Rosa Crown Princess Margareta Auswinter

The English rose Crown Princess Margareta is a large robust and particularly healthy bush, distinguished by its size and slightly trailing habit, ideal for the back of borders. The flowers are quite large, fragrant, formed in well-ordered rosettes, with a soft and luminous apricot orange shade. It can also be trained as a climber. 

This rose with multiple qualities reaches quite significant dimensions, up to 3m (10ft) in height and 1.40m (5ft) in spread depending on how it is trained. Its habit is quite free and its slender stems quite flexible, making it an adaptable and versatile plant. It belongs to the Leander group and, as such, it proves to be particularly robust and resistant. It can tolerate harsh climates, such as alpine climates, for example. Its flowers are double, exuding a strong and fruity fragrance reminiscent of that of tea roses. It blooms almost continuously, and it is often observed that the flowers appear increasingly full and double, voluptuous in a nuanced warm apricot shade to a fawn orange, in perfect harmony with the colours of autumn.

Highly resistant to diseases and cold (-25 to -30 °C), the Crown Princess Margareta rose is an easy plant to grow in all soils, and its charming old-fashioned flowers pair well with English or old roses in warm or pastel shades, such as Tuscany, Graham Thomas, or Fighting Temeraire. It forms a beautiful combination with the simple and changing flowers of the China rose 'Mutabilis' or with the simple corollas, orange to coppery, of Rosa foetida bicolor. It contrasts well with purple flowers, like those of the rose 'Blue Eyes' or those of Rhapsody in Blue. Its growth allows it to be placed at the back of perennial borders, in an informal hedge, or trained on a pergola or arch near the patio.

Princess Margareta of Sweden was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and an accomplished gardener. Together with King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, she created the famous Sofiero Summer Palace in Helsingborg.

Breeding by David Austin 1999.