World-famous rose hybridizer David Austin has been introducing his gorgeous English roses for more than 40 years. Each year, a couple of new creations are added to his vast repertoire. For this year, he has offered American rose lovers five new varieties. His hallmark and secret talent is that he manages to incorporate in each rose features from old-fashioned fragrant flowers.
Here are the five new 2011 Rosa stars: charming apricot "Lady of Shalott"; rose-pink "The Wedgwood Rose"; white "Kew Gardens"; pure-white "Susan Williams-Ellis," (a white sport of one of David Austin's own favorite roses, which he named after a family friend) and deep-cerise "Tam o' Shanter."
In a recent David Austin rose catalog, I came across a description of a dozen of the flower shapes that he has in his collection; besides the regular single and semi-double, he "plays" with quartered rosette ("A Shropshire Lad" ), open cup, shallow cup and deep cup; he also features "Pompon" ("Sir John Betjeman"); "Rosette" ("Teasing Georgia"), "Recurved" ("Gertrude Jekyll"), "Incurved" ("Huntington Rose") and "Button Eye" ("Gentle Hermione").
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