For my recent floral design class in Colorado I received a beautiful variety of garden roses from the fabulous Alexandra Farms.
The roses were received via Garden Roses Direct and I was very, very pleased with the packing they provided. The roses arrived in great condition and opened just right for my class. I did work with Sandy at Garden Roses Direct and she helped me figure out which day I should receive the roses so that they have time to open nicely for the class. Timing with garden roses is so important as many of them take a few days to open up fully, especially the darker colors like David Austin Tess & Darcey.
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time you’ll know that I adore David Austin Garden Roses, who doesn’t?! For my late summer inspired color palette I ordered David Austin’s Edith, Tess, Darcey, Juliet and Beatrice. From this selection of garden roses Sandy suggested I also try Candlelight, Princess Aiko & Princess Sakura, Sunset, Fiction, Romantic Antike, Caramel Antike, and Red Piano.
Seriously, the most luscious and gorgeous selection of garden roses for my lucky students!!
Here are up-close photos of these beauties:
Candlelight Garden Rose; a lovely light coloring of gold and peach and a great accent rose to some of the richer, brighter garden roses like Sunset. Opens up to a nice size and great for centerpieces.
David Austin Beatrice; she stole my heart! Rich golden blooms, super ruffly and full. She was a showstopper!
David Austin Edith; sweet and pretty one. Blends nicely with Beatrice and Juliet. She has so much range in colors that she really pairs well with many other roses and offers a great coloring for autumn color palettes. Heck, see here how pretty she looks with Darcey!
David Austin Darcey; speaking of Darcey! You can see above how nicely she pairs with Edith. A great dark Raspberry coloring on this garden rose. This is one of the darker colored David Austin Roses that needs a few extra days to open fully. My experience is that it can take 4-5 days for this one to fully bloom open and this is out of the cooler. I usually process and keep my garden roses out of the cooler until they open to that pristine & perfect bloom and then place into the cooler until I need them for the arrangements.
Princess Sakura & Princess Aiko; ok, let’s talk about these two princesses!! I heard about these two while at Alexandra Farm’s display booth at IFTF last two Novembers when touring the show with Joost of Florabundance.
The Farm’s owner, Joey, introduced me to these two lovely roses and I instantly gushed! They are full, luscious, peachy garden roses and they work gloriously with David Austin’s Juliet! Princess Aiko has a touch more color to it and tends towards a brighter peach and pink. Princess Sakura is a bit more subtle and lighter in colors of peach and pink.
David Austin Juliet; I’ve always felt this is the rose that created the peach craze that started with brides and has been a strongly desired color palette for the past 6-7 years. She seemed to appear on wedding blogs around 2009/10 and has taken a stronghold ever since, who else agrees? Not that I’m the least bit surprised – this rose is perfection. It’s the perfect and most wonderful peach flower!
Romantic Antike; if you are looking for a big rose be sure to check out this one! She offers a full blossom! Gorgeous dusty pink-
Sunset; this rose ties together the various roses above to pull of a fabulous autumn palette – rich, bright, ruffly, big blossom. A perfect blender of colors and/or gorgeous as a stand alone rose in an arrangement. I appreciated its big blossom in our centerpieces-
David Austin Tess, always one of my favorite dark red roses. When anyone asks me ‘what should I use for a burgundy garden rose’ I blurt out – DA TESS! My top picture here makes it look a bit more bright red than it actually is in person. I’m posting this one so you can see the ruffles of the petals. In person it is a darker red and more like the color shown in the second photo-
Fiction, I saved one of my favorites for the end of the post! Sandy had suggested Fiction and I had not seen or heard of this one. When I saw it in person I was immediately smitten. Big blooms are surrounded by two buds — eek! Golden yellow with orange/red tips. love love love. I want this one in all my future bright summer and fall designs.
Red Piano; a brighter Red than David Austin Tess. The shape you see here is about the max of what this rose will open up to, this picture was taken after I had it for a week and this is it. I really like the rounded shape and would definitely use it in future floral designs. One of my friend’s wanted it to open more, but that wasn’t going to happen! Meanwhile, a client saw this rose being prepared for the class and she asked that it be added into her daughter’s wedding flowers – so it definitely sold itself!
Again, I was absolutely thrilled with all of these roses. They all offer so much with their color ranges and size of blooms. All of the roses were grown by Alexandra Farms and shipped via Garden Roses Direct. Many of the roses were David Austin Garden Roses.
