of modern roses such as Hybrid Teas and Floribundas. Austin's roses soon became the most successful group of new roses in the twentieth century. Though Austin's roses are not officially recognised as a separate class of roses by, for instance, the Royal National Rose Society or the American Rose Society, they are nonetheless commonly referred to by rosarians, at nurseries, and in horticultural literature as 'English Roses' (the term he uses) or 'Austin Roses'. Since its founding in 1969, he and his firm David Austin Roses in Albrighton, near Wolverhampton, have introduced over 190 rose cultivars. Cultivars have been named in honour of his family, well-known rosarians, geographical landmarks in Britain, historical events, and British writers, particularly Shakespeare and Chaucer, and their works or characters.

And without further ado, let me present you with my white, scented rose, Rosa Susan Williams-Ellis. Not impressed? Well, she is quite small still, and something has been having a gourmet meal on the leaves – and she keeps giving me roses just one or two at the time, but I am sure when she gets a bit older and more mature she will look a lot more impressive and produce the abundance of flowers I have seen in photos!

What about her flowers then? Impressed now?! Pure white roses are quite unique, many roses often fade to pink or yellow, but this one stays white throughout.

And here is the flower completely opened. The scent is not as strong as I had hoped for, sure there is a scent, but I have to stick my nose completely into the flowers to smell it. Perhaps in a few years time, when this bush is big with lots of flowers at the same time, perhaps then it will smell stronger. I’ll let you know :-)

By the way, Susan Williams Ellis was a designer who, together with her husband Euan Cooper-Willis, founded Portmeirion Pottery. Susan was a great enthusiast of the English Roses and painted some beautiful water colours of them.

OK, ready for the next one? This is Rosa Scepter'd Isle, and it is quite long, thin and straggly at the moment. I have given it a bit support but since this is the first year I assume it will be bigger and stronger next year already. 

The flowers are beautifully cupped and stay like this.

The scent is absolutely heavenly! A mix of myrrh and something sweet is the best I can describe it. Even with just a few roses opened I can smell it sitting next to it taking photographs. I haven’t taken any flowers inside yet, but I can imagine this rose being fantastic in a vase, filling the room with this exquisite scent. As you can see, the bumble bees in my garden like this rose too, this one flew in just as I was taking the picture and landed right in the middle. I didn't have time to refocus so I am afraid it is the rose that is sharp, not the bee, but the rose was the priority here!

I think Scepter'd Isle is my favourite of the three David Austin roses I bought.

Oh, by the way, scepter’d isle is a phrase describing England, which appears in Shakespeare’s play Richard II, in a speech by the character John of Gaunt. It is part of a long list of well-known phrases in praise of England, beginning:

This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise

This fortress built by Nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war,

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,...

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

And my third rose? Here is Rosa Wildeve, another pretty small and unassuming bush at the moment, but give it time and it will be bigger and stronger! There are lots of buds and the first flower has already dropped. I did manage to get a picture of it before it started shedding petals though....

....and it was absolutely gorgeous!

I don’t really know who or what Wildeve was/is, perhaps some of the readers can help here? Might be just a name, but it would be great to get that info here. My Wildeve is placed in part shade, and according to the David Austin website that’s perfectly OK. I didn’t have much choice as this spot was the only one available!

I can’t wait for my roses to grow a bit bigger and produce more flowers so I can bring some indoors too, at the moment I just don’t have the heart to cut them off until they are about to drop. They last so much longer in the garden and I want to enjoy each of them for as long as possible.

Do you have any David Austin roses? Which one is your favourite? My three new roses bring my rose collection to 12 roses in total in my tiny London garden, including my two pot roses bought in a supermarket years ago. Both of the pot roses are absolute stars in the garden, amazing what you can get for a few quid, and something most people throw away when they are finished flowering. I will show you my pink pot rose next time, it is in full flower right now. Until next time, take care.