Rosa Penelope Lively - David Austin shrub rose

The Penelope Lively® English rose charms with its changing colour and fragrance. Its berry-red buds open into very double, cupped blooms in medium pink, which fades and takes on lavender tones as the days go by. The flowers, borne in clusters, release a fairly strong old rose fragrance, enhanced by raspberry, lemon and a slight touch of myrrh. Repeat flowering and bearing very healthy foliage, this shrub has a place in shrub borders and gardens devoted to cut flowers.

Penelope Lively®, whose varietal name is 'AUSb18a15', belongs to the Rosaceae family and the horticultural group of English shrub roses. This shrub has deciduous foliage that falls in autumn. Selected by Carl Bennett for David Austin Roses, this variety was introduced in the United Kingdom in 2023, after twelve years of selection. It pays tribute to Dame Penelope Lively, the British novelist who won the Booker Prize and the Carnegie Medal, and who also wrote Life in the Garden.
In two or three years, the plant forms a branched bush with a semi-upright habit, slightly wider than tall, reaching 1.10 m in height and 1.25 m in spread in good conditions. The young shoots have bronze-red tones before producing compound leaves made up of five oval, toothed leaflets. At maturity, the foliage becomes dark green, leathery and very glossy. The short, rounded flower buds are a rich red. They open into globular flowers, then into cups that flatten slightly as they fully open. Each rose measures 9 cm across and has nearly 100 petals arranged in quarters. The flowers appear in clusters of four to fourteen above the foliage. Their medium pink colour varies from one flower to another and develops into a cooler pink, tinged with lilac or lavender. The fragrance, classified as fairly strong by David Austin Roses, combines the character of an old rose with fruity notes of raspberry and lemon, accompanied by a touch of myrrh. The petals fall cleanly as the flower fades. Flowering returns in successive waves from June until the first frosts. This variety was also selected for its good resistance to the main diseases affecting roses, notably black spot, powdery mildew and rust. Very hardy, it tolerates temperatures down to -23 °C once well rooted. 

This Penelope Lively® variety has a place at the heart of a border, near a terrace or along a path, where its fragrance can be enjoyed and a few roses easily picked. Its broad habit gives it a strong presence, whether planted alone or in groups of three in a large border. It pairs well with the pastel rose 'Desdemona', Physocarpus opulifolius 'Little Devil', hardy geranium 'Brookside' and wild campanulas. Their white and blue flowers, combined with dark foliage, highlight the pink and lavender shades of its corollas.