Rosa 'The Mill on the Floss' - English Rose

The English rose 'The Mill on the Floss' by David Austin bears the name of a monument of Victorian English literature full of poetry, published in France under the title "Le moulin sur la Floss". A name that suits this rose wonderfully, very 'shabby chic' made of delicacy and pure grace. On a bush with gracefully arched vegetation, beautiful bouquets of small cabbage-shaped roses bloom, with rounded and deep cups, with a sweet fruity fragrance. Starting as a medium lilac pink, its small flowers gradually fade while being edged with a pretty carmine pink rim. The bush is healthy, supple and bushy, dressed in abundant, shiny green foliage. It will be very difficult to resist this new creation, which undoubtedly ranks among the most exquisite.

This English rose, introduced in 2018, is part of the latest introductions by the famous rose breeder David Austin, presented at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2018. 'The Mill on the Floss' belongs to the group of English Hybrid Musks. It will form a beautiful bush with a gracefully upright and arched habit, reaching approximately 1.50 m (5ft) in height and 1.25 m (4ft) in spread. Its growth is rapid and vigorous, and its thorny stems are abundantly adorned with small, light green, shiny foliage and less susceptible to diseases under proper growing conditions. The young shoots are purplish to coppery, harmonizing with the pink colour of the flowers. The deciduous foliage falls in autumn. On this repeat-flowering bush, the flowers in small, round, regular and deep cups are composed of multiple tightly packed petals, revealing a lovely cluster of golden stamens late in the flowering process. Their colour evolves from a medium pink with a slight lilac hue to a pale lilac pink bordered with a light carmine pink. In this rose, the flowering takes the form of branched panicles, i.e. bouquets of several flowers. Their light but pleasant fragrance will be more noticeable in calm and warm weather. It falls into the category of sweet fruits.

The rose 'The Mill on the Floss', moving and poetic, is a variety ideally suited for the most romantic spots in the garden. It deserves a prominent place near the house. To accompany it, one can plant perennial geraniums, perennial salvias, forget-me-nots, or even chamomiles at its base, in any case, light flowers that will not overshadow its truly magnificent flowering. It will also thrive in a shrub border with other white, mauve or pink roses, lilacs, viburnums, and paniculate hydrangeas. Roses pair perfectly with catmints, bellflowers, paniculate baby's breath, and herbaceous or climbing clematis. Finally, you can plant it in front of taller shrubs or use it to fill the base of a tree so that it will dress with charm.

Obtained by David Austin