Few modern breeders have changed the visual language of garden roses as dramatically as David C. H. Austin. Beginning his breeding work in England during the mid-twentieth century, Austin admired the fragrance, cupped and rosette-shaped flowers, and graceful character of Old Roses but recognized that many lacked the broad color range and repeat flowering found in modern Hybrid Teas and Floribundas. His lifelong goal became combining those two worlds.
His first major introduction, Constance Spry, appeared in 1961. By the end of the 1960s he had developed repeat-flowering roses embodying the style he called English Roses. These roses helped revive international interest in deeply petalled, old-fashioned flower forms and complex fragrances at a time when high-centered Hybrid Teas dominated much of commercial rose breeding. More than 240 varieties were introduced during Austin's lifetime. Among his best-known roses are Graham Thomas, Gertrude Jekyll, Abraham Darby, Heritage, Golden Celebration, Princess Alexandra of Kent, and many others.
Austin received an OBE for services to horticulture as well as major honors from the Royal Horticultural Society and rose organizations. David Austin roses have received numerous RHS Awards of Garden Merit, and the company accumulated dozens of Gold Medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. His contribution was not simply creating individual cultivars; he successfully established an entire recognizable style of modern rose centered on fragrance, character, densely petalled flowers, and graceful shrub growth.
Today David Austin® continues as a family rose-breeding company in Shropshire. The modern program still follows the founder's philosophy while placing increasing emphasis on health, disease resistance, repeat flowering, vigor, and reliable garden performance. Developing a new introduction can take approximately twelve years, with hundreds of thousands of seedlings gradually reduced to only a tiny number considered worthy of release.
