Rose The Ingenious Mr Fairchild

Captivating 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild', admired for its richly textured, peony-like blooms and elegant, well-rounded growth. Its medium-sized, deeply cupped flowers are densely filled with intricately arranged petals in shades of deep pink touched with lilac and mauve, with paler outer petals creating a beautiful two-tone effect. The blooms are not only visually striking but also delightfully fragrant, offering a fruity perfume with notes of raspberry, peach, and a hint of mint. Combining refined beauty, reliable performance, and excellent suitability for both garden display and cutting, this variety is an outstanding choice for lovers of classic, full-petalled English roses.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIETY

FLOWERING

'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' has a recurrent flowering habit, it blooms in flushes from summer until frosts. This rose has wonderful medium-sized, about 8 -9 cm (3.2 in) in diameter, deeply cupped flowers that are filled with upstanding petals, each twisting and turning and yet perfectly placed to give a most pleasing effect. The flowers are very full, the average number of the petals per flower is about 71.

The flower buds have broad elliptic shape and have light blue pink colour when the petals start to unfurl. They appear in small clusters of about 3 - 7 flower buds together on rather stiff and strong peduncles. Such strong and upright stems make this rose suitable for flower cutting and arrangements to create exquisite old fashioned flower arrangements which are not only highly decorative but quite fragrant.

The colour of the opened flowers is deep pink or fuchsia touched with lilac or mauve, the outside of the petals being a paler shade, resulting in an attractive two-tone appearance. The inner petals are narrower with pointed edges which against the more rounded shape and paler shade of the outer petals, giving them a most delightful fringed effect - particularly in the earlier stages, and creating the peony-like appearance.

Fragrance:

The fragrance of the rose variety 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' is moderate, with a prominent Fruity character with hints of raspberry, peach and mint.

PLANT

The rose variety 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' is classified as a Shrub rose and is part of David Austin’s English Shrub Roses collection. The growth character of this rose is strong and vigorous, with spreading, arching branches building up into a well-rounded, mounding shrub, and its flowers nicely poised. The mature and well-established plants of this cultivar reach the height of about 120 - 140 cm (4 - 4.6 ft) and the spread of about 110 - 125 cm (3.6 - 4 ft). In warmer climates it can be trained and formed as a small climber when provided with a small support or pillar - its arrangement and the manner in which the flowers are held makes it ideal for this purpose.

For placement, the best results are achieved in a classic high-light rose site with moderate shelter, in full sun and planted in moist but well-drained soil, with notion that if it is planted against south-facing walls the heat accumulation can stress plants and that late-day irrigation leaving foliage wet overnight increases disease risk. For 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild', whose full blooms and dense shrub habit already predispose it to slower drying after rain, those site principles are more important to keep it healthy and lush. Feed in spring and summer, then stop in time for wood to ripen. Prune it as a shrub rose, not as a hybrid tea.

Foliage:

On the plants of the rose variety 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' there is abundant foliage. The number of leaflets on normal mid-stem leaves is typically 5, sometimes varying from 3 to 7, including the terminal leaflet. The foliage is large, dark green in colour and has semi-glossy surface texture. The new growth emerges with a purple red tint. The leaflets have broadly oval shape and serrated margins, the type of serration is large and single.

Prickles:

There is a normal to small quantity of prickles present on the main canes and on the laterals from the main canes of this rose variety. The shape of the prickles is hooked downward, the length is about 4 to 5 mm. The colour of the young prickles is reddish and they mature to brown.

Disease resistance:

The rose variety 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' has a normal resistance to mildew and to black spot under normal growing conditions. The resistance to rust is strong. The pest resistance has not been tested yet.

It is recommended for growing in climate conditions similar to USDA 6 and requires winter protection in more colder climates. The RHS assigned its hardiness to H6 rating, which defines it as hardy in all of the UK and northern Europe (-20 to -15).

The rose variety was named after Thomas Fairchild, who made the first recorded flower hybrid in 1720. This was a cross between a sweet William and a carnation, which became known as ‘Fairchild’s mule’. It also thanks Michael Leapman for the name, noting that it was taken from the title of his biography of Thomas Fairchild. The cultivar commemorates a historically important English plantsman and simultaneously nods to the modern biography that revived his reputation.

English Shrub Roses

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

Parentage is where the record becomes incomplete. The official statements note that the rose variety 'Austijus' / 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' originated by David Austin by crossing two unnamed and unpatented rose seedlings. That silence became more frequent in recent years, which is probably driven with intention to protect the legacy and the business.

COMPARISON WITH THE CLOSEST COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE CULTIVAR

The most similar rose variety available on the market to rose 'Austijus' / ‘The Ingenious Mr Fairchild’ is the English shrub rose 'Ausjive' / ‘Alan Titchmarsh’. When compared the rose variety 'Austijus' / 'The Ingenious Mr Fairchild' has blooms that are more lilac in color with smaller, narrower petals than the flowers of ‘Alan Titchmarsh’ and has a fruity fragrance compared to the Old rose character of the ‘Alan Titchmarsh’.

USDA 6