Best Autumn Roses

March and April are like a second spring for the rose garden. Autumn roses are at their best, with bigger blooms, stronger fragrances and more intense colours, especially the pastel shades of cream, pale apricot, soft pink and lilac that assume a deeper colour because of the cooler days.

As the weather cools down, it feels as if the roses can breathe again. No more scorching sun to shrivel and bleach their petals, evaporate their perfume and stunt their growth.

When gardeners complain to rose grower Ludwig Taschner about the performance of their roses in January and February, his response is always: “Be patient the best is yet to come”.

So, don’t give up on your autumn roses and don’t be hesitant to opt for the softer colours. With the right care, they will flower through to July and provide blooms for the home.

Our pick of the pink autumn roses

Pink is one of the most popular shades in the garden because it is soft and feminine, combining well with most colours. Pink blooms are particularly luminous at this time of year. Light pink, like white, stands out in the shade and glows at night.

There are a few secrets to using pink roses successfully in the garden.

Be aware of the difference between salmon pink (with a yellow base) and mauve pink (with a blue base). Mixing the two can result in an uneasy clash.

To make sure that your colours won’t clash, physically compare blooms at the nursery. That means picking a bloom and walking around the nursery and matching it with other blooms. What might look like a good match in the catalogue doesn’t always work in reality.

Silver, grey and lilac combine well with the ‘mauve’ pinks while blue combines with all variations of pink.

‘Perfumery’

LUDsheitan (N)

The name says it all, this rose is a perfume powerhouse. The champagne orange buds open up into shades of pink with long elegant stamens. It exudes a strong fruity fragrance and the mature bloom is reminiscent of the old-fashioned quartered rosette.

This is a preferred variety for bees who work strenuously to get in between the petals to reach the nectar and pollen. On open blooms, one finds several bees per flower. As this variety flowers almost non-stop for nine months it is good to have them strategically spaced in a garden.

‘Never Ending Story’

DELludroja (P)

This striped rose is endlessly fascinating, slowly changing shape and colour as the flowers open and display a blend of rosy-pink, yellow and apricot shot through with stripes. The lightly fragrant blooms are carried upright on straight stems and the shoulder-high bush is covered with healthy, disease-resistant foliage.

‘Knysna Rose’

KORknysna (N)

This Fairytale rose is a modern shrubby rose, extremely healthy and flowers abundantly with unusually big, fully petalled pompom blooms. In autumn the colours become a glowing blend of apricot, salmon and pink. The stiff narrow petals are especially beneficial in very humid climates as they do not cling to each other. The shoulder-high bush has an extensive root system that withstands climate variations.

Making the most of lilac roses

Lilac is a soft mutable shade derived from purple, so it combines happily with all the shades of purple ranging from the lightest lavender and mauve through to intense violet and regal, dark purple.

The late Una van der Spuy, the doyen of rose gardening, believed that lilac combined with other cool colours like soft pastel blues and pinks together with silver-leafed plants was one of the most pleasing garden combinations, especially in a hot country like ours.

Ludwig Taschner, on the other hand, likes to introduce small quantities of contrasting colours because he finds that the sense of well-being tends to fade if there is too much harmony in a garden.

By contrasting lilac with yellow or gold, which sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, both colours become more accentuated. use large and small leaf textures to take the contrast further.

More avant-garde pairings see lilac teamed up with shades of brown, bronze, silver and even black.

‘Dream Weaver’

LUDwisuvo (P)

The radiant blooms display a combination of lavender shades, bright pink and a very slight brown undertone rounded off with a lovely ruby-red violet edge. The flowers are produced as sprays of three buds to a stem, that covers the entire bush. This leafy floribunda grows to hip height, ideal for the garden.

‘Lago Maggiore’

KORonabaj

This Antico Moderno rose produces egg-shaped buds that open into large, globular silver-lilac blooms. These are produced individually or in clusters of three and the stems are thornless. It is a quick repeat flowering rose that grows to hip height.

‘Ocean in Motion’

PEAko-i-nor

This tall, spreading Panarosa grows into a dense shrub with lavender-blue blooms carried on willowy canes that move in the wind. Plant a hedge of this fabulous rose to get the feel of an ocean in motion or train it up a pillar or onto a trellis.

Spicy Brown Autumn roses

These are the real novelty of the rose world and have become favourites over the past 10 years. While brown is the dominant colour, or at the heart of the rose, such roses include many other subtle shades. Their colours vary in intensity as the seasons change but they are at their best in autumn.

Brown-toned roses combine well with yellow or golden-coloured roses. Because they are such novelties, they display well in containers where their unusual colouring can easily be appreciated.

One of the very first brown-toned roses, ‘Julia’ was introduced many years ago and is still in demand.

‘Spiced Coffee’

MACjuliat (N)

This rose has a spicy fragrance and its blooms are a blend of pale amber flushed with lavender and pink. It is an intriguing rose because the blooms change in colour as they age, giving it an antique quality. It is an excellent cutting rose that grows to shoulder height.

‘Liewe Heksie’

LUDgehex

The colour of this rose also varies depending on season, weather and temperature. In cooler weather, its outer petals take on a delicate shade of pink, with brown tones revealed deep in the centered blooms. At other times brown is the more dominant colour, with a golden glow at the base of the petals.

This Fairytale rose grows to hip height and is densely branched and flowers prolifically. It is susceptible to powdery mildew but can outgrow it.

Sweetly pastel roses

One of the challenges of using pastel roses in the garden or the vase is that they lose their distinctiveness when massed together. Use darker red-brown or terracotta pink roses to enhance the colours of these pastel autumn roses. It is more effective than matching them with blue or lighter pink. What works in the vase also works in the garden.

Because the hot summer sun tends to bleach their blooms, rather plant pastel roses in lightly shaded areas as they will still perform with only five hours of sunlight, especially if they receive ample morning sun.

‘The Generous Gardener’

AUSdrawn

This David Austin rose has a delicate charm and exudes a strong fragrance with notes of old rose, musk and myrrh. Its beautifully formed flowers have a soft glowing pink at the centre, paling to white. The petals open to expose numerous stamens, giving it an almost waterlily-like effect. It grows up to 3m high, with strong, elegantly arching stems. Use this rose at the back of the border or trained over an archway, pergola or trellis. It is highly disease-resistant.

‘Free and Loyal’

DELfumblan (N)

This shoulder-high Antico Moderno rose produces huge, strongly fragrant creamy white blooms that open to reveal a soft apricot centre. The blooms are carried individually on long, strong stems and the sturdy bush grows upright.

Jean Geldenhuys

BARludsou (N)

This statuesque Panarosa shrub spreads up to 2m wide and is the ideal specimen rose for espaliering or creating flowering pillars. The tight bud, guarded with greenish petals, opens slowly allowing layers of crisp white petals to separate and spread into an open cup shape with many cream-coloured petaloids filling out the centre. During cool weather periods, a pink sheen appears on the petal rims.

Quick tips for Autumn Roses

Fertilise for the last time in April so that the roses have enough food to flower through to winter.
Keep the leaves disease-free by spraying with Chronos or Rose Protector once a month and watering deeply at least once a week.
Keep removing dead blooms, disbud hybrid teas and remove the centre bud from a candelabrum. If basal shoots are produced by the plant, break off the tip so that they harden before winter.
Do not replenish mulch because the sun must warm the soil at the root level.