Rosa Brother Cadfael - Shrub Rose

The English rose Brother Cadfael, among all of David Austin's creations , is perhaps the one that bears the most impressive flowers, and is undoubtedly one of the most fragrant. Its very large globular roses in a luminous candy pink, possess a unique charm that recalls old roses that were all the rage during the time of Queen Victoria. The fragrance of the flowers is heavy, complex, and powerful, evoking that of bourbon roses. It is a very beautiful, harmonious, well-reblooming, healthy shrub, perfect in a large bed or planted in groups of three as a specimen.

If grown as a bush, this tall rose will form a large, freely branching and well-balanced bush, 1.25 m (4ft) high by 1 m (3ft) wide. Its growth is rapid and vigorous, and its sturdy stems are covered with beautiful dark green foliage that is disease-resistant in good growing conditions. The abundantly produced young shoots are a beautiful, shiny purple, just like the young foliage. On this well-reblooming bush, the large dark pink and rounded buds open very gradually to form a round and very full cup-shaped flower, composed of many petals. Those in the centre are slightly incurved towards the heart of the flower. They are wide and full like peonies, proudly held on their sturdy stems. Their colour is a luminous candy pink, more intense in the centre of the flower. Their heady fragrance is described as fruity with notes of myrrh.

The Brother Cadfael rose is impressive, both in terms of the robust aspect of the bush and the size and fragrance of its immense, peony-like flowers. It forms a magnificent bush at the back of flower beds or in front of large evergreen shrubs. It can also be mixed with flowering shrubs (buddleias, lilacs, spireas, deutzias, mock oranges, kolkwitzias), near the house or at the back of the garden. In mixed borders, it can be planted with perennial plants, where it will bring exuberance and fragrance, light annual plants, and even grasses, whose foliage will hide its sometimes bare base. It can also be planted with a clematis, as the latter loves to weave through bushes that provide them with a solid framework to cling to and shade at their base.

English Hybrid Tea Rose, Created by David Austin in 1986.