'Munstead Wood' Rose: An Excellent Choice for the Willamette Valley

'Munstead Wood' rose in my garden.

Roses are coming into bloom in the Willamette Valley. There are so many rose options, it can be overwhelming. And I think when a garden has too many roses, it can look like the day after a confetti parade. In my garden, I only have seven roses: two Munstead Wood, two Charlotte, two Princess Alexandra of Kent, and one Gertrude Jekyll. They are all David Austin roses. David Austin roses, sometimes known as English Roses, are roses bred by David Austin that (try) to bring the fragrance and hardiness of Old Roses together with the reblooming (remontant) habit of modern roses. Old Roses are, by definition, roses in existence before 1867, which is the year the first hybrid tea rose was introduced. Modern hybrid teas and floribunda roses are typically bred for the vase and not the garden.

Munstead Wood is the name of garden designer Gertrude Jekyll's estate. Austin introduced the rose 'Munstead Wood' in 2007.  Gardenia.net calls the rose "stunning" and notes it won an Award of Garden Excellence from the Royal Horticultural Society.

David Austin's website has this to say about 'Munstead Wood:' "Bears very deep, velvety crimson blooms with lighter colored outer petals. They are deeply cupped at first, becoming shallowly cupped with time. There is a strong, Old Rose fragrance with fruity notes of blackberry, blueberry, and damson. The bushy, spreading rose forms a broad shrub; the young red-bronze leaves later turn a mid-green."

It grows to be about four feet by four feet. I once installed a front hedge of Munstead for a client. Mine are in pots on the patio. Magnificent either way.