For the love of single roses
With their flat, open blooms – perfect landing pads for bees – and demure beauty, single roses display the sort of charm that creeps up on you quietly, as it has for SOPHIE THOMSON
Discover the seductive charm of single roses with Sophie Thomson’s pick of her 10 favourite varieties
Ilove all roses, but over the years I’ve noticed my taste in roses change. While I used to love the blousy full doubles, I’ve now come to appreciate the simple, elegant beauty of single roses. They don’t have the strongest scent, nor are they the best roses to pick for a vase, but in the garden they have a refined beauty that is quite spectacular in its simplicity and purity of form. Bees agree with me and delight in them, and our buzzy friends can be found scurrying among the stamens in the ‘bowl’ of petals, sporting bright yellow or orange pantaloons of pollen.
One of Australia’s legendary rosarians, the late David Ruston OAM, once commented on my love of single roses, saying, “Gentle people like single roses.” I still smile when I think about his comment, as the reality is I’m one of the least gentle people I know! But I treasure David’s words and take them as a compliment.
Roses thrive in our summer-dry, Mediterranean-like climate near Adelaide, but they grow beautifully in other parts of the country, too. As I travel around Australia, I take great delight in spotting single roses everywhere, from Toowoomba to Tassie, and even over the Ditch in New Zealand.
Here are my 10 favourite single roses, in order, that I grow at home. There are many, many others, and all of them make great garden plants. If you’ve never stopped to appreciate their simple elegance, now is a good time to start!
1 ‘Mutabilis’
This wonderful rose produces medium-sized single flowers that start with bright red buds and open to variable colours, from buff apricot to shades of pink and crimson. It flowers repeatedly and gives the appearance
of a cloud of butterflies wafting above the tall bush. Its foliage is finely cut, and an attractive plum colour when young. One of the things I love about this rose is it doesn’t like to be pruned – so no deadheading, and no pruning in winter either. What a winner! The only thing is you need to have space for a large grower, as it can reach up to 3m high by a similar width.
2 ‘For Your Eyes Only’
This spectacular rose was selected as Rose of the Year 2015 by the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK. It produces clusters of medium-sized to large blooms in coppery apricot, washed yellow and pink, with the obligatory maroon eye, and these fade to almost white with a pink eye. Its arching stems carry glossy, dark green, virtually spotless foliage. Produced by British rose breeder Chris Warner, it grows to about 1.4m high by 1.6m wide. Like many other Warner roses, it is not fussed if you don’t get around to deadheading, and will simply repeat-flower anyway. It makes a great hedging plant.
3 ‘Scabrosa’
Brilliant rosy-cerise single flowers with a delicious fragrance repeat-flower constantly throughout the season on this Rugosa rose. The blooms are followed by beautiful large, round, orange-red rosehips. As with other Rugosa roses, this bush produces leathery, dark green foliage that is disease resistant. Growing to a height of about 1m, it makes an attractive low hedge, especially when in flower.
4 ‘Alba’
The beautiful white flowers on this tough Rugosa rose have a silky texture and a strong scent, with a central boss of delicate golden-yellow stamens. This rose produces a flush of flowers only in spring, with no repeat-flowering, however, its blooms are followed by big, bright cherry-red rosehips. The distinctive dark green foliage on this bush is textured, with a leathery feel, and it grows to about 1.8m high by a similar width.
5 ‘Carabella’
This delightful old-world scented rose produces lovely clusters of small, soft, pink and white single blooms in great abundance. It’s an almost thornless bush that grows to about 1.5m high by 1.5m wide, with fresh-looking, light green leaves. It makes an excellent tall hedge.
6 ‘Golden Wings’
Pale yellow blooms with prominent orange-red stamens feature on this large bush, which reaches about 2m high. ‘White Wings’ produces white flowers of a similar size, with striking reddish-brown stamens, however, the bush is shorter than ‘Golden Wings’ at less than 1m high. Both repeat-flower and their blooms have a soft scent.
7 ‘Bright as a Button’
Masses of bright, fragrant flowers cover this gorgeous disease-resistant rose bred by Chris Warner. Blooms open in a beautiful pink colour to reveal vivid burgundy and gold centres. The plant flowers repeatedly without any need for deadheading, and forms a compact bush about 1m high.
8 ‘ Wild ower’
Flowering prolifically with creamy white blooms flushed with lemon, this old David Austin rose repeat-flowers reliably on a compact, spreading bush about 60cm high by 1m wide.
9 ‘Eye of the Tiger’
A shrub rose from Chris Warner, this distinctive single rose flowers profusely with yellow blooms featuring an unusual red eye. It grows to a height of about 1m by a similar width and is a very healthy plant.
10 ‘Eye Shadow’
This groundcover rose produces a mass of medium-sized, mid-pink flowers with a dark pink eye zone, and the ageing blooms fade nicely. It has dark green, healthy foliage and reaches only about 60cm high, but can spread to 2.5m wide.