Constance Spry™

This rose's location in the garden is SE 9.

• Classification:   Shrub, (grown as climber)
• Flower Color:  light pink
• Flower Size:  5 inches
• Flower Form:  cupped, globular, old-fashioned bloom form
• Petal Count: 55-70
• Fragrance:  moderate myrrh
• Repeat Bloomer:  no
• Foliage:  dark green
• Plant Height:  spreading shrub (6 - 7 feet) or climber (12 - 15 feet)
• Plant Width:  6 – 10 feet
• Growth Habit: vigorous, lax growth
• Disease Resistant:  no
• Hybridizer:  David Austin (U.K.)
• Registered:  1961
• Parentage: ‘Belle Isis’ x ‘Dainty Maid’
• ARS* Rating:  8.3 (a very good to excellent rose)
  *American Rose Society Rating

Awards:

• 1996 Award of Garden Merit from the Royal National Rose Society

Notes:

• Constance Spry, who lived in the early twentieth century, was an innovative and creative designer who wrote 13 books for do-it-yourselfers and championed self-expression and experimentation at her London and New York Domestic Science Schools.  She decked out Westminster Abbey and the royal parade route for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation with her floral designs.  She preferred old garden roses to the modern hybrid teas, and is credited with preserving many varieties that may have been lost otherwise. David Austin named the first of his English Roses after her. --- (Brenner and Scanniello, A Rose by Any Name, page 62-64)