Enjoy Ascot’s Tercentenary ‘Queen Anne’ rose in your own garden

This year, David Austin is helping us to celebrate the tercentenary of Ascot Racecourse by releasing a new English Rose named ‘Queen Anne’ in honour of our Royal founder. It was launched in true Ascot style at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, when David Austin’s gold medal winning rose garden became the catwalk for our couture creations. Three sensational outfits, designed by Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Jones, were on display, each one representing a different century in Ascot’s long heritage.
The ‘Queen Anne’ roses we planted at the racecourse in March this year, produced glorious pink flowers in time for Royal Ascot week and will provide further flushes of flowers during the summer months. ‘Queen Anne’ is a classic shrub rose, with all the characteristics that have made the English Roses so popular. The medium-sized flowers are packed with many beautifully arranged, pure pink petals. There is a well-rounded Old Rose scent with delicious hints of pear drops. It will form an upright but bushy shrub rose of around 1.2 meters, and has the added benefit of very few thorns. It is healthy and easy to care for, making it an excellent choice if you are a novice gardener. ‘Queen Anne’ repeats in flushes throughout the summer and is ideal for rose beds, mixed borders, large decorative planters – as well as a racecourse!
If you would like to enjoy Ascot’s Tercentenary ‘Queen Anne’ roses in your own garden, you can place an order with the David Austin Rose team to secure your roses now. Simply call David Austin Roses 01902 376300 and quote offer code RA3 to receive 10% off any of their mail order products, including garden roses and luxury rose bouquets. The offer will be valid until 30th November 2011. Delivery of bare root roses starts from November onwards. Visit their website for further information: www.davidaustinroses.com

Queen Anne Rose prose competition winner announced

The 'Queen Anne' from David Austin Roses

Recently, we ran a competition with David Austin Roses to write a piece stating what Royal Ascot means to them. The winning entry was so good, we thought we’d put it on our blog. Here is the master piece from Liz Shaw:

Tradition, heritage, fashion and fun,
Top class facilities, second to none.
Great hospitality, fit for a queen,
The perfect location to see and be seen.
Thundering hooves, excitement and thrills,
Smartly dressed jockeys displaying their skills.
Pageantry, Pimms, punters and posies
Amidst David Austin’s magnificent roses!

‘Queen Anne’ by David Austin, is one of five new rose varieties, which will be officially unveiled in May at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London (24th to 28th May).

The medium-sized flowers of ‘Queen Anne’ are a beautiful, pure rose pink, the outer petals slightly paler than the central ones. It will quickly form an upright but still bushy shrub rose, with very few thorns. The blooms have a most attractive, rounded Old Rose scent with hints of pear drops. The rose is ideal for rose beds, mixed borders and large decorative planters. This beautiful rose is named after the founder of Ascot Racecourse, in celebration of the tercentenary anniversary of this national institution.

Deciding upon a name for a new English Rose is something David Austin sees as an essential part of the rose breeding process. Rose lovers write to suggest many hundreds of names each year, which are considered for one of his new releases. From so many options, David Austin aims to choose a name that perfectly suits the unique character of each rose. Many of the rose names celebrate people or places that have played an important part in shaping British heritage.

David C.H. Austin says: “‘Queen Anne’ is a rose with a very classic Old Rose beauty. The flowers have something of the charming character of Bourbon and Centifolia roses, which have long been celebrated by artists. The way the flowers of a rose are held on the stem has always fascinated me – this makes a very particular and often overlooked contribution to its overall character.

Ascot and David Austin announce the launch of the Queen Anne Rose

‘Queen Anne’ by David Austin, is one of five new rose varieties, which will be officially unveiled in May at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in London.

The medium-sized flowers of ‘Queen Anne’ are a beautiful, pure rose pink, the outer petals slightly paler than the central ones. It will quickly form an upright but still bushy shrub rose, with very few thorns. The blooms have a most attractive, rounded Old Rose scent with hints of pear drops. The rose is ideal for rose beds, mixed borders and large decorative planters.

This beautiful rose is named after the founder of Ascot Racecourse, in celebration of the tercentenary anniversary of this national institution. Deciding upon a name for a new English Rose is something David Austin sees as an essential part of the rose breeding process. Rose lovers write to suggest many hundreds of names each year, which are considered for one of his new releases. From so many options, David Austin aims to choose a name that perfectly suits the unique character of each rose. Many of the rose names celebrate people or places that have played an important part in shaping British heritage. David C.H. Austin says: “‘Queen Anne’ is a rose with a very classic Old Rose beauty. The flowers have something of the charming character of Bourbon and Centifolia roses, which have long been celebrated by artists. The way the flowers of a rose are held on the stem has always fascinated me – this makes a very particular and often overlooked contribution to its overall character.

'Some of the David Austin roses have flowers that face upwards, others are gently nodding, while others are held in airy sprays. The flowers of my new variety ‘Queen Anne’ are very beautifully poised on their stems, and this somehow made me feel that the ideal name would celebrate not only a Queen, but also a sport where poise and grace are so important.”

This new variety of rose will be planted at Ascot for all racegoers to enjoy. Subject to the unpredictable English weather, the first blooms of Queen Anne will hopefully be on display in full glory during Royal Ascot and this rose will continue to bloom throughout the summer months. It will also take its place in the National Collection of English Roses which is displayed alongside David Austin’s Plant Centre in Albrighton. This new rose will be available to view on both the David Austin and Ascot websites from mid May and will feature in David Austin’s ‘Handbook of Roses’.

David Austin is the internationally recognised, award winning breeder of the English Roses. These combine the beautiful flower forms and fragrances of old roses with the wide colour range and repeat-flowering of modern roses. As a group they offer a rare blend of beauty, fragrance and functionality with an almost indefinable characteristic – grace. On the Shropshire border, David Austin and his son, also called David Austin, oversee one of the world’s largest garden rose breeding programmes. 150,000 crosses are made between April and July each year and over 250,000 seedlings will germinate the following year. These are grown on to flowering size when the rigorous selection procedure begins. After eight years of field trials, only the best three to six new varieties will be released each year. The ‘Queen Anne’ rose is a wonderful result of this extensive breeding programme.

The ‘Queen Anne’ Rose will be available to buy as a potted rose at the end of May direct from David Austin Roses. Bare root stock will be available to buy from May onwards for November 2011 despatch.