Rosa ‘Spanish Beauty’ – Over the years I have tried to wow our house guests by training the roses around the windows which is a very rewarding way of bringing the garden into the house. It has taken a few years but we’ve finally made it!
Mme. Grégoire Steachelin is one of the earliest roses to flower and is a vigourous and reliable climber. It will easily attain 6 metres. After 20 years of growth against our house, it seems to have reached its full height potential and is therefore quite a daunting task when it comes to pruning time; so over the last few years we have left it to ‘grow freely’ and honestly it looks fabulous!
The overall effect is blousy and informal; it bears masses of large, loosely formed, double-pink flowers whose petals are ruffled – they also carry a heavenly scent. Its one drawback is that it doesn’t repeat flower but it does have the bonus of gorgeous pear-shaped hips in the autumn. We grow our specimen on an east facing wall so by no means in full sun.
I’ve discovered an interesting website* which gives the most wonderfully comprehensive information about individual roses and I’ve also learned a very useful tip from them about growing a climbing rose into an established tree; well worth taking a look.
This popular rose was bred by a great Catalan rosarian called Pedro Dot (1885 – 1976) and it was introduced in 1927. There is another very useful website** where I read that: Dot had been formerly associated with his father, a fruit and general nurseryman, but started his own establishment because his father did not take kindly to his son’s “wasting his time” experimenting with roses!
* https://en.promessedefleurs.eu/
** https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/plants.php
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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2 replies on “Rosa Mme. Grégoire Staechelin AGM”
Always enjoy reading Louise’s recommendations. With today’s, the other beautiful rose we have Pedro Dot to thank for is Nevada. I have grown it for years, and love everything about it.
I have a very small garden so the room taken up by a large rose like Mme Gregoiire S would just be too much, as beautiful as it is.
Thank you David. I had read that Dot bred Nevada so thank you for adding this. It is indeed a beautiful rose – one for my wish list! Louise