Rosa 'AUSwinston' THOMAS À BECKET shrub rose / floribunda (David Austin)

THOMAS À BECKET is a shrub rose by David Austin, which was created in 2005 by crossing two unnamed seedlings. The result is an attractive floribunda rose that is not fully double like most of the classic David Austin's English roses but stands out with its beautiful colour and medium strong scent with a strong lemon zest. The flowers about 10 cm across, deep fuchsia purple, and bloom almost continuously from June to October and naturally. It forms a many-branched, upright shrub about 1.5 m in height and width. The leaves are deciduous, medium green, less glossy, and highly resistant to diseases. It is very hardy. The variety was first introduced in 2013.

Planting instructions: Prepare a hole of size 30x30 cm. Put your rose in the way that the grafting point is 3 cm deep in the soil. Water well and cover new shoots with soil or bark mulch about 15 cm high. Roses tolerate wide range of soils but thrive in deep, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil, in full sun.

Pruning: English roses don’t require hard pruning like tea hybrids. Just cut last year’s growth by one third to maximum one half in the spring (after frosts) to achieve desired shape, and strong and reliable framework. Cutting it back to 3-5 live buds is possible for re-juvenating. To support extra flowering during the season remove twigs past blossom: cut them off the first leaf with 5 leaflets. Mulch well before winter, preferably with leaf-mould.

Last update: 11-01-2023