Rosa 'Michèle Meilland' - Shrub Rose

The 'Michèle Meilland' Rose is a classic among modern tea hybrids, always appreciated for its abundant salmon-pink flowering and delicate sweet fragrance. Its beautiful slender flower buds open into double and turbinated roses, with a bright pink colour bordered with cream, gradually turning more apricot to salmon shades over time. They bloom from May until the first frost on a vigorous bush with few thorns and foliage resistant to diseases. Designated as “The most beautiful Rose in France” and winner of the Gold Medal at the 1945 Lyon competition, it is also a beautiful cut flower!

'Michele Meilland' is a modern bush rose with large flowers obtained by Meilland in 1945. This excellent variety, derived from the famous Madame A. Meilland (Peace), has produced six more recent creations. This dense, bushy, and upright shrub reaches approximately 1.05m (3ft) in height and 65cm (26in) in spread at maturity, with rapid growth. It produces sturdy, thornless, long branches that bear elegant dark green foliage and are disease-resistant. Throughout the summer, if faded flowers are removed, the plant continuously produces elongated coppery-pink buds. They open into medium-sized flowers, measuring 10-12cm (4-5in) in diameter, with a turbinated shape and a tightly packed centre, typical of hybrid tea roses. They consist of 16 to 25 petals whose colour changes over time, transitioning from lilac-shaded pink with cream edges to a brighter salmon pink from the heart of the flower. They are solitary, borne on long one-year-old shoots or emerging on two-year-old stems. The repeat flowering is distinguished by a light, sweet, and pleasant fragrance.

This 'Michele Meilland' Rose, with its perfect and charming flowers, is a delicate jewel for romantic or well-maintained flowerbeds or as a standalone specimen. Of medium size, robust and vigorous, it is ideal for planting as a small hedge or in groups of 3 and creating elegant bouquets. It blends well in low shrub borders with summer or autumn flowering or mixed with light perennials and annuals. It will be beautifully showcased in front of a boxwood or yew screen or, on the contrary, surrounded by a miniature hedge or a carefully arranged maze, as in Italian or French gardens. Above all, it is a generous rose, which can be paired, for example, with a small-flowered white clematis like 'Mrs Robert Brydon' or with a blue-flowered small clematis Saphyra Indigo.