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Environment and landscape
Below, Constance Spry. Top, from left, the Kew Gardens rose has only five petals and was created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the eponymous gardens; the Lady of Shalott owes her name to the Lady saved from a spell by Sir Lancelot in a poem by Lord Tennyson: its salmon pink petals turn golden yellow on the reverse; the Renaissance Garden.
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years technical manager at David Austin Roses. “The market at the time had been taken over by the modern roses – hybrid teas and floribundas – characterised by repeat flowering and a wider colour range. That’s when he had the intuition that if he could cross the two groups he could get the best of both worlds. David Austin created a new hybrid that had the beautiful flowers, the wonderful fragrance and the charm of the Old Roses and the repeat flowering and wide colour range of the modern roses, and he named them English Roses.” “The first turning point was in the early 60s. My father was still a hobby breeder when he brought two of his new varieties, one of which was Constance Spry, to Graham Stuart Thomas, the number one expert in Britain on old-fashioned roses. Graham Thomas thought they were fantastic roses and told him that he would sell them at his own nursery,” explains David J.C. Austin, managing director of David Austin Roses. “This was an enormous boost to his confidence and he devoted the next ten years to breeding the first repeat flowerer. But in 1970, when he succeeded, the industry was still revolving around the hybrid tea and no one in the trade was interested in this new form of Old Rose. He understood that the only way to connect with the customers was to set up his own nursery, where he could sell his English Roses. And in fact, from the very early days, the emotional reaction from the public has been amazing. The second turning point came after another ten years, in 1983, at his first Chelsea Flower Show where the repeat-flowering English
Rose Graham Thomas and Mary Rose were introduced. That’s when it really took off. Thirty years on the Graham Thomas rose was voted The World’s Favourite Rose by the World Federation of Rose Societies representing 39 member countries. My father has devoted himself to his roses for seventy years and he’s perhaps even more enthusiastic today than he was when he started, because he can see the endless possibilities.” “When David Austin set about breeding his English Roses he wanted them to be as varied as possible, like the Old Roses. So some of them have only five petals, some 200. The flower shape can be flat, cup, reflexing. Some of the bushes are small, some are tall. Some are arching, some are climbers and some are upright.” What they all have in common is that they produce a profusion of blooms, from the bottom to the very top of the plant - even those varieties that can be grown as climbers. “English Roses cover the whole colour range - white, pink, red, purple, yellow, apricot – and they all have a fragrance. When you smell a rose it is always good to smell at least two or three different flowers. You have to have an open mind, a lot of people would just distractedly smell one flower, almost as if embarrassed to do it because they’re not experts,” explains Michael Marriott. In the course of 40 years, David C.H. Austin introduced 200 different new varieties, and in the beautifully landscaped gardens at the Albrighton headquarters - an estate that stretches over 50 hectares and houses the gardens, the nursery and the greenhouses - visitors can admire and smell at least 80 of them.
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