The Beauty of Roses
Member, Gail Babnew, shares her love of roses during the pandemic. The rose photo heading the page and the photos of roses in the gallery below are all credited to Gail.
The Perfect Rose, by Gail Babnew
At the end of a country lane in Albrighton, England, on the farm where he grew up, David Charles Henshaw Austin accomplished what no horticulturist before him had achieved. Austin created a unique breed of roses, now grown throughout the world and recognized as “English roses.” Over the past 60 years, David Austin Roses, Ltd. has introduced nearly 250 new cultivars, successfully combining full petaled flowers, shrubby growth habits and the intoxicating fragrances of “old roses,” the French gallicas and damasks, with the best attributes of modern floribunda and hybrid tea roses including repeat flowering and a diverse color palette. Born February 16, 1926, David started breeding roses in the 1940’s. One of his first crosses involved a gallica rose, ‘Belle Isis’ with a floribunda, ‘Dainty Maid’ resulting in seedlings producing a large, fragrant flower which David named ‘Constance Spry.’ By the 1960’s Austin had established his own nursery and three outstanding roses, ‘Graham Thomas,’ ‘Heritage,’ and ‘Mary Rose’ provided the impetus for a major breakthrough in 1983, transforming the company from a mail order nursery to one of the largest rose breeding businesses in the world.
Every year at Albrighton, rose hips are harvested in the fall and 40,000 crosses are created. Cross-pollination is accomplished by hand, with a paintbrush, in the greenhouses from April to early July. The process results in about 350,000 seedlings, each with a unique DNA, with only a few thousand seedlings passing through to the next stage of the selection process. Over the next ten years, these roses will be monitored for appearance, fragrance, shape, color, repeat blooming, hardiness and disease resistance. Ultimately, only two to four new varieties will be brought to market each year.
David Austin roses were first introduced in the United States about twenty-seven years ago. Every January, I eagerly await the unveiling of the new Austin varieties available to the U.S. market for the coming spring so I can add them to my garden. I have incorporated all four English rose classifications: Old Rose hybrids with the appearance and fragrance of their gallica and damask parents; the Leander Group, which are larger shrubs often with Rosa wichurana (rambling rose) in their breeding; English Musk roses, based on Iceberg and Noisette roses, with silky flowers in pastel shades; and English Alba hybrids which are leafy and tall, with the lightness of wild roses, and are only available in shades of pink. The natural informal structure of an English rose shrub lends itself for use in perennial borders, formal gardens, and as mounding ground covers. English roses can fill a whole garden, create a hedge, form a feature, or complement walls, climb arches, and adorn pergolas. Austin roses tend to be hardy in the cold, grow exceptionally well in the heat, and can be pruned in a variety of size and shapes, generally thriving in all seasons without the use of chemicals.
English roses distinguish themselves in their unique flower forms and fragrance as well as in their versatile growth habits. The flowers have old-fashioned cupped petals, intoxicating fragrance and excellent repeat flowering. Their romantic scents are each unique, being derived from up to three hundred different oils with two or three creating the dominant scent. Most English roses inherit layered scents of old rose, tea, musk, myrrh or fruit with some adding notes of cucumber, lemon, honey, or blackberry. Fragrance was David Austin’s hallmark and he often said, “fragrance is the other half of the beauty of a rose.” Always striving to create the perfect rose, along the way he won innumerable awards, was honored with twenty-five Royal Horticulture Society gold medals and was named to the “Order of the British Empire” (OBE) for his service to horticulture.
Austin’s passionate dedication for over half a century to breeding English roses culminated in the introduction of nearly 250 new cultivars while contributing to the preservation of old rose varieties. The firm consistently shared their knowledge of rose culture and breeding with the public and influenced a renewed interest in the use of roses in twenty first century gardens. Although David C.H. Austin passed away in December 2018, his son, David J.C. Austin and grandson, Richard, continue a multigenerational dedication to rose culture through the propagation of new English roses and David C. H. Austin’s lifelong mission to create “the perfect rose.”
At the end of a country lane in Albrighton, England, on the farm where he grew up, David Charles Henshaw Austin accomplished what no horticulturist before him had achieved. Austin created a unique breed of roses, now grown throughout the world and recognized as “English roses.” Over the past 60 years, David Austin Roses, Ltd. has introduced nearly 250 new cultivars, successfully combining full petaled flowers, shrubby growth habits and the intoxicating fragrances of “old roses,” the French gallicas and damasks, with the best attributes of modern floribunda and hybrid tea roses including repeat flowering and a diverse color palette. Born February 16, 1926, David started breeding roses in the 1940’s. One of his first crosses involved a gallica rose, ‘Belle Isis’ with a floribunda, ‘Dainty Maid’ resulting in seedlings producing a large, fragrant flower which David named ‘Constance Spry.’ By the 1960’s Austin had established his own nursery and three outstanding roses, ‘Graham Thomas,’ ‘Heritage,’ and ‘Mary Rose’ provided the impetus for a major breakthrough in 1983, transforming the company from a mail order nursery to one of the largest rose breeding businesses in the world.
