5 YEAR GUARANTEE 
We recently hosted a wonderful pair of evenings with David Austin Roses expert, Andrew Rollings. He captivated the audiences at our Canterbury and Tenterden centres with a most fascinating talk about how the roses have been specially crafted over the past 60 years.
David Austin Roses say, “As an age-old symbol of beauty, celebration and true love, a beautiful, fragrant rose can captivate our senses and stir our emotions like no other flower.”
Andrew explained how the health of the rose is of the utmost importance when creating new varieties, and the fragrance and flower are carefully studied to make sure they only release perfect specimens to the public. This lengthy process involves thousands of attempts to find the right rose to launch each year and there are no compromises made when it comes to finding the one (or two, if they’re lucky). We learnt how the many-petalled ‘old roses’ are combined with the repeat-flowering qualities of ‘new roses’ to provide the healthiest, most fragrant beautiful blooms possible. David Austin Roses often have a bit of fun naming the roses too. In 2022, they are releasing ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ as well as ‘Elizabeth’.
‘Elizabeth’ is a tribute to Her Royal Highness Elizabeth II in her Platinum Jubilee year. It bears clusters of large, crisp apple blossom pink rosettes, paling to the gentlest blush white. It has a strong, sweet, fresh fragrance with hints of lemon sherbet and Old Rose.
‘Bring Me Sunshine’ is a nod to one of David Austin’s favourite comedy duos, Morecambe and Wise. It is a joyously warm and inviting variety bearing deeply filled, cupped rosette blooms of rich sunset orange-yellow, paling to lighter apricot tones over time.
We witnessed for ourselves on the David Austin Roses evening, how the translucent petals of the ‘Lark Ascending’ change in the twilight to reveal a peachy tone and how the ‘Olivia Rose Austin’ can burst into hundreds of blooms if planted in the right pot. We saw photographs of ‘Rambling Rector’ cover not only a whole garden’s wall but that of the neighbouring wall as well and we drank in the scent of the ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ on what was a truly lovely evening. If you missed the event, don’t worry – there will be more coming next year.
