116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
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Homegrown: Dreaming of Summer
Cindy Hadish
Jan. 31, 2011 2:49 pm
Seed catalogs and promotional information from nurseries and garden centers have me dreaming of summer.
An e-mail that highlighted gorgeous new David Austin Roses looked especially enticing, but I'm often concerned that some roses - and other plants promoted by out-of-state companies - would not be hardy in Iowa.
So Michael Marriott, technical director for David Austin Roses, wrote back with top picks for zones 4 and 5, which encompasses most of Iowa.
Here is his list:
(Zone 4 marked with *)
*The Mayflower – natural, unassuming rose, nice for old rose fans, flowers early, good fragrance, one of Mr A's faves. V healthy. Probably hardiest of English Roses
*LDBraithwaite – upright, bushy, big rosettes, not all that fragrant
Queen of Sweden – upright, demure, not flashy, good for cutting, very healthy
*Crown Princess Margareta – big shrub or climber. Nice fragrance. Flowers held in clusters. Very healthy and winter hardy
*Sophy's Rose – not very fragrant, reliable, very free flowering stays reliable short – 3ft or so
Sharifa Asma – great fragrance
Scepter'd Isle – can be almost semi-double at times. Upright, strong myrrh fragrance, very free flowering
Darcey Bussell – great colour, quite compact, medium fragrance. Flowers and flowers
Strawberry Hill – great myrrh fragrance, nice warm pink colour, tends not to fade. vigorous
*Charlotte – Nice rosettes, not too big, one of best for fragrance
*Brother Cadfael - very large plump rose, strong old rose fragrance, lovely medium pink
*Crocus Rose - robust apricot-tinged creamy white rose with light tea rose fragrance
*Golden Celebration - magnificent flower, rich golden yellow, strong exotic fragrance
*Gertrude Jekyll - rosette shaped flowers in rich glowing pink, early bloomer, strong rose fragrance
* Winchester Cathedral - lovely white rose with strong delicious rose fragrance with hints of honey and almond blossom
A tip from Michael: in colder zones especially, it's a nice effect to plant three bushes together (triangled, approx 18 inches apart) to create one full planting.
Another tip in cold climates is to bury the bud union several inches below the soil surface and mulch the plants over winter.
Planting early in the growing season (not yet, wait until spring) also helps establish the strength of the roses before the first winter. See www.davidaustinroses.com for pix and write-ups.
Here is more from David Austin Roses about their new selections:
Close your eyes and imagine the most romantic garden dreamscape. Chances are, your vision includes abundant fragrant English Roses in mixed garden beds or climbing stone walls and wooden arches. It's difficult to resist their charm and classic beauty.
English Roses combine the full-bodied beauty and fragrance of antique roses with the repeat flowering, strength, full bush and wide color ranges of modern roses. First introduced by world-famous hybridizer David Austin more than forty years ago, they are among the world's most treasured roses.
For spring of 2011, David Austin offers American rose lovers five enchanting new varieties. Each rose features the full, fragrant old-fashioned flowers and full bushes that have become an Austin hallmark. They are beautifully suited to use as long-flowering landscape shrubs, as climbing roses or in beds, borders or large pots.
The five new English Roses are: pure-white Rosa ‘Susan Williams-Ellis'; white species-look Rosa ‘Kew Gardens'; lovely apricot Rosa ‘Lady of Shalott'; rose-pink Rosa ‘The Wedgwood Rose'; and deep-cerise Rosa ‘Tam o' Shanter'.
“These special roses represent our newest and best breeding,” said David JC Austin, managing director of David Austin Roses and son of breeder David CH Austin. “This year's collection includes one of my personal favorites, ‘Lady of Shalott', and a white sport of one of my father's favorite roses, which we have named after a dear family friend, Susan Williams-Ellis.”
The 2011 USA Introductions from David Austin Roses:
Susan Williams-Ellis (Ausquirk) – Approximately 135 petals. Repeat-flowering. This exceptional rose is a “sport,” or naturally occurring form, of Austin's popular pink rose ‘The Mayflower' which was introduced in 2001. Good white roses are particularly difficult to breed, so it was with great delight that the team at David Austin discovered this new white rose, which shares the vigorous disease resistance of the pink rose. Like its parent, it also flowers very early in the season – two to three weeks before most other roses – and then continues to bloom nearly non-stop until the harder frosts. This rose is an excellent performer in most areas of the U.S. Those in cooler areas, including USDA zone 4, will welcome this exciting addition to the list of particularly winter hardy Austin roses. The fragrance is strong and old rose in character. This rose has a demure character and charm that makes it especially alluring to admirers of the heritage style of rose. The rose is named after Susan Williams-Ellis, a friend of David Austin and his wife Pat. She was an artist and influential pottery designer who, together with her husband Euan Cooper-Willis, established Portmeirion Pottery, best known for its Botanical Garden Tableware series. She was a great enthusiast of English Roses and painted beautiful watercolors of them. Grows to approximately 4 feet x 3 feet. Best suited to USDA zones 4 - 8.
