Rose The Alexandra Rose

A graceful departure from David Austin’s fuller-petalled English Roses, ‘The Alexandra Rose’ is a dainty, single-flowered shrub rose that blends the light elegance of wild species with the garden-worthy reliability of modern hybrids. This variety brings a fresh, airy presence to the garden, flowering freely from late spring to autumn with minimal interruption. While not classically English in appearance, its ancestry, descending from ‘Shropshire Lass’, with deep ties to the Alba group, imparts a uniquely refined, naturalistic beauty, enhanced by its arching form, silvery-green foliage, and continuous soft-flowered sprays.

FLOWERING

This rose variety has a recurrent flowering habit. Blooms in flushes with short breaks from summer until frosts, the generous repeat-flowering nature ensures that ‘The Alexandra Rose’ often performs multiple full flushes, with scattered blossoms continuing well into autumn. The number of blooms per plant during the growing season is profuse, but there are too many to count.

Blooms are single, with just five coppery-pink petals, which fade softly through salmon and blush pink to nearly white. Each flower opens to reveal a creamy yellow eye, surrounded by a prominent boss of golden stamens and red-gold stigmas, lending the plant a wild-rose charm. The buds when they start to open have yellow to orange colour, often in large, terminal clusters of 3 - 20 blooms together, and are accentuated by long, foliate sepals, highly reminiscent of Rosa canina.

Each flower measures around 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter and is held on twiggy, slender stems that sway with the breeze, contributing to its light and romantic garden effect. The fragrance is light, with a hint of musk, sufficient to be noticed but never overpowering.

PLANT

Rose variety ‘The Alexandra Rose’ is classified as a Shrub rose and is part of David Austin’s English Shrub Roses collection. It forms a tall, slender shrub with a gentle arching habit, reaching 180 - 240 cm (6 - 8 feet) in height and around 120 - 150 cm (4 - 5 feet) in spread depending on climate. In warmer zones, it can grow exuberantly and may be trained as a low climber over garden arches or fences. In cooler climates, it maintains a more restrained height and bushy form.

The foliage is narrow and pointed, medium to silvery-green, and often made up of seven leaflets, a clear indication of its Alba ancestry. Young growth is bronzed at the edges, while the canes are a smooth bronze-green with few prickles, making it more pleasant to handle than most roses. The edges of the leaflets are serrated, the type of serration is double and small.

The plant has a natural, unforced habit - elegant and informal, making it ideal for use in borders, wilder gardens, or mixed plantings where a soft effect is desired. It performs particularly well when planted in groups of three or more, creating a billowing, flower-rich presence.

This rose’s light, billowy presence and repeat flowering make it a superb choice for naturalistic plantings, cottage gardens, or the back of borders, where its height and airiness can rise above companion plants. It is also well-suited to archways, walls, or informal hedgerows. Because of its health and sparse thorns, it is a gentle companion in family-friendly gardens and is often used near paths or seating areas for long-season interest. Good companion plants for this rose are foxgloves, airy ornamental grasses, pale salvias, and nepeta.

This rose is noted for being extremely healthy and disease-resistant, with good tolerance to shade, inherited from its Alba parentage. It is cold hardy to USDA Zone 5, and equally suited to hot, dry summers, offering dependable repeat flowering and clean foliage across a wide range of climates.

Because it flowers on new growth along the canes, ‘The Alexandra Rose’ responds well to pegging or light arching, which encourages bloom clusters all along the stems. It can also be pruned back in spring to keep it tidy and encourage new flowering shoots.

Named in honor of Queen Alexandra (1844 - 1925), founder of the Alexandra Rose Day charity, which continues to raise funds for voluntary organizations across the UK.

English Shrub Roses

Modern Shrub Rose, Twin Cities Rose Club Show, 2000;

Modern Shrub Rose, Gateway Rose Society Show, 2001;

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

Rose variety ‘Ausday’ / 'The Alexandra Rose' originated by David Austin by crossing female parent (seed parent) English shrub rose ‘Shropshire Lass’ with the pollen parent - English shrub rose ’Ausblush’ / ‘Heritage’.

USDA 5