When I consider my favourite roses in the garden, the ones that are ‘must haves’ many are from the French Delbard family of roses. Delbard is a family-run rose breeding company that began in 1935 by the founding member of the family, George Delbard, along the banks of the Seine in France. By 1958, their first research laboratory for rose development and breeding was established and continues to this day, with hundreds of spectacular new varieties and well-loved roses to their name.

Delbard Roses

• Carmagnole- huge thorns, vigorous grower with stunning rose blooms
• Coeur de Neige– beautiful rose, hardy disease resistant.
• Chartreuse de Parfum – exceptional perfume and colouring
• Belle de Signeur– delicate colouring, perfume and shape
• Blue Emotion– one of the best roses in the garden
• Chateau Versaille– prolific bloomer, very stable and large blooms
• Grand Seicle– delightful
• Soeur (sister) Emmanuelle – a must have pink rose
• Nahema climbing – unusual foliage and pretty pink blooms
• La Vien Rose– exceptional roses see below
• Franz Libre – stunning shaped brilliant roses, never out of bloom
• Madame Delbard – cupped form
• Pink Intuition – see below
• La Jago – very large shrub prolific bloomer
• Mitsouko – very pretty well formed roses
• Bordure Blanche – white blooms. good for borders
• Guy Savoy climbing – a happy, colourful and likes hot conditions
• Paul Bocuse – beautiful old fashioned looking
• Pierre Gagnaire – climbing- prolific grower with masses of blooms
• Papi Delbard – vigorous climber
• Grand Nord- lovely white roses tall
• Parfum de Paris – beautiful scent ,colour in old world style
• Souvenir de Louise Amade – fragrant, elegant and feminine
• Dioressence– exceptional colouring and scent
• Bordure Camaieu– smaller rose pink and orange
• Bordure Nacree– glossy foliage great as a border
• Bordure D’or– not grown
• Bordure Magenta – no experience growing this one
• Cote D’Azure- likes hot weather and has sunny bright yellow blooms
• Centenaire de Lourdes – tall shrub pink roses very disease resistant
• Citron Fraise– not grown
• Homage a Barbara – not grown
• Le Rouge et le Noir– not grown
• The Painters Collection list – below

Delbard is synonymous with rose perfection. Their roses are elegant, with exceptional perfume, vigorous growth, a bushy habit, lush green foliage, and are hardy and disease-resistant.
They showcase unique colouring and exceptional bloom in a range of specific rose collections; The. Painters Collection, Grand Parfum Collection, and the French Rose Collection.

The Painters Collection

The Impressionist painters Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Henri Matisse, and Paul Cézanne, among other painters of the period, used brushwork in quick, short dabs of pure colour to depict light and sun. In the Impressionist movement of the 1870s, in France sought to use the light of nature outside and moved away from the traditional Salon de Paris studio for painting. These individual brushstrokes of the Impressionists blended to produce the desired colours when the artworks are viewed from a distance.

The French rose breeder Monsieur Henri Delbard used this same inspiration to create a new range of roses that appear as if an artist had brushed the petals and hand-painted them, blending them in swirls of different colours. He called the roses ‘The Painters Collection’ to honour the great French Impressionist artists.

• Claude Monet
• Alfred Sisley
• Edgar Degas
• Maurice Utrillo
• Henri Matisse
• Camille Pissarro
• Paul Cezanne

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.”

Claude Monet

The Painters Collection of roses is sensational and the blooms catch your eye in the garden with their unique colouring, and happy disposition.  They are not for everyone due to the intensity of colour being perhaps too cheerful for some. In our hot Australian climate brightly coloured roses always are appealing.

Rosa Claude Monet

A standout rose in the Painters Collection is the vibrant stripped, multicoloured rose Claude Monet. The rose was named after the French Impressionist Claude Monet, 1840-1906, who was a life-long gardener and was passionate about flowers and gardens. The term Impressionism movement was actually derived from one of Claude Monet’s paintings ‘Impression Soleil Levant’.

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The images here are last seasons pictures of my Claude Monet roses transplanted from our rural property a year ago. The Claude Monet Rose is disease resistant, profuse bloomer and is very stable. The hotter the weather in Summer the deeper the bloom colour or you may find it turns a more pastel colouring if in a less sunny position, but will maintain the unique stripes.

The Claude Monet rose is a Hybrid Tea with a mild fruity vanilla, scent, perfectly formed, high-centred bloom form and will flower continuously all season to approximately 1 metre tall in vivid glowing pinks, reds and magenta colouring. As the images depict every bloom is uniquely different depending on the climate and heat of the sun.

“What I need most of all are flowers, always, always.”