Kew Gardens (Ausfence) – Medium-sized (2 ½ inch) flowers with 5 petals. Repeat-flowering. This is an unusual English Rose with abundant single flowers clustered in very large heads somewhat like a hydrangea. Though more like a species hybrid in appearance, it enjoys all the underlying strengths of a David Austin rose and demonstrates the breadth of the collection. The young buds are soft apricot opening to pure white with a hint of soft lemon behind the stamens. The flowers are followed by small red hips, which should be removed to encourage repeat flowering from early summer through the end of the season. It is extremely healthy and completely thornless with bushy, upright growth. Lovely as a flowering hedge, the rose provides masses of white blooms, lending the bush the appearance of being covered with snow. ‘Kew Gardens' was named in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Kew Gardens, the famous Royal Botanical Garden in London. Michael Marriott, technical manager of David Austin Roses, was invited to redesign the historic Rose Garden there. Marriott based his 2008 design upon an original 1848 design by William Nesfield. David Austin Roses provided the replanted collection of English roses, species roses and shrubs. Rosa ‘Kew Gardens' grows to approximately 5 feet x 3 feet. Hardy in USDA zones 5 – 9.
Lady of Shallott (Ausnyson) – Approximately 60 petals. Repeat-flowering. David Austin and his team consider this one of the best roses they have produced, similar in style to the well-loved ‘Pat Austin' but with improved health and garden performance. It blooms with remarkable continuity throughout the season. This is an ideal rose for the inexperienced gardener, and will also be prized by passionate rosarians. The young buds are a rich orange-red and open to form apricot-hued chalice-shaped blooms filled with loosely arranged petals. Each petal has a salmon pink upper side that contrasts beautifully with the attractive golden-yellow reverse side. Its warm tea fragrance has pleasing hints of spiced apple and cloves. The rose quickly forms a large, bushy shrub with slightly arching stems. The mid-green leaves have attractive, slightly bronzed tones when young. Over the season, the later blooms seem to be even more beautiful than the earlier ones. Named for the Tennyson Society, which promotes the work of 19th
century poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. “The Lady of Shalott” was a popular ballad of Tennyson's, inspired by Arthurian legend. Grows to approximately 4 feet x 3½ feet. Hardy in USDA zones 5 – 9. ‘Lady of Shalott' ‘Kew Gardens' ‘Susan Williams-Ellis
The Wedgwood Rose (Ausjosiah) – Approximately 70 petals. Repeat-flowering. A charming old rose-style beauty with medium to large blooms and soft rose pink petals that have a delicate, gossamer-like quality. The flowers have a lovely fruity fragrance on the outer petals, with a clove-like scent at the center. Its ample foliage is dark green and glossy. This rose particularly excels when trained as a climber but is also lovely as a flowering shrub. The bush is exceptionally robust with luxuriant, healthy foliage, sending up plentiful shoots from the base to form a large arching shrub that trains readily on trellises and arches to climb upright or in arching or fanned positions. Named for the famous English pottery company founded by Josiah Wedgwood in 1759. Grows to approximately 5 feet x 5 feet. Will grow to 10 feet high as a climber. Hardy in USDA zones 5 – 9. ‘The Wedgwood Rose'
Tam o' Shanter (Auscerise) – Approximately 25 petals. Repeat-flowering. Its deep cerise, rosette-shaped flowers are loosely formed, held on long, gracefully arching branches that bear blooms along the full length as species rose branches do. It has a light, fruity fragrance. Its growth habit is upright and arching. The full, broad bush is healthy and robust and is equally at home in an informal garden or in a mixed border. It was named to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Tam o' Shanter is the hero of one of Burns' best-known poems, though today the name is most commonly associated with a type of Scottish hat. In the poem, Tam stays too long at the tavern on market day. During his ride home through spooky country he encounters a band of beguiling witches. Filled with liquid courage he shouts out at them and is pursued, leaping to safety just in time, but not before the most beautiful witch snatches off his horse's tail. Grows to 6 feet x 5 feet. Hardy in USDA zones 5 – 9. ‘Tam o' Shanter'
FYI:
U.S. gardeners will find David Austin Roses via mail order and from garden retailers coast-to-coast. The U.S. mail-order collection features more than 200 bare root roses, including 120 Austin-bred English Roses. Bare root roses are budded onto Dr. Huey rootstock. New as of 2011, ten varieties are additionally offered as own root roses.
Austin also offers a collection of 20 top varieties as containerized roses, available by mail-order year-round. Lovely as gifts, the containerized roses arrive in premium pots, attractive boxes, fully leafed-out and in bud or bloom during the summer months or pruned back ready to plant.
Locally, more than 80 varieties of Austin's Fragrant English Roses are available to American gardeners now as potted roses via fine garden retailers coast-to-coast, as a result of David Austin's restructured U.S. distribution system.
All David Austin roses sold in the USA are specially selected for American growing conditions and climate zones. All are grown and shipped within the USA.
David Austin's award-winning catalog,
The Handbook of Roses, is a rose lovers' delight with more than 100 pages of color illustrations. The catalog is available at no charge upon request from:
www.davidaustinroses.com, or by calling 800-328-8893, or by writing David Austin Roses Limited, 15059 State Highway 64 West, Tyler, Texas 75704.