Rosa Vanessa Bell - Shrub Rose

The English rose Vanessa Bell is one of David Austin's creations, presented at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2017. This graceful bush has a flowering season as abundant and regular as it is delicate. Its double, medium size roses with deep cups, have a pretty pale lemon-yellow heart surrounded by almost white, ivory petals. They bloom in generous clusters with a light fragrance evoking green tea, lemon, and honey. This floriferous, bushy and upright variety integrates well into a romantic bed as well as a more contemporary setting or even a large container on the terrace or balcony.

This bush has an upright and well-branched habit. At maturity, it will reach approximately 1.25 m (4ft) high and 75 cm (30in) wide. It develops thorny stems adorned with beautiful glossy green foliage, which is disease-resistant in good growing conditions. Vigorous and fast-growing Vanessa Bell, blooms abundantly and reblooms with great regularity from summer to frost, with a fragrance of medium intensity. It produces pointed floral buds tinted with pale pink, gathered in large and open clusters. Its 5 to 7 cm (2 to 3in) wide, double roses are rounded, with deep cups composed of approximately 30 petals slightly oriented towards the centre of the flower. Their colour ranges from butter yellow at the centre of the flower through pale lemon yellow, finishing ivory at the edge of the corolla.

The bushy and fairly compact growth of this rose makes it ideal for shrub borders, but it could also fit well into a small flowering hedge. It will be beautiful with annual or perennial plants, in a harmonious or contrasting style, in a romantic garden. As companion plants, you can choose tall perennials (Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Blackfield', Allium, foxgloves, linarias, paniculate phlox, aconites) or ground-covering plants (perennial geraniums, Nepeta, sweet alyssum, Cotoneaster dammeri), airy plants (gauras, globe thistles, paniculate baby's breath) or sculptural plants (grasses), small climbing plants (herbaceous clematis, sweet peas) or trailing plants (purple morning glories, petunias), and thus create infinitely varied compositions and encourage biodiversity.

English hybrid musk rose, obtained by David Austin in 2017.