Professor Stefan Buczacki ‘SOMBREUIL’
Ramblers passing through our village, as well as neighbours, invariably pause in summer to admire a climbing rose on the low wall at the front of our garden. It’s white with a cream hint, of perfect flattish old rose shape and imbued with a fabulous perfume, and all ask of its name. I explain it’s my true, all-time favourite and is called ‘Sombreuil’, an old French tea rose bred in 1850 by a man named Robert, about whom little seems to be known. It grows well in my light soil and for a 19th century variety, is remarkably disease-free.