David Austin Roses Releases New Varieties
October 11, 2010 
David Austin’s English Rose line now includes five additional roses: 1) pure white ‘Susan Williams-Ellis’; 2) white species-look ‘Kew Gardens’; 3) lovely apricot ‘Lady of Shalott’; 4) rose-pink ‘The Wedgwood Rose’; and 5) deep-cerise ‘Tam o’ Shanter’.
Each rose features full, fragrant old-fashioned flowers and full bushes that are an Austin hallmark. They are well-suited to use as long-flowering landscape shrubs, as climbing roses or in beds, borders or large pots.
This repeat-flowering rose is a sport of Austin’s popular pink rose, ‘The Mayflower,’ which was introduced in 2001. It shares the vigorous disease resistance of the pink rose. Like its parent, it flowers very early in the season–two to three weeks before most other roses–and continues to bloom nearly non-stop until harder frosts. This rose is an excellent performer in most areas of the U.S., including cooler areas. The fragrance is strong and old rose in character. Rosa ‘Susan Williams-Ellis’ grows to approximately 4 feet by 3 feet and is best suited to USDA zones 4 to 8.
This unusual English Rose has abundant single flowers clustered in very large heads, somewhat like a hydrangea. Young buds are soft apricot opening to pure white with a hint of soft lemon behind the stamens. The flowers are followed by small red hips, which should be removed to encourage repeat flowering from early summer through the end of the season. It is extremely healthy and completely thornless with bushy, upright growth and works well as a flowering hedge, providing masses of white blooms. It is repeat flowering with medium-sized (2 ½ inch) flowers with five petals. It grows to approximately 5 feet by 3 feet and is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9.
This repeat-flowering rose with approximately 60 petals is similar in style to the ‘Pat Austin’ but with improved health and garden performance. It blooms with remarkable continuity throughout the season. Young buds are a rich orange-red and open to form apricot-hued chalice-shaped blooms filled with loosely arranged petals. Each petal has a salmon pink upper side that contrasts beautifully with the attractive golden yellow reverse side. Its warm tea fragrance has pleasing hints of spiced apple and cloves. The rose quickly forms a large, bushy shrub with slightly arching stems. Mid-green leaves have attractive, slightly bronzed tones when young. Rosa ‘Lady of Shalott’ grows to approximately 4 feet by 3½ feet and is hardy in USDA zones 5–9.
With approximately 70 petals, this repeat-flowering rose has medium to large blooms and soft-rose-pink petals. Flowers have a lovely fruity fragrance on the outer petals, with a clove-like scent at the center. Its ample foliage is dark green and glossy. This rose excels when trained as a climber but is also lovely as a flowering shrub. The bush is robust with luxuriant, healthy foliage, sending up plentiful shoots from the base to form a large arching shrub that trains readily on trellises and arches to climb upright or in arching or fanned positions. Rosa ‘The Wedgwood Rose’ grows to approximately 5 feet by 5 feet and will grow to 10 feet as a climber. It is hardy in USDA zones 5–9.
Deep cerise, rosette-shaped flowers are loosely formed, held on long, gracefully arching branches that bear blooms along the full length. It has a light, fruity fragrance. Its growth habit is upright and arching. The full, broad bush is healthy and robust and is equally at home in an informal garden or in a mixed border. It has approximately 25 petals, is repeat flowering and grows to 6 feet by 5 feet. It is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9.
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