Rosa Louise Odier - Bourbon Rose

The 'Louise Odier' Rose has belonged for over a hundred years to the elite of Bourbon roses, a category that alone brings together the largest number of famous names such as 'Mme Isaac Pereire', 'Zéphirine Drouhin', or 'Souvenir de la Malmaison'. This one is undoubtedly one of the best, as this vigorous bush is capable of thriving without care while providing a sumptuous and fragrant flowering throughout the beautiful season, even until the first frosts. Its very full flowers have a perfect cup shape, and their slightly shaded warm pink colour, just like their fragrance, withstands the test of time.

The 'Louise Odier' Bourbon Rose is an old shrub variety, a seedling of the 'Emile Courtier' variety, introduced to the market in 1851 by French rose growers Jacques-Julien and Jules Margottin Père & Fils. Of robust stature, it forms a upright bush without being stiff, which can reach over 1.2m (4 ft) in height and 1.2m (4ft) in spread. Its growth is vigorous and rapid. Its deciduous foliage is a beautiful matte light green. Its disease resistance is rather good, but it is often affected by marsonia in humid climates. It blooms abundantly in June, then again, in successive waves, until the first frost. The autumn rebloom often produces even better formed flowers, but fewer in number. It produces very double roses, with very round cups when they open, about 7cm (2.8in) wide, formed by more than 40 wide and rounded petals, which open into full cups, retaining their rounded shape and fragrance until the end. They are generally solitary, carried by 1-year-old or older branches. Their fragrance deserves all the superlatives: powerful, intoxicating, heady...

A sunny and well-ventilated location in a not too humid climate and good garden soil will allow the beautiful pointed leaves of this rose to remain healthy. The use of the 'Louise Odier' rose is varied, from romantic bouquets, to landscape hedges, to solitary specimens on a short grass meadow. Its perfect roses go well with the silver foliage of Stachys lanata, white foxgloves, white Astrantias, small white polyantha roses 'Marie Pavie' or mauve 'Blue Boy'. It will also thrive in a tall bed, in the company of variegated dogwoods, serviceberries, snowball viburnums, which will enhance its flowering. It also deserves, for its wonderful fragrance, to be planted in scented gardens.

If you have enough space, English, Old or Shrub Roses are magnificent planted in groups of three plants. They will grow together to form a single opulent 'bush' that will flower even more generously.