I make no apology for choosing another rose this week, we are in June after all, and this amazing climber is such a winner, I just couldn’t ignore it.
Many years ago, we first saw ‘Dortmund’ growing on a wall of ‘The Garden House’ in Devon and as I remember it was the only rose on sale in the nursery at the time. This, in itself, was a recommendation and it immediately went into the trolley!
The foliage of this vigorous rose is glossy and dark green, it always looks healthy: no nasty black spot, no mildew and no aphids! The abundant clusters of single, pillar-box red flowers have white centres with yellow anthers and when they are lit from behind by the sun, they appear almost luminous.
After its first long burst of colour, it needs to be deadheaded; but unlike some so-called repeat flowerers, ‘Dortmund’ really does pack a punch second time round, and it flowers well into October most years. Ultimate height is about three metres, it’s a very compliant rose and easy to prune, and also unusually tolerant of some shade. It doesn’t have much fragrance, but then you can’t have everything!
Rosa ‘Dortmund’ was bred by Kordes, a German family of rose breeders, and was introduced into the UK in 1955: worth noting that they also bred the famous ‘Iceberg’ rose.
NB Louise has published a beautifully produced book of her plant profiles – A Plant for Each Week of the Year. It costs £9.99 and is for sale in our online shop here.
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