Rose Mozart

Gardeners prize ‘Mozart’ for its almost unbroken display of cheerful pink “confetti” flowers, exceptional health, and versatility - it is a very universal rose and can be trained as a shrub or as a small climber. Its ease of culture and winter hardiness make it one of the finest Hybrid Musks, worthy of any collection inspired by the timeless melodies of its namesake.

FLOWERING

This rose variety has a recurrent flowering habit, repeat flushes from early summer through October. The number of blooms per plant during the growing season is profuse, but there are too many to count. With proper pruning and maintenance, gardeners can encourage more regular blooming.

It produces huge pyramidal clusters of flowers, about 20 - 50 blooms together, on the ends of lateral shoots. The clusters create airy clouds of cerise-pink, white-eyed single blooms, with 5–8 petals on each flower. At the center of each flower there are golden stamens which contrast beautifully with the colour of the flowers and attract polinators. As the flower ages the cerise-pink fades to lighter pink and lavender tones, creating an absolutely stunning display of colour and structure, where new blooms are mixed with older blooms in its large clusters. The fragrance is light, sweet, with Musk character but rather subtle compared with many other Hybrid Musk roses, but the profuse flowering makes up for it.

After the profuse flowering abundant rounded orange-scarlet fruits are formed in autumn if not pruned, and they are prized by birds and by the gardeners for their colour, especially in regions with snowy winters where those hips create an eye-catching contrast with the white snow.

PLANT

The rose ‘Mozart’ is classified as a Hybrid Musk rose, it combines the Musk group’s shade-tolerance and health with a graceful, arching growth habit. It forms broad, fountain-shaped shrubs which can be also trained as a small climber on wires or arches. A mature and well-established plant has a height of about 150 - 300 cm (6 - 8 feet) in height and about 150 - 250 cm (5 - 6 feet) in width.

It has long, flexible canes with sparse, thin prickles, the shape of the prickles is hooked downward. There is a normal quantity of the foliage on the plants of this rose variety. The number of leaflets on normal mid-stem leaves varies from 5 to 7, but mostly 7, including the terminal leaflet. The foliage is from medium to dark green and with a slight gloss; foliage stays clean in humid summers and tolerates light shade.

This rose variety combines well with silver Artemisia, blue Nepeta, or white Hydrangea paniculata draping beneath the arching stems. Forms beautiful loose hedges, cottage borders, pillar rose, or looks impeccable as an informal climber; superb for wildlife gardens due to profuse pollen and ornamental hips. ‘Mozart’ performs and blooms with as little as 4 hours of sun per day - which is a hallmark of the Musk group.

It requires rather light pruning, cut back ⅓ of the longest canes in late winter and remove one in five old shoots to ground to keep the plant open. Best grows in full sun or in dappled shade and thrives in fertile, moist yet well-drained loam soil.

The rose variety ‘Mozart’ is very disease resistant to most common rose diseases, in particular it is resistant to mildew, blackspot and rust under normal growing conditions. The pest resistance has not been tested yet.

Rose variety is recommended for growing in climate conditions similar to USDA 5 and requires winter protection in more colder climates.

Named after the German composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

Rose ‘Mozart’ is a free-flowering Hybrid Musk shrub raised by the German rosarian Peter Lambert and introduced in 1936 – 1937. This rose variety is a result of cross poilination of the Hybrid Musk rose ’Robin Hood’ with a Hybrid Tea rose ’Rote Pharisäer’. The resulting seedling of ‘Mozart’ was selected among the others 1936 and received its commercial release in 1937 in Germany. This rose is a diploid cultivar (2n = 14).

‘Mozart’ has been used repeatedly in modern breeding for its disease resistance and airy panicles. A notable sport is ‘Red Mozart’, discovered in Germany; patent status also unrecorded.

USDA 5