Rose England's Rose

The flowers begin as a delicate apricot, soft creamy yellow, a particularly appealing and gradually fade to buff almost ivory, with white outer petals. Occasionally the blooms have a charming button eye or an imbricated form reminiscent of a camellia, but the abundant petals are always neatly arranged in a light cup shape, with deeper shades subtly reflected on the darker petals reverse. Has an attractive, bushy and upright plant with decorative, dark green foliage.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIETY

Throughout this description of the rose variety 'England's Rose' is provided with color descriptions using terminology of the The Colour Chart of The Royal Horticultural Society, except where common terms of color definition are employed. Phenotypic expression may vary with environmental, cultural and climatic conditions, as well as differences in conditions of light and soil.

FLOWERING

This rose variety has a recurrent flowering habit. Blooms in flushes with short breaks from summer until frosts. The number of blooms per plant during the growing season is profuse, but there are too many to count.

Flower bud:

The flower buds of 'England's Rose' rose variety are medium sized, about 1.9 cm long and 1.9 cm in diameter when the petals start to unfurl. The bud form is broad based and pointed. When the sepals first divide, the bud color is light yellow (Group 11B). When bud is quarter open the upper portion of a petal is light yellow (Group 8D), the middle portion is light yellow (Group 8C) with a base spot of medium yellow (Group 8B). When half open, the upper sides of the petals are light yellow (Group 8D) and medium yellow (Group 12B) in veins and the lower sides of the petals are light yellow orange (Group 19B).

The shape of the sepals is lanceolate, the surface texture is smooth on the upper surface and smooth on the lower surface. The colour on the upper surface is medium green (Group 144A) with reddish tinge of brown red (Group 180A). There are 3 normally appendaged sepals and there are 2 unappendaged sepals with hairy edges.

The receptacle is medium green (Group 144A), funnel shaped, slender and has a smooth surface. The size of the receptacle is medium, about 0.6 cm long and about 1.2 cm in diameter.

The peduncle is medium, averaging to about 5 cm in length, erect and smooth when young, but quickly develops fine prickles. The colour of the peduncle is light green (Group 144B).

Bloom:

The flowers are medium-sized, the average diameter of the open flower is about 6 cm. When first open, the flower form is cupped, the flower form persists until the end, outer petals curl back. Flowers are very full, the number of petals under normal conditions is 118. They are born in small clusters of 4 - 14 blooms together, having a rounded shape. The flowering stem has normal strength, short, of about 20 cm long.

The upper sides of the petals is white (Group 155D) on the outer portion, light yellow (Group 4D) in the middle portion and medium yellow (Group 12B) on the bottom portion. The reverse sides of the petals are white (Group 155D) with paler white at the base (Group 155A). The major color on the upper side is white (Group 155A) on the outer petals, and light yellow (Group 8D) on the inner petals.

The general tonality at the end of the first day is light orange pink (Group 27A), at the end of the third day the general tonality becomes lighter, light orange pink (Group 27D). Later the colour fades to white.

Petals:

The texture of the petals is thin and the surface is smooth; the shape of the petals is round. The form of the outer petals edges is slightly quilled and towards the center of flowers they are heavily quilled. The arrangement of the petals is irregular.

The petals of this rose variety normally hang on and dry. Under normal climate conditions the petals fade rather shortly, on the plant they last for about 2-3 days, as a cut flower their lastingness is about 2 days.

Fragrance:

The fragrance of the rose 'England's Rose' is moderate, of a Tea character with fruity notes.

Reproductive parts:

There are few stamens on the flowers of this rose variety, they are mixed with petaloids.

The anthers have medium yellow orange colour (Group 13B).

The colour of the filaments is medium yellow (Group 7A).

The pollen is dark yellow (Group 13A).

The colour of the styles is light green (Group 149D).

Stigma are medium yellow (Group 3C).

The hips of this rose variety have not been observed yet.