Claude Monet,

Another absolute favourite is the Paul Cezanne Rose

Rosa Paul Cezanne

This beautiful rose is richly coloured and has a unique ruffled bloom form in clusters and a cinnamon citrus scent. The Paul Cezanne Rose is short to one metre and has more lime-green foliage than other roses.

The colouring is extraordinary, with every petal of the large double flowers seemingly hand-painted, each one different to the next in colours of soft apricot, pink and orange with splashes of buttery yellow and white. The colouring combined with the ruffled petals creates a remarkable rose.

At times, the Paul Cezanne rose is in pastel shades but will be brightly coloured in hotter climates. I grow Rosa Paul Cezanne in a large terracotta pot, and it has done well in its first year with a bit of help for the occasional black spot.

“We live in a rainbow of chaos.”

Paul Cezanne

“Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations.”

Paul Cezanne

“The painter unfolds that which has not been seen.” 

Paul Cezanne

OTHER PAINTERS COLLECTION ROSES

Rosa’ Henri Matisse‘ is a short rose, growing only to 100 cm, and is a Floribunda variety in magenta pink to red with white stripes, featuring a subtle fragrance.

Edgar Degas rose grows to 120 cm and is one of the softer-looking roses in the Painters Collection with unique blooms in amber, yellow flecked with red and pink. No blooms are ever the same, and this one is a prolific bloomer in a camellia-like shape that is hardy and loves our hot Australian climate.

Alfred Sisley rose is another attractive shorter rose growing to 80 cm. It has beautifully shaped blooms in orange streaked with yellow and red. It stands out in the garden against the glossy dark green foliage. The Alfred Sisley rose has won two French rose awards and has good disease resistance and repeat-flowering habits.

Camille Pissaro rose grows to 120 cm and is a Floribunda in yellows and red, pink and white stripes. It is always pretty and eye-catching, growing in the garden.

“There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter
than to paint a rose,
because before he can do so he has first to forget all the
roses that were ever painted“

Henri Matisse

OTHER DELBARD ROSES

Rosa Pink Intuition

Pink Intuition is one of those surprise roses you see in the garden that takes your breath away, and you wonder what it is on first glance, with the whirling palette of pinks from pastels to rich, magentas, and pink on pinks.
 

Pink Intuition is a newer addition to the Painters Rose Collection is a Hybrid Tea sport of the Red Intuition rose and, has large, perfect, classical Hybrid Tea-shaped flowers, massed with petals, in a rich palette of pinks. The roses are on long stems so perfect for cutting and they have a long vase life.

Pink Intuition is a sport of Red Intuition and was discovered in a greenhouse at Malicorne, France, during 2003, and is a spontaneous mutation of an unknown `Delstriro` variety by Arnaud Delbard in France. Rosa Pink Intuition has large, perfectly shaped, classical Hybrid Tea flowers, and a mass of petals and is very graceful and elegant.

Rosa Pink Intuition opens from ovoid buds and is mostly solitary in bloom habit growing to 150 cm x 120 cm wide. I have found it takes a little bit of time to get going but is worth the wait,

Rosa Guy Savoy

Another spectacular Delbard rose from 2002 is ‘Guy Savoy’, a beautiful, rich climbing rose named to honour the famous Michelin-starred French chef, Guy Savoy.

Guy Savoy is a hardy, vigorous climbing rose that reaches heights of 300 metres, featuring fabulous cerise and magenta blooms with white and red splashes. It is a happy plant with stunning colouring that thrives in hot conditions, making it perfect for Australian gardens.

The roses on the Guy Savoy rose are in clusters but also appear singular, with a subtle scent of peach, orange, and vanilla, and dark green, healthy foliage. I found the Guy Savoy rose to be easy to train on a wall or frame, and it blooms all season and well into Autumn.

“Cooking is the art of transforming an ingredient with all it’s history into happiness”

Guy Savoy , A Michelin Star Chef France.

LA VIEN ROSE

La Vien Rose is one of the best-performing roses I’ve grown in the garden. Said to grow to 90 cm, but mine is much taller and a very prolific bloomer. Last season, a newly planted bare-root La Vien Rose was planted in the new garden, and it has grown to 130 cm, still blooming well into winter.

The La Vien Rose has elegance and unique charm. The soft colouring of each hand-painted petal creates a romantic-looking rose. Once established, the La Vien Rose will grow into a nicely shaped, tall shrub with beautiful buds that open to white and pastel pinks, remaining in flower throughout the season.

The complete Painters Collection of roses and other striped roses are available from Wagner’s Rose Nursery South Australia

All content Di BakerJune 2025.

Images Di Baker unless cited from Wikimedia.org