Rosa 'The Generous Gardener' - English Climbing Rose

The rosebush 'The Generous Gardener' is a magnificent climbing English rosebush, adorned with large, beautifully formed double roses, ranging from light pink to white, slightly reddish at the centre, exuding a beautiful fragrance of old-fashioned roses with musky undertones. At full bloom, the flowers resemble water lilies, offering their beautiful bouquet of stamens to bees. Vigorous, with long stems and healthy foliage, this rosebush thrives when trained against a wall or on a large romantic arch. It can also be used as a bush.

The rosebush 'The Generous Gardener' or 'Ausdrawn' is a magnificent creation by David Austin, introduced to the market in 2002. This hybrid shows vigorous and fairly rapid growth. It develops long, erect, woody climbing stems adorned with sharp thorns, flexible enough to be trained. This variety can climb up to 4.50 m (15ft) if trained as a climber. If left untrained, it will form a superb bush about 2 m (7ft) tall and over 1 m (3ft) wide, with a natural habit. Its stems are adorned with dark green, glossy foliage composed of dentate leaflets, highly resistant to rose diseases under good growing conditions. The flowering usually starts in June and continues until the first frost if the soil remains moist. The flowers emerge from short shoots in the second year, gathered in clusters. Beautifully formed and globular, they gracefully hang. Their colour ranges from soft pink to a lighter rosy white, with the centre of the corolla being a deeper pink. And their fragrance reveals notes of old-fashioned rose, musk, and myrrh. This climbing rosebush is very cold-resistant. Its deciduous foliage falls in autumn.

The Generous Gardener will delight enthusiasts of grand romantic roses. Like other climbers, it is incomparable for embellishing a gate, fences, and small pergolas, but it can also be perfectly used as a bush by regularly pruning it to encourage branching and limit its height. Its flowering pairs well with the 'Prince Charles' clematis, blue, pink, white, or mauve lilacs. It is an ideal companion for dead trees that it revives or for sheds to which it adds charm. Trained on an arch and planted on an unsightly fence, it dresses up any setting without demanding much effort from the one who planted it.