David
Austin's English Roses
The 20th
century was dominated by the success of the hybrid tea roses. The
old fashioned roses took a back seat to the hybrid tea craze and were
almost forgotten. Enter David Austin. In the 1950s, Austin, a nurseryman
in Shropshire, England, began to experiment with breeding the old
European roses with the newer modern roses. His intent was to develop
a class of roses that exhibited the charm and character of old roses
with the ability to rebloom like the newer roses. His success has
been tremendous. Although his first introduction, Constance Spry
(1961), was not a repeat bloomer, he pressed on and subsequent experiments
were successful. He issued his first catalog in the late 60s and hasn't
stopped since. Every year newer varieties are introduced and they
just keep getting more impressive.
The English
roses are mostly shrub roses although some can be trained as climbers.
Although Austin himself claims that his roses are disease resistant,
this is not really true. I have found that many of them are highly
susceptible to blackspot. Some are more disease resistant than others
and climate plays a major factor in this. This is a beautiful class
of roses though and well worth experimenting with. My collection is
quite small but every year I find myself wanting to try more of them.
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