As with David Austin English Bush roses, these Shrub and Climbing varieties are characterised by the shape of their blooms — the quartered, highly perfumed blooms of old roses. These sumptuous blooms, combined with the graceful growth habits of Shrubs and Climbers, make this category of roses particularly appealing.

These varieties grow between 1,5 m and 3 m high when self‑supporting, but long climbing shoots can be trained to a height of 5 m on walls, pillars and pergolas. Since they willingly push out basal shoots, winter pruning consists of removing older stems from the centre. Basal stems often grow to a length of 2 m and more. They can be pruned, or if left unshortened, they will arch gracefully and carry blooms along their entire length.

Once spring flowering is over, the main stems can be cut back to about 1.2 m, which will encourage a new flush of blooms. Alternatively, the stems can be shortened in winter, which will increase the length of the flowering stems and size ofthe blooms. Read the rest of this entry »

picaninni

Des Wright, past president of the Federation of Rose Societies of S A, and an amateur rose breeder, created this new Miniature rose. The blend was shrewdly composed, and ‘Picaninni’ inherited the super- healthy, glossy foliage and sweet fragrance of ‘Bella Rosa’ with the bright orange-yellow tones of ‘Little Jackie’. The truly miniaturised blooms are of superb exhibition shape. The plant grows vigorously into a fairly substantial bush and is covered with pickable stems

pierine

A perfect Miniature companion for the Hybrid Tea, ‘Esther Geldenhuys’. Urn- shaped, pointed buds open into deep, coral-pink blooms of classic rose shape. These are carried on long stems and make superb little cut flowers for table arrangements. The bushes are very vigorous and dense, growing to about 60 cm high and wide, and always decorated with masses of pickable blooms. Read the rest of this entry »