Rose Benjamin Britten

This rose stands out from others in its group due to its unique character and colour. It is a bushy shrub with somewhat random, intertwining growth, with quite thin but very thorny stems and medium sized leaves with bronze shades. The flowers are light, very double, often with a button eye. They display a beautiful mix of orange red and pink, especially striking when cut for indoor arrangements.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIETY

The detailed description of rose variety ‘Benjamin Britten’ is provided with color descriptions using terminology in accordance with The Royal Horticultural Society (London) Colour Chart (2001), except where ordinary dictionary significance of color is indicated.

FLOWERING

Rose ‘Benjamin Britten’ has good, recurrent blooming habit, flowers from summer until the frosts. The number of blooms per plant during the growing season is profuse, they are simply too many to count.

Flower bud:

The flower buds are medium sized. The bud form is pointed ovoid. When sepals first divide, bud color is deep pink red. When half blown, the upper sides of the petals are deep pink red; and the lower sides of the petals are lighter pink red with silver and purple undertones.

The sepals have medium green colour with dark purple red blush where exposed to bright sunlight. The surface texture is slightly rough on appendaged sepals but smooth underneath. There are 3 normally appendaged sepals and there are 2 unappendaged sepals with hairy edges.

The receptacle is medium green with dark purple red blush where exposed to bright sunlight. The receptacle is smooth, rounded, rather small in size.

The peduncle is medium long, stiff and strong, averaging about 5 -6 cm. The surface is rough, and very prickly. The colour is bronzy purple green with dark purple red overlay.

Bloom:

The flowers are medium sized, the average open size is about 7 cm (3 inches). They are usually borne in small clusters of up to 4 - 5 blooms, umbrella-shapes, or more rarely singly. The flowering stems are strong, slightly arching, with an average length of about 50 to 60 cm (20-24 inches).

When first open, the flowers have deep cupped shape. As the flower fully opens the shape flattens at the top and remains rounded at the bottom, becomes more of the cupped rosette shaped, often with a button eye. The flowers are very double, the number of petals under normal conditions is about 60 - 65 on average.

The colour of the upper sides of the petals are deep red pink with an orange-red glow when just open. The reverse sides of the petals have more purple pink shades at outer ends blending to light grayish purple closer to the base. The base of each petal has a small yellow colour spot with white tip. The variegations is not observed on the flowers of this variety.

The general tonality at the end of the first day is deep pink red with orange undertones. At the end of the third day the colour becomes much paler, pink red with more purple pink undertones.

Petals:

The texture of the petals is smooth, the shape is rounded, more of the heart shaped, the edges are slightly quilled. There are also present petaloids in the center, they are usually few and small.

Average good petals fall reasonably easily to leave a tidy looking rose but not quite as quickly as desired.

The petals last on a plant fairly long, about 7 days under normal growing conditions, as a cut flower – not tested.

Fragrance:

The fragrance of ‘Benjamin Britten’ is moderate, with fruity character.

Reproductive parts:

PLANT

This rose variety has very vigorous and strong growth habit. Forms large upright, slightly rounded, arching and bushy plant, with branches often intertwining. The mature and well established plant can easily reach the height of about 120 - 180 cm and the width of 90 to 125 cm.

Due to its attractive bush shape and growth habit can have wide spectrum of usage in landscaping design: from rose borders and mix borders, to rose hedges and is suitable for parks.

Foliage:

The foliage is very healthy, the young leaves have dark bronze-purple-green colour and age to dark green colour with bronze shades. They are medium sized, semi-glossy, normally have 5-7 leaflets.

Leaflets:

The shape of the leaflets is ovate, slightly acuminate and pointed. The edges are serrated, the type of serration is single and small. Often the young leaves have prominent dark red purple edges.

Wood:

The new wood has deep green colour with dark purple-red intonations, the bark is smooth. The adult wood is deep green, the bark is smooth with some rough patches.

Prickles:

The stems are pretty well armed with prickles. They are medium sized and their colour ranges from dark purple red when young to reddish brown when mature.

Small prickles:

There are a large number of small prickles on the main canes and on the lateral from the main canes. The colour of the small prickles is similar to the colour of the larger prickles, and is dark purple red when young prickles and matures to reddish brown.

Disease resistance:

The variety showed good disease resistance in a wide range of climates. It is very resistant to blackspot, botrytis and rust. In more wet and colder seasons is very slightly susceptible to mildew.

The cold hardiness is good, recommended for growing in climates similar to USDA 5 and warmer.

Named in honor of the renowned English composer, conductor, and performer, this individual is celebrated for his significant contributions to music. His works include expansive symphonic scores, songs, and choral pieces.

English Shrub Roses

Australia - Certificate of Merit, Australian National Rose Trials, 2005.

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

The rose plant was bred at Albrighton, Nr. Wolverhampton, The UK and was received by cross pollination of two parent plants:

• Female parent (seed parent) – ‘Ausfather’ / ‘Charles Austin’ an English shrub rose by David Austin, 1973 .

• Male parent (pollen parent) – unnamed and unpatented rose seedling.

COMPARISON WITH PARENTS

‘Ausencart’ / ‘Benjamin Britten’ can be easily distinguished from its parent as it has medium sized, deep cupped flowers of deep red-pink colour compared with the rich apricot-yellow cupped rosette flowers of ‘Auspishus’ / ‘Charles Austin’. Also ‘Ausencart’ / ‘Benjamin Britten’ has smaller darker green leaves and very thorny stems comparing to much lighter leaves of ‘Auspishus’ / ‘Charles Austin’, who also has very few prickles.

COMPARISON WITH THE CLOSEST COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE CULTIVAR

‘Ausencart’ / ‘Benjamin Britten’ among other commercially available rose cultivars has in common with the rose variety ‘Auscrim’ / ‘L. D. Braithwaite’ by Sr. David Austin , whose flowers are much larger and fuller, and have deep cerise colour and cupped to flat flower form.

USDA 5