Bonica UK grown shrub roses

Bonica Modern Shrub Rose

Rosa Bonica is a delightful small modern shrub rose which, if deadheaded regularly, flowers continuously throughout the summer.  It bears lovely small, double, soft pink flowers with frilled petals and a deeper pink heart which are borne in great profusion on vigorous arching stems.  The foliage is a glossy light green with bronze tints and is very disease resistant.  It is quite low growing, reaching a maximum height of 3', with a spread of 6' and, due to its growth habit, having a spread twice its height and a procumbent habit, is often considered  a ground cover rose.  It is a particularly charming and pretty rose with a delicate growth habit.

If you are looking for something a little larger, or even roses to plant alongside Bonica, do look at our extensive list of UK grown  shrub roses here 

Great in the Garden

Rosa Bonica is a gem of a shrub rose with a neat and tidy growth habit and a continuous show of lovely pink flowers all through the summer.  It is perfect on its own, as a low growing hedge, or alongside shorter varieties of perennial such as nepeta and astrantia and it is excellent planted at the base of taller shrub roses where it will bring the eye down and hide the sometimes leggy growth of some specimens. When planted beside larger shrubs such as cornus and viburnum, it has the delightful habit of becoming a short climber, pushing its delicate stems through the foliage and flowering at anything  up to 5'.  As this rose never gets too top heavy, it also lends itself very well to being grown as a standard, either planted in the ground or in a large tub and, as such, it is perfect for a terrace or to bring colour to a formal planting scheme.  

Features

• Final height and width: 1m x 1.8m (3ft x 6ft)
• Colour: Delicate pink with a darker pink centre
• Flower type: Pretty double, frilled flowers
• Fragrance: Imperceptible
• Flowering season: Continuous summer flowering
• Rose type: Modern shrub rose
• Foliage: Light green with copper tinges
• Disease resistance: Excellent

Did You Know?

Rosa Bonica was bred by Meilland and brought to the market in 1981.  In 1998 the Montreal Botanic Garden (Le Jardin Botanique de Montreal) carried out trials on its roses to determine resistance to blackspot, mildew and rust.  Bonica proved to be an outstanding variety with a 0% to 5% infection rate.  All data was taken from well established roses.