A two part post today. First, we will look at a rose, and secondly a cultivation method.
The rose is another attractive Hybrid Musk (HM) ‘Autumn Delight’. Bred by John Bentall, Joseph Pemberton’s assistant, and introduced in 1933. The parentage is unknown, but she has all of the hallmarks of the earlier HM roses bred by Joseph himself.
Long pointed buttery yellow apricot buds streaked with strong pink appear in clusters. Opening to a large creamy single bloom that fades to white whilst retaining a glowing lemon petal base. The lemon glow enhances the long golden stamens, a delight certainly for all bees and pollinating insects. A long lasting bloom as well. She has the signature ‘musk’ perfume that lifts from the blooms to drift across the garden. As with the other HM roses, she gets better and better as the summer turns to autumn, becoming a real autumn delight with large clusters of bloom. No hips though which is a bit of a disappointment.
Exceptionally healthy with good dark foliage, ‘Autumn Delight’ will suit a no spray garden. Having visited Pemberton’s house at Havering-atte-Bower in Essex, sandy soil on a chalk ridge, I think you could grow his HM roses on brick rubble. They are tough girls! Around 1.20-1.50m tall and a little wider. You can prune her or just leave her alone. I leave all my HM roses alone other than the removal of an old stem or two in the winter. Hardy USDA zones 6b-10b. The American Rose Society gives her just a miserly 7.1 –‘an average rose’. I feel she is way better than that but perhaps she doesn’t perform well in the States. Comments are welcome on this point.
For me ‘Autumn Delight’ is a rose with more plus points than minus ones. Since writing this post I am happy to say that ‘Autumn Delight’ is part of the National Collection – Rosa (Hybrid Musk intro by Pemberton and Bentall 1912-1939) held here in my garden.
Part two of this post looks at cultivation. The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed in the photo that ‘Autumn Delight’ appears to be growing in a rock garden. In the first lockdown, I ripped out a carpet of that devilish ornamental nettle Lamium. Yes, it is pretty but invasive. I laid weed matting and created a ‘Zen’ garden of stones with a small birdbath. Initially, I collected large flints from the fields beside the house and carefully arranged them.
Now you would think that a layer of stones is a barren environment. Not a bit of it. There are always small birds on the stones hunting insects. When I move the stones spiders and beetles are everywhere plus a fair number of toads. They have shelter, warmth, and it is damp as well. A perfect habitat for invertebrates and toads. There are also grass snakes here and I see them sunbathing on the stones. Plus of course no damn weeds!
I extended the ‘Zen’ garden last summer to include ‘Autumn Delight’. A fair number of my roses have weed mat with a wood chip mulch around them. This does keep the weeds down but I find weeds will grow happily in wood chip mulch as it degrades. I have now put a ‘stone’ mulch around several roses, and it is easier to strim and clear around these stone mulches. I now buy what is called ‘reject stone’ from aggregate merchants rather than stone picking the fields. Better for my back!
Perhaps not for a small, neat garden but in my rather wild garden these stone mulches work well in that they cut down the workload whilst providing a home for ‘critters’.
This post first appeared on my Facebook blog Rose of the Day on 3rd February 2022
Rose of the Day 