This beautiful English shrub rose, “Crown Princess Margareta”, bred by David Austin, bloomed yesterday for the first time this season.
David Austin’s roses have the delicious scents and colors of antique roses. How I wish I could post the fragrance for you, but until technology evolves, we will have to manage with only the photo.
The garden is full of roses and Iris this week, and the peonies began opening today.
May is the month of sweet fragrances and beautiful flowers in the garden.
Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014
Forest Garden 
Beautiful rose! 🙂
Good morning, WG. What a lovely sight this rose is. Perhaps I need to investigate the David Austin roses…..
Oh Barbara, they are so much nicer than our American hybrid tea roses. They have the most wonderful fragrance, color, and form. Take a look: http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/advanced.asp
These are beautiful shrubs in the garden, but many have stems long and sturdy enough for cutting. They have disease resistance, most stand up to our humid summers, and they rebloom. I hope you’re enjoying this beautiful day, Best wishes, WG
Such a beautiful rose! I wonder if that is the same type of rose I have in my scrounger’s garden. I think it might be, although it’s a different color. It has a wonderful scent. I know what you mean about wanting to share it in a blog post. 🙂
I”m so glad you have a beautiful, and highly scented rose growing in your scrounger’s garden, Robin! What fun to find the treasures other gardeners have left behind. The “old” varieties of roses tend to have the most delicious fragrances. David Austin has worked a few of of those old, fragrant and very full of petals varieties to bring that genetic heritage to his modern roses also bread for disease and weather resistance. Most of his varieties will bloom again and again throughout the season, which the old varieties generally didn’t do. I love that his roses will often bloom again in November, ending the season like it began- with roses! Here is his website should you want to browse the roses, and see whether you find a match for the rose growing in your garden, Robin. http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp?PageId=1893 May all be well with you today, WG
Beautiful blooms
Yes, Chris, one of our favorites. R. “Lady Emma Hamilton” was growing in the bed between our two princesses until early last summer, when it just suddenly died. It is still a mystery what happened to it, because it was so sudden with the roses on either side quite healthy. I’ve noticed canes (but not the whole shrub, thankfully) just suddenly withering and turning brown on a few other English shrub roses we grow in another bed. It appears that Austin’s roses are either “really happy” or not… Have you noticed that growing them even further south? Thank you for visiting Forest Garden 😉 May all be well with you, WG