Rosa 'Heathcliff' - English Rose

The 'Heathcliff' English rose is part of the original English roses created by the rosarian David Austin through complex cross-breeding with Old Roses. This bushy shrub combines an unusual and powerful fragrance with excellent repeat-flowering ability. It produces large, deeply cupped flowers heavily loaded with crimson-red petals with purple reflections, an intense colour softened by a certain sweetness reminiscent of the ancient red of Gallica Roses. Its fragrance and the splendour of its colour deserve to be planted near a passage or resting place.

This bushy and upright-growing shrub can reach 1 metre (3 feet) in all directions. Its foliage is healthy and relatively resistant to diseases. From June to October, it is adorned with large, highly double and deeply flared flowers, solitary or grouped in small clusters, carried by vigorous stems. The bubbling corolla comprises countless silky petals in a deep red colour. This variety is also distinguished by its elusive fragrance and colour: the flower releases a delightful fragrance of tea rose, which then evolves towards the more heady and sweeter notes of old roses, with a hint of cedar wood.

According to David Austin, "Few roses are as sought after as intense purple roses - and none are as difficult to create!" The 'Heathcliff' English rose 'Ausnipper', an excellent garden bush, pairs well with English Roses and Old Roses in a small flowering hedge, a rose bed, or with tall perennial plants such as lavender, peonies, paniculate phlox, or the delicate blooms of gauras and paniculate gypsophila.

English Roses are well known for being fully repeat-flowering, and their flowers are renowned for being beautiful, regular rosettes with a strong fragrance. They are also very versatile and adaptable plants. They are the result of cross-breeding between old roses and modern roses. They offer large, cup-shaped, romantic and bohemian flowers. Modern roses have brought brighter shades and repeat-flowering. If you have enough space, English, Old, or Shrub Roses look magnificent when planted in groups of three.

This variety was named in reference to the character, which is highly romantic and mysterious, from the classic novel "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë.

Bred by David Austin,  2012.