Coming up roses
Our pick of what to plant now
1
ADORABLE
This must-have floribunda rose won Most Fragrant Rose, People’s Choice and a Silver Medal at the 2019 Australian National Rose Trials. The clusters of magnificent double blooms are a rich pink-mauve colour, borne on an upright bush about 80cm high and 50cm wide. The perfume is complex and divine, with notes of lychee and apple.
Treloar Roses; 1300 044 852 or www.treloarroses.com.au.
2
DELTA TIGER
Bred in Queensland, this fragrant hybrid tea rose bears large blooms of yellow and orange stripes and flecks, so that every flower is different. In cooler weather, the colours soften to peachy shades. The long stems are excellent for picking and produce blooms every 6-8 weeks. The 1.3m-tall and wide bush has attractive bronze new leaves and above average vigour. Brindabella Roses; (07) 4696 8440 or www.brindabella-gardens.com.au.
Also Queensland-bred, this is the latest variety in the Blackspot Buster range, which focuses on disease-free and perfumed roses. This modern shrub rose produces rich yellow, multi-petalled blooms that fade to soft lemon. The clusters of flowers repeat every 6-8 weeks and have a true rose fragrance. Good branching gives the 1.2m-tall bush a rounded shape.
Brindabella Roses.
4
GOLDEN BEAUTY
A prolific floribunda rose, it was a Gold Medal winner internationally and at the Australian National Rose Trials in 2018, where it also won People’s Choice. The large clusters of flowers are a spectacular colour, glowing amber gold that doesn’t fade in the heat or dry. They repeat flower on a healthy, compact bush that grows to around 1.5m tall.
Treloar Roses.
5
DESDEMONA
Like all David Austin roses, Desdemona is a romantic charmer that repeat flowers. Pretty peachy-pink buds open to chalice-shaped, full-petalled blooms of palest pink, becoming pure white. They have an intense myrrh fragrance. It’s a compact and healthy grower, about 1.2m tall and 1m wide, with large clusters of flowers over a long period.
David Austin Roses; 0409 889 779 or www.davidaustinroses.co.uk.
6LAVENDER
ICE
This appealing lavender-mauve floribunda rose has large, lightly fragrant blooms in small clusters. The multitude of swirling petals imparts a lovely old-fashioned romance, and it is quick to repeat flower. Because it is particularly compact and low growing, reaching about 50cm tall and wide, it’s an excellent choice for containers or borders. The leathery foliage has good disease resistance.
Knights Roses; (08) 8523 1311 or www.knightsroses.com.au.
7
PRINCESS CLAIRE OF BELGIUM
Deep-pink buds open to sweetly scented, multi-petalled roses of warm pink in this appealing floribunda rose. It won a Silver Medal at the 2019 Australian National Rose Trials. The clusters of blooms are produced from spring through to autumn on an upright, free-flowering plant about 1m tall and 50cm wide. Suitable for large pots and smaller gardens.
Landsdale Rose Gardens; (08) 9302 1111.
8
FLORIANA
Winner of the Best Hybrid Tea Rose and a Silver Medal at the 2019 Australian National Rose Trials, Floriana has pretty blooms of apricot, cream and lemon that are also strongly fragrant.
It’s a compact rose, growing to approximately 90cm tall and 60cm wide, meaning it is suited to pots or smaller garden beds. Landsdale Rose Gardens.
9
JAZZ FESTIVAL
This multi award-winning, compact hybrid tea rose blooms abundantly from spring to late autumn. The flower colour is luminous, softening from ochre orange to coppery pink on long stems that make strikingly beautiful cut flowers. It has a delicate perfume. The 1.2m tall, 90cm wide bush has excellent disease resistance and is suited to pots and beds. It won a Bronze Medal at the Australian National Rose Trials in 2018. Corporate Roses; (08) 8558 6111 or www.corporateroses.com.au.
10
FRIDA KAHLO
This floribunda rose is as colourful and flamboyant as the Mexican artist it is named for. She loved roses and famously said “I paint flowers so they will not die”. The swirling scarlet-andgold striped blooms, each different from the next, have scalloped petals and intensify in colour as they age, adding a red blush as the final touch. They’re produced repeatedly in small clusters that stand out against the glossy dark green foliage. The vigorous, bushy shrub grows about 1.2m tall and wide. Swane’s; (02) 9651 1322 or swanes.com. Order new releases now as they sell out quickly. Bare-root plants ship May-July.