Rosa Thomas à Becket - English Shrub Rose

The English rose Thomas à Becket is has a natural and bushy habit, with particularly healthy and resistant vegetation. This variety displays clusters of shallow cup-shaped, double flowers, in a beautiful light red shade which changes to carmine. Their fragrance is like that of old roses, dominated by an intense lemon note. This bush will give its best if not pruned too severely to allow it to grow freely.

This English rose stands out from others with its more natural appearance and exuberant growth. A real asset that deserves to be exploited, especially since this variety is remarkably healthy and disease-resistant. If pruned, this bush, almost as wide as it is tall, will reach about 1.25 m (4ft) in height and 1 m (3ft) in width. When grown freely, it will develop in much larger proportions. It has repeat flowering. It produces medium-sized clusters of red flowers, opening into informal rosettes, whose petals gracefully curl downwards as the flower ages. Each flower sways gracefully on its stem, exhaling a powerful fragrance dominated by lemon citrus notes.

This bush, a little more 'wild' than others in the same range, is perfect for flowerbeds and landscape hedges. This large bush is ideal for creating a backdrop, at the back of perennial or annual flowerbeds with plants such as gypsophila, phlox, perennial geraniums, dame's rocket, purple toadflax, or love-in-a-mist. It doesn't mind the competition from the roots of other plants, which allows it to be associated with a flowerbed of flowering shrubs, such as lilacs, Deutzia, Spirea, or the sumptuous foliage of the purple smoke bush 'Grace'. If you have enough space, English, Old, or Shrub Roses are beautiful when planted in groups of three. They will grow together to form 'one' opulent bush that will flower even more generously.

Introduced by David Austin in 2013.