Every year at Albrighton, rose hips are harvested in the fall and 40,000 crosses are created. Cross-pollination is accomplished by hand, with a paintbrush, in the greenhouses from April to early July. The process results in about 350,000 seedlings, each with a unique DNA, with only a few thousand seedlings passing through to the next stage of the selection process. Over the next ten years, these roses will be monitored for appearance, fragrance, shape, color, repeat blooming, hardiness and disease resistance. Ultimately, only two to four new varieties will be brought to market each year.
David Austin roses were first introduced in the United States about twenty-seven years ago. Every January, I eagerly await the unveiling of the new Austin varieties available to the U.S. market for the coming spring so I can add them to my garden. I have incorporated all four English rose classifications: Old Rose hybrids with the appearance and fragrance of their gallica and damask parents; the Leander Group, which are larger shrubs often with Rosa wichurana (rambling rose) in their breeding; English Musk roses, based on Iceberg and Noisette roses, with silky flowers in pastel shades; and English Alba hybrids which are leafy and tall, with the lightness of wild roses, and are only available in shades of pink. The natural informal structure of an English rose shrub lends itself for use in perennial borders, formal gardens, and as mounding ground covers. English roses can fill a whole garden, create a hedge, form a feature, or complement walls, climb arches, and adorn pergolas. Austin roses tend to be hardy in the cold, grow exceptionally well in the heat, and can be pruned in a variety of size and shapes, generally thriving in all seasons without the use of chemicals.
English roses distinguish themselves in their unique flower forms and fragrance as well as in their versatile growth habits. The flowers have old-fashioned cupped petals, intoxicating fragrance and excellent repeat flowering. Their romantic scents are each unique, being derived from up to three hundred different oils with two or three creating the dominant scent. Most English roses inherit layered scents of old rose, tea, musk, myrrh or fruit with some adding notes of cucumber, lemon, honey, or blackberry. Fragrance was David Austin’s hallmark and he often said, “fragrance is the other half of the beauty of a rose.” Always striving to create the perfect rose, along the way he won innumerable awards, was honored with twenty-five Royal Horticulture Society gold medals and was named to the “Order of the British Empire” (OBE) for his service to horticulture.
Austin’s passionate dedication for over half a century to breeding English roses culminated in the introduction of nearly 250 new cultivars while contributing to the preservation of old rose varieties. The firm consistently shared their knowledge of rose culture and breeding with the public and influenced a renewed interest in the use of roses in twenty first century gardens. Although David C.H. Austin passed away in December 2018, his son, David J.C. Austin and grandson, Richard, continue a multigenerational dedication to rose culture through the propagation of new English roses and David C. H. Austin’s lifelong mission to create “the perfect rose.”
MARCH BLOOMS - Tiny wonders emerge
A Walk of Discovery in February - Looking at the wonders around us
Holiday Traditions During the Pandemic
A Fall Pandemic Hike in the Shenandoah National Park
Taking time to look closely at your surroundings
can reveal wonders small and large.
Taking time to look closely at your surroundings
can reveal wonders small and large.
Moments in Members' Gardens
A VIRTUAL TOUR OF A DOLLEY MADISON GARDEN CLUB GARDEN
Dolley Madison Garden Club President, Carla Passarello, invites you to visit her garden - virtually - and see how we are staying connected during the pandemic.
Dolley Madison Garden Club Community Projects committee members (and an honorary member)
tidy up Taylor Park in Orange, VA during the pandemic.
tidy up Taylor Park in Orange, VA during the pandemic.
Click on the daffodil to go to the
Dolley Madison Garden Club 2020 Virtual Daffodil Show.
You can look at all the entries and see the award winners from our very first virtual flower show.
Dolley Madison Garden Club 2020 Virtual Daffodil Show.
You can look at all the entries and see the award winners from our very first virtual flower show.
May Day Flowers for Essential Workers
Members say Thank You to all Essential Workers by sharing May Day Flowers from their homes.
Members say Thank You to all Essential Workers by sharing May Day Flowers from their homes.
Dolley Madison Garden Club President, Carla Passarello, shared a fun and thoughtful project idea for May Day from Peggy Rust, President of FLGC in Zone VII, to create May Day baskets or arrangements for essential workers.
DMGC members created a few and hung them to be enjoyed.
DMGC members created a few and hung them to be enjoyed.
MEMBER SELFIES IN THE GARDEN
Stay at home orders are giving our members extra time to spend in their gardens.
Interesting gardening viewing - A member recommends spending time with English gardener, Monty Don. He has gardening tips and more on his website. Monty Don. Don is a leading UK garden writer and broadcaster, and produced several gardening series in countries such as Italy, Japan, and America.
Email: dmgc.pr.comm@gmail.com
Website: www.dmgcvirginia.org Our Club Facebook page: @DolleyMadisonGardenClub Our Historic Garden Week Facebook page: @HGWOofVA Follow us on Instagram @historicgardenweekorangeva |
© Dolley Madison Garden Club
All photos/images/text and contents are copyrighted . All Rights Reserved P.O. Box 1017 Orange, VA 22960 |