David Austin Roses

All serious gardeners around the world have heard of David Austin Roses.  His two-acre rose garden is considered by many to be the most beautiful in the world. It contains over 700 different varieties of roses, divided into five theme gardens, wonderfully punctuated with sculpture and other garden ornaments and contained by neatly clipped evergreen hedges.

David Austin was born in 1926 on the farm where he now lives. He is the son of a farmer and began farming before going into business as a nurseryman in the early 1960s. From an early age, he was interested in gardening and first turned to plant breeding through a friend of his father’s, Mr. James Baker of Baker’s Nurseries. In the 1940s, a copy of George Bunyard’s book on old roses gave him the idea of crossing old roses with modern roses. His objective was to create new roses in the style of old roses, thus combining the unique charm and fragrance of old roses with the wide colour range and repeat-flowering qualities of modern roses. He was also particularly interested in producing well-formed vigorous shrubs that would make good garden plants.

The first variety he introduced was Constance Spry in 1963, followed by Chianti in 1967 and Shropshire Lass in 1968, they only flowered once in early summer. From these, he developed repeat flowering varieties with similar flowers, the first group being introduced in 1969 and included Wife of Bath and Canterbury. He called these English Roses, as the name seemed to symbolise roses. When Graham Thomas and Mary Rose were introduced at Chelsea in 1983, English Roses quickly gained popularity both in this country and the rest of the world. Since that time he has introduced over two hundred varieties.

David Austin was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2003 for his services to horticulture and the Dean Hole Medal by the Royal National Rose Society. He has received an Honorary MSc from the University of East London for his work on rose breeding. He received the lifetime achievement award from the Garden Centre Association in 2004 and in 2007 he was made OBE for his services to horticulture.

David Austin Rose Garden