A rare impulse purchase (in a garden dominated by selections made via sometimes cartoonishly heavy research), The Poet’s Wife moves into the slot formerly occupied by Lady Hillingdon. It called out from across the aisle at a local garden center.
This was a nose-driven choice, reinforced by the obvious health and spunk of this particular example. Shiny foliage and a surprising many blooms on what is still a small and young plant appear very encouraging.
I can already see one trait not necessarily present in my other David Austin selections: while most alternate between periods of growth and flushes of bloom, this one seems to do both at once. Despite the number of buds approaching the moment of bloom, it’s also expending energy growing new canes.
Pros:
- Another one with a sugary lemon scent!
- Outstanding, rich yellow color
- Form seems very consistent, with each bloom having a clear button eye
- Appears to be floriferous
Cons:
- Tame, floribunda-like growth habit will no doubt delight many people, and make it an ideal container specimen, but I tend to prefer my roses a bit more unruly, and a bit less predictable
- I assume any flora capable of both bloom and growth simultaneously will require heavy feedings, or may risk flowering to exhaustion (or disease susceptibility)… watching carefully
