Rosa 'MUNSTEAD WOOD' shrub rose (David Austin)

Munstead Wood is a luxury addition to the family of deep purple red roses by David Austin. This English rose produces large, very dark wine red, fully double flowers with an extraordinary perfume. The fragrance is rich, very strong, with a hint of forest berries. The colour lightens up considerably as the flower matures to bright purple pink. It is a healthy, disease-resistant variety of upright growth. Young leaves emerge bronzy red. Blooms in flushes from June until September.

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 need regular 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 bracts. Mulch well before winter, preferably with leaf-mould.

Last update: 07-01-2016