As I worked in and around the garden last week, the colour of the peach roses took my breath away – they are the best I’ve seen so far. Crepuscule, Lady Of Shallot and Peach Profusion, are standouts. Roses in this colourway range from softest shell pink to rosé, peach, salmon, apricot and coral or in some, a striking combination of all, as in Auguste Luise rose.
Peachy is an informal and playful way of saying that something is wonderful or excellent, and it describes these roses to a T. I have collected many peach roses starting from the most delicate soft rose colour in the perfumed Belle du Seigneur, Madame Ainisette, Perle du Or, Princesse Charlene de Monaco, and Anna Oliver. Moving on towards a coral colour in Lady of Shallot, Versigny, Just Joey, and Wollerton Old Hall to name just a few.
“It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves. ”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Peach Profusion rose is always prolific with abundant blooms in a show-stopping display and this year is no exception. It’s not only the number of flowers that make it outstanding but the quality of the blooms which are long-lasting and perfectly formed in the softest shades of apricot, peach to salmon and cream. This one is completely self-sufficient, healthy and trouble-free.
Spring: the music of open windows.
Terri Guillemets
Trees and plants always look like the people they live with, somehow.
Zora Neale Hurston
There are two Peach Profusion roses growing in the garden; one is a standard covered with gorgeous apricot, peach blooms that cascade and hang down from the weight. The other is in the garden surrounded by perennials that create their own micro-climate so requires very little pampering like some I could mention. The rose is akin to a well-behaved child amongst a group of terrors.
Madame Anisette’s rose pictured above was planted several years ago and has only this year flowered well, but according to the rose experts, this is typical of Madame Anisette. It is a unique rose with a spicy, anise, myrrh, fragrance, thick, dark green foliage and the softest cream blooms with a delicate peach centre. Bred by Tim Hermann Kordes in 2004, in Germany and introduced to Australia in 2018 by Treloar’s. It is classed as a Grandiflora hybrid tea rose in the Parfuma® Collection. It is destined to grow tall, up to 180cm and is upright and bushy – my favourite roses. Also, it is, and has been, very good in the extremes of mid-summer heat and can tolerate the Australian dry climate.
I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.
Virginia Wolf
Since 1904, Crépuscule has warmed our hearts with pretty peach salmon blooms. It has been growing in my garden reliably for three years in two large terracotta pots and I’m hoping it will climb up the large concrete water tank. Crepuscule was bred in France by Francis Dubreuil and is classified as a Tea Noisette rose. Crepuscule means ‘Twilight’ in French and certainly gives off the hue of sunset. The colour is, at times, a tan to orange and fades to a peachy apricot. The flowers are in clusters, quite soft and relaxed, that is both decorative and sweetly fragrant. Being almost thornless makes it a welcome plant in the garden that never fails to please, with a prolific number of flowers all season long on soft green foliage.
The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing.
George Orwell
What a unique rose is Soul Sister? A fine balance of peach, lavender and milky coffee colour. Christian Bédard was the breeder in the USA in 2008 and it is a Floribunda hybrid tea rose. The characteristics of Soul Sister are; buds that are long and pointed, blooms that sit high and are centred with a cupped form with a tea fragrance, a bushy shrub that is compact and dense. Mine has taken some time to grow and is, in fact, still quite small after three years or more in the garden. Although it is meant to grow to 150 cm high in an elegant bushy shrub.
All content and images Di Baker 2021
