Rosa moschata Buff Beauty - Musk Rose

Rose 'Buff Beauty', a hybrid obtained in 1939, stands out as one of the best musk roses. It grows as a bush or a very floriferous small climber, delivering a continuous flowering in large clusters that renew throughout the summer. Its old-fashioned style roses, medium-sized, flat and very double, evolve from apricot yellow to light fawn. It tolerates partial shade and its beautiful dark green foliage, of beautiful luxuriance, offers good disease resistance. With a pronounced tea rose fragrance, this rose is undoubtedly a safe bet!

Rosa x moschata 'Buff Beauty' is not strictly speaking an old rose, since its creation by Bentall is later than 1867. Nevertheless, it has all the characteristics and remains to this day, due to its multiple assets, unmatched. In its genealogy, we find the contribution of the Musk Rose (Rosa moschata), via the Noisette Rose 'William Allen Richardson', very perpetual and very fragrant. This variety forms a bush with a flexible, spreading habit, tall and wide of about 1m (3 to 4ft), sometimes more depending on the growing conditions. Its long and regular flowering takes place from June to September. Its roses, 7 to 8cm (3.1in) wide, are composed of several rows of regular, toothed petals, well-organized, only revealing the golden yellow heart of the corolla late. The dominant colour is a soft apricot yellow, shaded with fawn and orange in the centre. At withering, they form on the branches a vaporous cloud of white-cream corollas. The foliage, semi-evergreen, dark green, overall very healthy, is particularly abundant.

Fearing too hot exposures, the old rose 'Buff Beauty' is a plant that tolerates partial shade well, where its rich and delicate colour reveals itself under a low light. Its flowers can be used in bouquets but it also makes a beautiful isolated specimen or mixed with a bed of English or old roses in pastel shades. It forms an elegant contrast with the single and changing flowers of the China rose 'Mutabilis' or with the single corollas, orange to coppery, of Rosa foetida 'Bicolor'. It is also beautiful next to the pansy flowers of the rose 'Blue Eyes' or 'Veilchenblau', in partial shade. Its very free growth allows it to enter shrub beds, landscape hedges, where it wonderfully accompanies Hibiscus, buddleias, viburnums... Finally, due to its fragrance, it deserves to be planted near a passage, an entrance, trained on a pole or a column near the terrace.