PLANT

The rose variety 'England's Rose' is classified as a Shrub rose and is part of David Austin’s English Shrub Roses collection. The growth character is moderately vigorous, bushy and upright. Forms upright and compact plant. Mature and well-established plant has a height of about 105 - 120 cm and the width of about 75 - 90 cm.

Foliage:

There is a normal quantity of the foliage on the plants of this rose variety. The number of leaflets on normal mid-stem leaves is 5 on average. The foliage is medium sized, about 11.5 - 15.6 cm long and about 11.5 - 15 cm wide.

The colour of the juvenile foliage on the upper side is dark brown green (Group 146A) overlayed with dark brown (Group 187A) especially on edges while the lower side is medium brown green (Group 139C). The mature foliage on the upper side is medium brown green (Group 137C) and on the lower side is medium brown green (Group 137C).

Leaflets:

The shape of the leaflets is elliptic, the surface texture of the leaflets is leathery, semi-glossy. The edges are serrated, the type of serration is single and small.

The petiole has light green colour (Group 145A), has a smooth, with prickles surface texture. The petiole rachis is light green (Group 145A).

The colour of the auricle is .

The stipules are 1.9 cm long, have light green colour (Group 145A).

Wood:

The new wood of this rose variety has dark brown green colour (Group 146B) with dark brown purple (Group 183B) blush, the bark is smooth. The mature wood is dark brown green (Group 137B), the bark remains smooth.

Prickles:

There are ordinary quantities of prickles present on the main canes from base and on the laterals from main canes, they are evenly distributed up the stem. The shape of the prickles is concave. The colour of the young prickles is medium brown purple (Group 181A) while the mature prickles have dark brown colour (Group 200D).

Small prickles:

There are no small prickles on the main canes of this rose, and on the laterals from the main canes of this rose variety there are few prickles. They have the same colour as the mature prickles.

Disease resistance:

The rose variety 'England's Rose' has good resistance to mildew and to rust under normal growing conditions. The variety is somewhat susceptible to blackspot.

Rose variety is recommended for growing in climate conditions similar to USDA 6 and requires winter protection in more colder climates.

The Royal National Rose Society of Great Britain sponsored this rose when it was first issued: it was intended as one of a series of branded roses to commemorate Diana, Princess of Wales.

English Shrub Roses

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

Rose variety ‘Ausrace’ / 'England's Rose' originated by David Austin by crossing the variety ‘Ausmas’ / ‘Graham Thomas’ with the rose variety ‘Ausblush’ / ‘Heritage’.

BACKGROUND OF THE VARIETY

The primary objective of this rose variety breeding was to create a new rose variety with a strongly-growing plant with blooms of an old-fashioned shape that repeat flowers well.

SUMMARY OF THE VARIETY

The objective was achieved, along with other important improvements, and this rose variety incorporated the following unique combination of characteristics:

 Fresh tea-scented fragrance;

 Attractive, bushy growth;

 Disease-resistant;

 Perfectly rounded, full-petalled flowers of a soft, creamy yellow that fades to ivory;

Asexual reproduction of this variety by budding showed that the foregoing and all other characteristics and distinctions came true to form, established and transmitted through the succeeding propagations.

COMPARISON WITH PARENTS

The ‘Ausrace’ / ‘England's Rose’ may be distinguished from its seed parent, by the following combination of characteristics:

 ‘Ausrace’ / ‘England's Rose’ has rounded, full-petalled flowers of a soft, creamy yellow that fades to ivory and much smaller plant while the seed parent ‘Ausmas’ / ‘Graham Thomas’ has deep yellow cupped flowers with less petals and forms very large plant.

The ‘Ausrace’ / ‘England's Rose’ may be distinguished from its pollen parent by the following combination of characteristics:

 The pollen parent ‘Ausblush’ / ‘Heritage’ has soft pink deeply cupped flowers with fewer petals and forms large shrub while ‘Ausrace’ / ‘England's Rose’ has smaller plant and much fuller soft, creamy yellow that fades to ivory.

USDA 6