The capricious nature of Spring has certainly been shown lately. At times summery, then suddenly it is winter once more and not sure if a sunhat is needed or a warm coat. After a cloudless, warm and balmy day in the garden yesterday, as I write, it is now only 8 degrees with a strong wind blowing. Despite the fickle and unsettling weather, the roses are opening and colour is slowly filling the garden.
The first flush of roses is out and the favourites from last year are opening in quick succession: Princess Charlene de Monaco, Just Joey, Paul Cezanne, Crepuscule, The Peace Rose, The Lady of Shalott and Soul Sister. These roses were standouts last season, and with another year since planting, they are well-established and covered in buds. Every day, more roses open to grace the garden once more.
The new season’s roses, planted as bare-root stock, are beginning to show their colours too, although a little later than expected. Due to the unseasonal chilly weather, or is it our new cool climate and shorter flowering season?
Grand Siecle, Duet, Pinkie, Twilight Glow, Pierre Gagnaire, Guy Savoy, and Sally Holmes roses are ones I’ve grown before and have planted due to their prolific, robust nature, reliability, and beauty. They are highly sought after for our new garden landscape and are already making a statement.
The Duet rose is one rose I’ve missed in the garden that was fantastic in the past. It is always a prolific bloomer with very stable, gorgeous pink roses.
Weather means more when you have a garden
Marcelene Cox
Duet is a Hybrid Tea bred by Herbert Swim in 1960 in the USA. The rose flowers are distinctive because they develop into a contrasting two-tone pink and paler pink bloom, high-centred and slightly ruffled.
This is just the first bloom of many to follow, as the Duet rose is known for its consistent flowering from spring through to winter, producing masses of blooms per season. Rosa Duet will grow to between 60 and 90 cm in an upright fashion, making it easy to fit into the garden.
It is very early days in the garden, with the bare-root roses planted in late winter. One of the new release roses that is beginning to bloom and looks fabulous, is the Courtney’s Rose, KORwintor. This one is in a stunning shade of soft yellow with pink edges.
The blooms have an old-world, deep-cut shape, and the stems are almost thornless. Courtney’s Rose was bred by Kordes in Germany in 2018. The buds start in a high-pointed shape, are yellow, and open to a softer pink, with yellow and cream tones.
“Many lovers of the Rose will, I think, consider as I do –
Jules Gravereaux
that the Rose garden should not be made for ourselves alone
but also for the Rose.”
I have planted a group of three Courtney’s Roses together as a focal point in the front garden. In time, planting three roses together in a triangle, but closer together than usual spacing, will give the visual illusion of one larger shrub and create a more natural look with more fragrance for the garden.
“Life is a train of moods like a string of beads and as we pass through them they prove to be many-coloured lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
An exquisite rose new to the garden, with a unique colouring, is Versigny, MAS Versi. Versigny is a modern shrub rose bred by French rose breeder Dominique Massad in France in 1992. Versigny is from the Generosa Collection, a cross between parents Graham Thomas and Davidoff roses.
The blooms are large in a perfect rosette shape, cupped and ruffled with a beautiful perfume of orange, apricot, and peach, along with hints of anise and vanilla. Versigny is a shorter rose, reaching 70 cm, with a splendid colouring of soft peach and a deeper glow of salmon-pink in the heart.
“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses”
Alphonse Karr
Every October, at Chateau de Versigny, a castle in France, a gathering of rose and garden enthusiasts comes together from all over France. Versigny was named to honour this devoted tradition. Rosa Versigny is considered a prized gem in the world of roses in France.
This beautiful Versigny rose is now gracing the courtyard and beginning to flower in tight clusters. The roses are charming not only due to the colours of the peach, salmon, and apricot pink petals, but also the glossy foliage creates a striking contrast.
Having the Versigny rose out in bloom is a dream come true, as I’ve wanted to grow it for some time. This is the very first flush of Versigny roses, which are slightly rain-damaged but beautiful, and they will only improve as they grow.
Light is a thing that cannot be reproduced, but must be represented by something else – by colour.”
Paul Cezanne
As we enjoy the spring weather and summer looms, there are hundreds of rose buds in the garden about to open into their first flush of roses. It has been slow this year but steady. It is gratifying, after all the work, planning, and moving roses about in winter, to see the development of a far more interesting, balanced, and charming landscape. The garden feels like the beginning of a sanctuary of colour and scent, which is, after all, why we garden!
Title quote Mark Twain
Content Di Baker November 2025
Images by Di Baker in the Orange garden October – November 2025
