Rosa James L Austin - shrub rose

English shrub rose James L. Austin is one of David Austin's latest creations, presented at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2017. This small bushy shrub with abundant and perpetual flowering offers cascades of large, fully double rosettes, shaped in quarters like roses of the past. Their bold deep cherry pink is accompanied by a moderately intense fragrance that reveals delicious notes of red fruits. This hybrid of old roses will bring a touch of slightly nostalgic fantasy to a small garden or a romantic flowerbed.

This shrub is upright and well-branched. At maturity, it will reach approximately 1m (3ft) high by 75cm (30in) wide. It develops thorny, branching stems adorned with beautiful dark green, glossy foliage, which is disease-resistant in good growing conditions. James L. Austin is vigorous and fast growing, it blooms abundantly and reblooms regularly from summer to frost, with a light but delightful fragrance with hints of red fruits. It produces pointed reddish-purple floral buds, gathered in generous clusters. Its wide rosettes measuring 10 to 12cm (4 to 5in) are quite flat, very double, and composed of 40 wavy petals arranged in quarters. The flower colour is a solid and intense pink.

The bushy and compact growth of this rose makes it an ideal plant for shrub borders, but it could also fit well in a small flowering hedge. It will make beautiful compositions with annual or perennial plants, in a harmonious or contrasting style, in a romantically inspired garden. For companion plants, choose tall perennials (Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Blackfield', Allium, foxgloves, linarias, paniculate phlox, monkshoods) or ground-covering plants (perennial geraniums, Nepeta, lamb's ears, Cotoneaster dammeri), airy plants (gauras, globe thistles, paniculate baby's breath) or sculptural plants (grasses), small climbing plants (herbaceous clematis, sweet peas) or trailing plants (purple morning glories, petunias), thus creating endlessly varied scenes and promoting biodiversity.

English shrub rose, a hybrid of old roses created by David Austin in 2017.