Rosa The King's Rose - David Austin shrub rose

The rose The King’s Rose® ('AUSA27A16') renews the traditional image of the English rose. This variety produces open corollas, splashed with fuchsia on a white background, each one different, revealing a centre of golden stamens readily accessible to bees. Repeat flowering, healthy and with few prickles, this shrub with a spreading habit easily finds a place in beds and flowering hedges. It is particularly suited to an English garden, a cottage garden or a country-style garden.

Created by Carl Bennett of David Austin Roses and introduced in 2025 after twelve years of selection, The King’s Rose® bears the varietal designation 'AUSA27A16'. This modern shrub rose belongs to the collection of David Austin English Roses, selected for the charm of their flowers, their repeat flowering and their good performance in the garden; it is the first variety with striped flowers in this collection. It forms a medium-sized shrub with a rounded, spreading habit, reaching approximately 1.25 m in height and 90 cm in spread. From June to October, and possibly until November in mild climates, it produces medium-sized semi-double flowers, 6 to 8 cm across. The corollas open widely to reveal golden-yellow stamens, accessible to bees and other pollinators. Against a white to creamy-white background, the petals display irregular stripes, marbling and splashes of fuchsia pink to deep pink; the distribution of colours varies from one flower to another. The fragrance, light to medium in intensity, of a musky type, combines notes of fresh red apple and rose water; it is mainly released by the pollen. The deciduous foliage, which falls in autumn, consists of broad, toothed medium-green leaflets with a slightly cordate base. The branches bear very few prickles. This variety has good general resistance to the common diseases of roses. At the end of the season, flowers left on the plant produce small orange rose hips, appreciated by birds in winter.
Presented at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2025, this rose was created in collaboration with The King’s Foundation. Its name recalls a conversation held in the 1990s between David J. C. Austin and the future King Charles III: both had chosen the old rose 'Ferdinand Pichard' as the first rose for their garden. When this new rose with striped flowers appeared in the 2020s, this shared memory inspired its name The King’s Rose®.

Plant this rose in sun as a solitary specimen beside a pathway, in a row to form a low hedge or in groups of three plants in a large bed. Pair it with shrub roses 'Kew Gardens', white with a lemon-coloured centre, and 'Princess Anne', deep pink. At their feet, sow nigella and plant scabious 'Butterfly Blue', 'Pink Mist' and 'Pincushion Pink'. These plants produce light flowering, borne on fine stems that weave between the branches. Their blue, white, mauve and pink shades create a country-style border visited by pollinating insects.