Scientific name: Rosa ‘Pat Austin’
Common name: ‘Pat Austin’ rose
Family: Rosaceae
Cultivar: AUSmum
Trademark name: Pat Austin™
Article by Jeanne Gozigian
One of the spectacular roses at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill is the ‘Pat Austin’ rose. It is a medium sized shrub rose which can be a short climber. Its arching glossy foliage with nodding blooms gives it a graceful look. It is hardy to grow and has excellent repeat blooming (remontant) qualities. The strong seductive tea scent makes ‘Pat Austin’ very pleasant to be around.
‘Pat Austin’ roses in full bloom at Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill (photo by Janice Tucker).
The most spectacular thing about the ‘Pat Austin’ rose is its color: the bright copper color inside its 50 or more petals that shades to a pale copper-yellow at the edge of the petals. This represents a new color break in modern English roses.
Bud of ‘Pat Austin’ rose (photo by Janice Tucker).
The “Old Roses” of Europe lacked the genes necessary for yellow pigments: there were no yellow, apricot, peach or salmon-colored “heirloom” roses. It was the relatively recent introduction into rose breeding programs of genes from several yellow species roses from the Middle East that made these modern colors possible. The “Old Roses” also did not rebloom. It was the introduction of roses from China, especially Rosa chinensis, which made modern repeat blooming roses possible.
David Charles Henshaw Austin was born on February 16, 1926 in Shropshire, England. His goal was to breed roses with the scent of old garden roses but with the possibility of colors available to modern roses. He bred Rosa ‘Pat Austin’ in 1995, a product of David Austin Roses, Ltd. (UK). It is named after his late wife, Pat Austin, an accomplished sculptress. He has created over 150 new English roses.
‘Pat Austin’ is a shrub rose that can reach 5 feet in height and a width of 42 inches. It requires summer pruning to keep it in shrub shape. It does well in zones 6b-9b and is heat tolerant. It can need spring freeze protection. Like many roses, it is subject to powdery mildew. Peter Schneider, in Right Rose, Right Place, says that good shrub roses should be healthy and tough. ‘Pat Austin” is that and very good on the eye!
Enjoy ‘Pat Austin’ at the Museum Hill Garden and consider it for your home garden.
‘Pat Austin’ rose (photo by Andrea Multari)
Sources:
Classic Roses, Peter Beale
Help Me Find Roses, Clematis, and Peonies, web site
Lecture at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill by Scott Canning
Right Rose, Right Place, by Peter Schneider
Wikipedia
