Published: 17 June 2026 - Watch on YouTube
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the garden. Today I just wanted to make a short one, because the roses have reached that point where they look even more beautiful than the day before. They are in absolute full bloom, and I decided to dedicate this little video to them so I can remember the moment. It is completely overcast today, but that is England for you.
The first rose I want to show you is The Pilgrim, a climbing rose I planted in this border at the beginning of last year. Last year it gave me a little bit of flower but nothing much. This year it is an absolute showstopper, covered in bloom all the way around, with the loveliest butter yellow petals.
You can see all the different stages on it at once, from buds just about to open, to half open, to one fully out. I honestly was not expecting it to grow so vigorously, and I am very much impressed. My only worry now is whether the arch will manage to hold the weight of it.
In the same border I have two shrub roses. One is the Queen of Sweden, with very light powder pink petals. I would say every rose in this border has the most flower heads it has ever had since I have grown them, and on the trellis here you can see the whole range of stages, with the middle bloom fully open.
Behind it, in that salmon orange, is Port Sunlight. It too has more flowers than it has ever produced. I have had Port Sunlight for two years, whereas the Queen of Sweden I have had for around three and a half years. That one was probably among the first David Austin roses my husband bought me for my birthday. The Port Sunlight blooms are huge, much bigger than the Queen of Sweden and closer in size to The Pilgrim.
On the other side of the arch, opposite The Pilgrim, I have Gertrude Jekyll. It was labelled as a small climbing rose. It did suffer a little at first, as I have only had it since last year and it did not produce many flowers, but it has picked up and is giving me some beautiful blooms now. It is very scented too, so you can catch the smell as you pass by without even having to bend down to it.
A little farther along the border is Gabriel Oak, a shrub rose growing in a rather odd shape. There are a few shorter branches with big flowers lower down, and then one very tall branch carrying several trusses. I should really support it somehow to help it along. It is also scented, another one you can smell without much effort, and it shows the same lovely mix of buds and open petals on a single truss.
Not every rose is thriving. The Generous Gardener is the only one I grow in a pot, and it was actually the very first rose I got for my garden, about four years ago. Originally it did so well and produced plenty of flowers. This year, though, it is clearly struggling and seems to have caught some sort of disease. It has not produced any flowers and it does not look very happy.
It has had exactly the same feed and treatment as all the others, so it is not for want of care. I am thinking of chopping it down quite low, because I can see new growth coming from the lower branches. There are a few flower heads trying to form, but the plant looks so unhealthy that I think cutting it back hard and seeing what happens is the kinder option.
The last group of roses I have are in the front of the house, which I hardly ever show in my videos. These are the Lady of Shalott, and they are also in full bloom right now. They really are gorgeous.
So that makes seven varieties of roses in my garden, all of them David Austin. This is not sponsored or affiliated in any way, I simply happen to love their roses, as I am sure a lot of people do. They are absolutely stunning, and I think I will probably end up with more in the future.
That is it for this short one. It may have been a grey, overcast day, but with the roses in full bloom I did not mind at all. I would love to know if you grow any of these varieties yourself, or which ones you have, and whether there are other rose growers you would recommend here in the UK that are as good as David Austin. Thank you for watching, and I hope you enjoyed the walk round.
Tags: #DavidAustinRoses #EnglishCottageGarden #RosesInBloom #CottageGardenRoses #WestSussexGarden #MyWindyGarden