Absolutely Fabulous Rose Bushes

Absolutely Fabulous Rose Bushes

Rose Absolutely Fabulous certainly lives up to its name! It has fragrant double blooms with an unusual myrrh scent and ruffled petals in a buttery yellow, which darken to a deep golden centre. The blooms gently fade in colour as the flower ages, giving a delightful multi-tonal effect. If you're looking for roses of other colours, why not check out our full range of floribunda roses? As a repeat-flowering floribunda, the flowers are held in clusters right through the summer and until the first frosts, above contrasting, glossy, dark-green foliage. Another quality that makes Absolutely Fabulous stand out is its compact size, typically reaching 75cm in height and rarely exceeding 1m with usual pruning, making it ideal for large pots, smaller gardens, or near the front of the border. It also has excellent disease resistance, so it is a good choice if roses in your garden have suffered from black spot or similar before. It is also perfect for planting beneath windows as it won't block the view. Other roses that are perfect for this - and giving you a choice of colours - include Ballerina, Joie de Vivre and Macmillan Nurse.

Absolutely Fabulous is relatively new, bred by Tom Carruth in the USA, who described it as one of the best roses he has ever bred. It won the Rose of the Year Award 2010 and has been honoured with the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit - a benchmark of quality and performance in the horticultural world. New roses take a few years to become well known but Absolutely Fabulous has taken the gardening world by storm. If it's a compact fragrant yellow rose you're looking for, here it is!

Absolutely Fabulous Roses look wonderful with

Rose breeders have woken up to the fact that gardens are getting smaller or non-existent, and plants really need to earn their keep, flowering for longer and not taking up lots of space. With this in mind, Absolutely Fabulous makes a perfect patio rose - you don't need a garden to grow it. Frame a doorway with two large decorative pots with a rose planted in each. They'll do well, as long as you keep the pots well watered, the plants fed, and they're mostly in the sun - a little bit of shade shouldn't affect performance too much. If you do have a patio or terrace, plant several in identical pots around the seating area. Contemporary gardens tend to minimise the number of colours and plants used, so keep repeating the Absolutely Fabulous roses as key features. Guests will love the scent, particularly in the evening.

If you do have a garden, don't plant one rose on its own - follow the example of RHS gardens and plant several en masse at the front of the border - you'll get a spectacular effect of the changing yellow hues and myrrh-like scent. They'll do best near paths, where the scent can be enjoyed, perhaps underplanted with catnip or dwarf lavender. Heucheras with contrasting, deep foliage (Ebony, Plum Pudding, Obsidian, Dark Storm and Black Taffeta) are ideal choices - they'll also keep their leaves during winter after the roses have been pruned, continuing the interest.

If you're a flower arranger, Absolutely Fabulous roses are very popular with British florists, being very long-lasting in an arrangement. Cut the flower stem while still in bud to use in a vase or bouquet - the plant will quickly form new blooms.

Features

Features

• Size: Compact
• Colour: Golden/buttery yellow
• Shape (of flowers): Double
• Flower type: Repeat continuous
• Scent: Medium, myrrh
• Flowering: June-October
• Group: Floribunda bush
• Height: 75cm-1m
• Awards: RHS Award of Garden Merit, Rose of the Year 2010
• Good disease resistance
• Ideal for use in large pots, on a patio or terrace

History & Trivia

Rose Absolutely Fabulous 

In the USA, this rose is named after TV chef Julia Child who died in 2004, just before its release.

In the UK, where Julia Child is less well known, the rose was renamed 'Absolutely Fabulous' after the hit BBC comedy. In the trade, it is universally known as AbFab.