HOW DAVID BREEDS HIS ROSES

When farmer’s son David Austin began breeding roses in the mid-1940s, his friends and family told him to forget about flowers and concentrate on agriculture. Though he dreamed of creating roses with the charm and fragrance of historic species such as albas, damasks and gallicas, combined with the repeat-flowering qualities and colour range of more modern roses like hybrid teas, no one believed he could ever make any money out of it.

Today, David Austin is revered as one of the heroes of British horticulture. The roses he breeds are correctly called ‘English Roses’, but as everyone calls them ‘David Austin Roses’ his name is recognised by gardeners all over the world. His roses are especially popular in Japan and America, where his cut flowers are in demand for bridal bouquets. If you grow roses, the chances are you have one of his shrubs or climbers in your garden – perhaps the beautiful yellow ‘Golden Celebration’, or pale pink ‘Gentle Hermione’, or dark red ‘Munstead Wood’.

David turned 90 in February, and he and another famous nonagenarian, the Queen, had a chat at Chelsea Flower Show this year. ‘She’s a few months younger than me but walks a lot better,’ he says, gesturing at his walking stick. However, he’s still running the business; his son, David Junior, is managing director and grandson Richard is head of marketing. David’s daughter Claire has her own well-known nursery specialising in irises and peonies, while his other son, Jim, is a university professor.

The first English Rose to be launched commercially was ‘Constance Spry’, in 1961. This has sumptuous, highly fragrant blooms but just one flush of flowers. It wasn’t until 1969 that David came up with a series of roses, including ‘Wife of Bath’ and ‘Canterbury’, which had the look and scent of an old-fashioned rose and were ‘remontant’: the technical term for a repeat-flowering rose, one that produces blooms throughout the summer.

More success followed in 1983 with the yellow ‘Graham Thomas’, followed in 1986 by ‘Gertrude Jekyll’, one of the most fragrant Austin roses and regu- Above: David Austin. Above right: a rose garden at his plant centre in Shropshire larly voted one of the nation’s bestloved blooms. He was made an OBE in 2007, and David Austin Roses has won 22 Chelsea Flower Show gold medals.

The process of breeding a rose is a long and arduous one (see box below), and there are roses in the trial fields at David Austin Roses has one of the largest rose breeding programmes in the world, and employs 15 people in its team.

The apricot-coloured ‘Roald Dahl’ rose (left), new this year, was one of 50,000 crosses from 2008. Crossing is a process where the characteristics of two different roses are mixed the company’s headquarters in Shropshire that won’t be on sale until 2023. The vast majority of roses never get that far, as only the strongest varieties make it. ‘Most of these won’t ever be released,’ he says, pointing to the rows and rows of colourful roses in the field. What happens to them? ‘They get dug up and composted,’ he says, laughing at my horrified expression. ‘There’s no point being sentimental!’

Over the years, David Austin has together; it involves pollinating individual flowers, which is done by hand using a paintbrush.

When the rose hips were harvested, this produced 175,000 seeds, each with a unique DNA. Of those seeds, 96,000 germinated and grew into seedlings. In 2009, about 10,000 seedlings went through to the next stage of selection. Over the next seven years, the roses were monitored for beauty, health, fragrance, shape, colour and performance. More and more roses were weeded out until just three varieties were left, one of which was ‘Roald Dahl’. Along with two others, it was launched at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. released over 230 roses. He doesn’t like to choose favourites, but when pressed he says he has a weakness for ‘Claire Austin’. ‘It’s named after my daughter and is an outstanding white rose. But if I had to choose just one, I think pink ‘Olivia Rose Austin’, named after my granddaughter, has to be one of the best I’ve ever bred.’

Isn’t he tempted to retire from the business, after so many years and so many roses? ‘No, I’m just as excited about breeding roses now as I was when I started doing it as a hobby as a 15year- old,’ he says. ‘I think my latest roses are some of the best I’ve ever produced, but they’re not perfect. I want to breed a really good crimson rose, and continue improving the disease resistance of our roses. That’s what drives me on – my love of roses, and knowing there are still better ones to come.’ The David Austin Rose Garden and Plant Centre at Albrighton in Shropshire is open daily, 9am-5pm. Entry free. Roses are sent out by mail order right through the year, and mid- late autumn is the ideal time to plant them. See davidaustinroses.co.uk.

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