This week it’s the turn of a lovely small rose, one that’s been around my top 20 favourite roses of all time, (the list is pretty fluent, as all favourite plant lists should be) for 28yrs now, really since I started work in his great field. I fell in love with its small perfectly formed scented flowers, borne all summer long on this small plant. The colour works so well so many other plants and it’s one of those roses that really is a delight to have in the garden.

Perle d’Or Is classed a Pom-Pom rose, odd group of roses, most a cross from a small China rose and the Japanese muliflora rose, sometimes they are then cross bred with tea roses to make a odd group of roses. These crosses have resulted in some wonderful forms of roses including Perle d’Or. Perle d’Or was bred in France by the breeder Joseph Rambaux in 1875, he was a gardener at Parc de la Tete d’Or , a beautiful garden in Lyon. But it wasn’t until his son in law, Francis Dubreuil, a tailor originally but lured to the trade after developing a love of roses, introduced some of his father in laws roses after he had sadly passed away. Perle d’Or was introduced in1883. 

It’s parents were rosa muiltflora and Mme Falcot, tea rose. This resulted in a plant that left alone can make 4ft in size if left unpruned but can be kept down to 2ft in size if required. The lovely rich coloured flowers start a rich warm yolk oranges and opens into pale salmon mixed with cream colour. The flowers are borne over the summer months and have quite a beautiful rich scent. The foliage is a good rich green which really helps to enhance the flowers. It is generally pretty disease free as long as it is in a good rich soil, it doesn’t like to be under too much stress. 

It can be found flowering at Mottisfont Abbey Gardens and is available from Peter Beatles roses and David Austin roses