Scepter'd Isle® Rose Plants

Scepter'd Isle® Rose (Ausland) from David Austin English® Roses

Why another pale pink rose as an addition to a range of roses with plenty of pale pink members, you might ask? But David Austin has (yet again) come up trumps and distilled the best from them all to bring you Scepter'd Isle. Not only does it conjure up all of the romance of old English gardens with its palest pink cup-shaped blooms that are held above the foliage, but it is a real workhorse of a rose flowering almost continuously from early summer through to November frosts. This combination of delicacy of aesthetic with vigour of plant has earned his rightful place as one of THE best rose growers ever. The flowers pale towards the edge and allow you a glimpse of the golden stamens in the centre of the whorl of petals. The leaves are reminiscent of a hybrid tea and are rarely afflicted by blackspot and such like. The shrub can grow quite tall if only lightly pruned and as it has won the Royal National Rose Society's award for excellence of fragrance, you can be assured that the scent is spectacular.

This precious stone set in the Silver Sea...

Well, we cannot probably summon up silver seas in our gardens but Scepter'd Isle® does look very pretty surrounded by silvery foliages and mauve colours - think Perovskias, Nepetas, Stachys Byzantina (Rabbit's Ears) and Santolina, along with the classic lavender. Otherwise, combine this ongoing display of pink perfection with a background of mock orange such as Philadelphus Virginal in the summer. It would also hold its own with the more autumnal maroons of Actaeas and Eupatoriums. Equally, just enjoy Scepter'd Isle as a sole trader - devote a whole rose bed to its charms and surround it with a box hedge or berberis border.

Features of Scepter'd Isle® Rose

• Height: up to about 1.5 m
• Width: up to 1 m
• Colour: soft pink, paler towards the edge
• Shape of flower: chalice shape, loosely double
• Size of flower: up to 8/9 cm
• Scent: strong, myrrh
• Flowering: almost continuous through summer
• Group: English Shrub Rose

Naming Ceremony

Well we are pretty impressed by this attempt to put into flower the feeling with which John of Gaunt's speech expresses in his love for England in Shakespeare's Richard II when he describes it as This Scepter'd Isle. Quintessentially English in its look and displaying dash, vim and vigour, we wholeheartedly agree that this is a brilliant name for a brilliant rose.