David C. H. Austin
David Charles Henshaw Austin was a British rose breeder and writer who lived in Shropshire, England. His emphasis was on breeding roses with the character and fragrance of old garden roses but with the repeat-flowering ability and wide colour range of modern roses such as hybrid teas and floribundas.
Career
Austin's first commercially available rose, Rosa 'Constance Spry', was introduced in 1961. In 1967 and 1968 he introduced 'Chianti' and 'Shropshire Lass' respectively. Although these first roses bloomed only once in spring or early summer, they led, in 1969, to a series of remontant varieties, including 'Wife of Bath' and 'Canterbury'. Austin's roses soon became the most successful group of new roses in the twentieth century.Though Austin's roses are not officially recognised as a separate class of roses by, for instance, the Royal National Rose Society or the American Rose Society, they are nonetheless commonly referred to by rosarians, at nurseries, and in horticultural literature as 'English Roses' or 'Austin Roses'.
Since its founding in 1969, he and his firm David Austin Roses in Albrighton, near Wolverhampton, introduced over 190 rose cultivars during his lifetime. Cultivars have been named in honour of his family, well-known rosarians, geographical landmarks in Britain, historical events, and British writers, particularly Shakespeare and Chaucer, and their works or characters. For instance, roses have honoured such diverse entities as the rosarian and artist Graham Thomas and King Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose.
In the twenty-first century, Austin separated his roses into four groups as a guide to further developments. The four groups are:
- the Old Rose Hybrids, roses with the appearance of the Old Roses but recurrent, healthy and with a wide range of colours
- the Leander Group, often with Rosa wichurana in their breeding, with larger bushes and arching growth tending to make them pillar or low climbing roses
- the English Musk Roses, based on 'Iceberg' and the Noisette roses, with pale green, slender and airy growth. The musk rose scent is missing from most, though other scents are present in many.
- the English Alba Hybrids, with tall, rather blue-leaved bushes like the old Alba roses.
In 2010, he was named a "Great Rosarian of the World".
He died in December 2018 aged 92, and was buried at the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, Albrighton, on 4 January 2019.
Books
- David Austin wrote the foreword for
- His annual free catalogue David Austin Handbook of Roses, mainly devoted to Austin Roses but also listing many other varieties on sale, contains information on roses and their care in general, as well as many rose photographs.
"English Rose"
List of Austin cultivars
- 'Constance Spry'
- 'Chianti'
- 'Shropshire Lass'
- 'Canterbury'
- 'The Friar'
- 'The Prioress'
- 'The Yeoman'
- 'Chaucer'
- 'Charles Austin'
- 'Lilian Austin'
- 'Redcoat'
- 'Yellow Button'
- 'The Squire'
- 'The Reeve'
- 'Charmian'
- 'Leander'
- 'Hero'
- 'Wise Portia'
- 'Admired Miranda'
- 'Dapple Dawn'
- 'Graham Thomas'
- 'Immortal Juno'
- 'Lucetta'
- 'Mary Rose'
- 'Moonbeam'
- 'Perdita'
- 'Belle Story'
- 'Troilus'
- 'Tamora'
- 'Bredon'
- 'Dove'
- 'Heritage'
- 'Mary Webb'
- 'Windrush'
- 'Wenlock'
- 'Abraham Darby'
- 'Ellen'
- 'Robbie Burns'
- 'Sir Walter Raleigh'
- 'Symphony'
- 'Wild Flower'
- 'The Countryman'
- 'The Nun'
- 'William Shakespeare'
- 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh'
- 'Fisherman's Friend'
- 'Francine Austin'
- 'L D Braithwaite'
- 'Potter and Moore'
- 'Queen Nefertiti'
- 'Financial Times Centenary'
- 'Sharifa Asma'
- 'Snowdon'
- 'Ambridge Rose'
- 'Claire Rose'
- 'Jayne Austin'
- 'Lilac Rose'
- 'Peach Blossom'
- 'Bow Bells'
- 'Cottage Rose'
- 'Country Living'
- 'Evelyn'
- 'The Pilgrim'
- 'Doctor Jackson'
- 'Emily'
- 'Sir Edward Elgar'
- 'Glamis Castle'
- 'Golden Celebration'
- 'Prospero'
- 'Redouté'
- 'Charlotte'
- 'Happy Child'
- 'Tradescant'
- 'The Alexandra Rose'
- 'Eglantyne'
- 'Radio Times'
- 'Windflower'
- 'Heavenly Rosalind'
- 'Jude the Obscure'
- 'Pat Austin'
- 'Pegasus'
- 'Scepter'd Isle'
- 'A Shropshire Lad'
- 'Morning Mist'
- 'Barbara Austin'
- 'Geoff Hamilton'
- 'Teasing Georgia'
- 'Blythe Spirit'
- 'Buttercup 98'
- 'England's Rose'
- 'Crown Princess Margareta'
- 'Benjamin Britten'
- 'The Mayflower'
- 'William Shakespeare 2000'
- 'Christopher Marlowe'
- 'Comtes de Champagne'
- 'Janet'
- 'Rose-Marie'
- 'Darcey Bussell'
- 'Huntington Rose'
- 'Lady of Megginch'
- 'Lichfield Angel'
- 'Strawberry Hill'
- 'Tea Clipper'
- 'Munstead Wood'
- 'Young Lycidas'
- 'Kew Gardens'
- 'The Wegdwood Rose'
- 'Boscobel'
- 'The Albrighton Rambler'
- 'The Lady of the Lake'
- 'Sir Walter Scott'
- 'Vanessa Bell'
- 'Dame Judi Dench'
- 'Emily Brontë'
- 'The Mill on the Floss'
- 'Tottering-by-gently'
- 'Eustacia Vye'
- 'Gabriel Oak'
- 'Silas Marner'
- 'The Country Parson'