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Features
This is a ‘cluster-flowered‘ rose. It has striking, scarlet red flowers with white centres and yellow stamen which are borne in clusters, with a slight fragrance. The deciduous foliage is mid green and glossy.
What to use it for
This rose is ideal for beds and borders in cottage style or more modern gardens. Can be useful as hedging/screening.
How to look after it
It’s often cheaper, and generally better, to purchase roses as bare rooted plants over the winter (their dormant season).
When planting, prune the stems down to around 10cm above ground level. Adding mycorrhizal fungi when planting can help roses establish well. Ensure roses are well watered, particularly if they are newly planted.
How to prune it
Over the dormant season (from late autumn to early spring) remove any dead, diseased, damaged, crowded, crossing or weak stems, then prune all the remaining stems down to around 30cm from ground level (about level with the top of your wellies).
Roses should be deadheaded regularly to encourage further flowering.
How to propagate it
This rose can be T-budded onto an appropriate rootstock (eg Rosa laxa) in early summer.
Roses can also be hybridised, although many cultivars, when cross bred, will produce sterile seeds.
Common problems
Drought conditions can cause smaller flowers, although the plant itself should be able to survive short term drought conditions due to its deep tap root.
Pests including aphids, rose leafhoppers, two-spotted spider mites, scale insects, caterpillars, rose chafers, rose thrips, pollen beetles, capsid bugs, leaf-cutter bees, rose slug sawflies and rose leaf-rolling sawflies may be a problem. Rabbits and deer can also find this rose a tasty treat. Roses may suffer from rose black spot (and other leaf spots), rose rust, rose powdery mildew, grey mould, rose downy mildew, silver leaf, crown gall, rose cankers and viruses.
Disorders can include replant sickness and nutrient deficiencies.
Other useful information
This rose was developed in New Zealand by the renowned rose breeder, Samuel McGredy, in 1975. It is a hybrid of an unnamed seedling and Rosa ‘Picasso’. The McGredy family, originally from Northern Ireland, have been breeding roses since the 1880s.
