Rose The Miller

'The Miller' is a vigorous and resilient English rose, with charming soft pink double to semi-double blooms that open to reveal golden stamens, adding a light, natural elegance to the garden. Forming a strong, bushy shrub it can be easily shaped or pruned into an attractive hedge. Exceptionally hardy and well-suited even to challenging conditions such as coastal gardens.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIETY

Rose variety 'The Miller' belongs to the formative period in which David Austin was combining old-rose form and scent with the remontancy of modern roses. In historical terms, 'The Miller' matters because it sits very near the root of the English Rose story, not because it enjoyed enduring commercial visibility. It is one of the relatively few Austin crosses explicitly joining an old garden rose and a modern rose and was used for later breeding, especially through 'Mary Rose'. That makes 'The Miller' a “bridge” cultivar, not among the best documented or best rated in later garden trials, but disproportionately important in the genealogy of later Austin's roses.

FLOWERING

The blooming season of the rose variety 'The Miller' is recurrent rather than once-flowering, but the repeated flowering is rather occasional and gardeners should not expect traditional flushes typically attributed to later Danid Austin’s varieties.

Flowers of this rose variety are medium sized, measuring to about 6.4 - 7.6 cm (2.5 - 3 in.) in diameter when fully open. The flowers are rose pink to soft rose pink in colour, sometimes with deeper shadings and fading to lighter shades to the edges; they are double, sometimes almost semi-double, opening to show its stamens, and have a cupped rosette shape. The specific RHS Colour Chart codes were never officially published, as well as detailed bud morphology, leaflet count, leaflet texture, or prickle density for rose 'The Miller'. They come both singly and in clusters of up to about four blooms together positioned in evenly spaced clusters.

Fragrance:

The fragrance of the rose variety 'The Miller' is light, with Old rose character.

PLANT

The rose variety 'The Miller' is classified as a Shrub rose and is part of David Austin’s English Shrub Roses collection. It grows into a tall to medium-tall shrub, somewhat open, broad to arching with age, and forms a very hardy and vigorous shrub with continual bloom. The mature and well-established plants of this rose variety will grow to a height of about 120 - 180 cm (4 - 6 ft) if permitted and of about 90 - 120 cm (3 - 4 ft) in width, but can be pruned down to make a smaller shrub. In hot climates it can reach up to 250 cv (8.2 ft) tall.

It has a lot of reddish prickles and pale green leaves, fairly closely spaced on the stems, which gives a leafy look to the plant as a whole. The foliage is medium sized and has a matte surface. Since this rose is tough and hardy, it is particularly suitable for seaside gardens.

Disease resistance:

In terms of disease resistance it shows some weaknesses, it has shown some susceptibility to black spot, otherwise it has reasonably good resistance to powdery mildew, rust and botrytis. Rose variety is recommended for growing in climate conditions similar to USDA 5 and requires winter protection in more colder climates.

Name 'The Miller' taken from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. 'The Miller' was inspired by the "The Miller's Tale", one of the most famous and vivid narratives in the collection and corresponds to the character in Chaucer’s tale who is robust, earthy, and full of vitality.

English Shrub Roses

ORIGIN OF THE VARIETY

Rose variety ‘The Miller' originated by David Austin by crossing the Hybrid Perpetual variety 'Baroness Rothschild' with the English shrub rose variety 'Chaucer'. This rose belongs to the early Austin program in Britain, and the company’s current materials still frame its roses as the product of a long family breeding tradition on the farm in Shropshire.

USDA 5