Handbook for GARDEN DESIGNERS, LANDSCAPERS AND TRADE
Market-leading roses and support to the garden industry
MARKET-LEADING ROSES AND SUPPORT TO THE GARDEN INDUSTRY
Pictured above: Princess Anne® (Auskitchen) & Olivia Rose Austin ® (Ausmixture) English Shrub Roses, Wynyard Hall, UK
SENIOR ROSE CONSULTANT
MEET THE TEAM professional trade services
SENIOR ROSE CONSULTANT
LIAM BEDDALL RICHARD STUBBS
OUR PEOPLE OUR SERVICE
ROSE
CONSULTANT
JOSEPH STURROCK-SPENCER
365 DAYS
CONSULTANCY
Not only rose variety experts, our team can advise on the many ways to use roses to compliment a design, from wildlife garden settings to companion planting.
YEAR-ROUND AVAILABILITY
In addition to bare root roses available from November to April, we offer potted roses all year round delivered by courier on an overnight service*.
TRADE PRICING WITH A LOW MINIMUM ORDER QUANTITY
We accept mixed variety orders of as few as five potted or five bare root roses.
YOUR CHOICE OF 120 OR MORE ROSES
Our trade range includes over 120 roses from English shrub and climbing roses to ground cover. In addition, we offer discounted pricing on the wider David Austin Roses bare root rose collection.
5 YEAR GUARANTEE
If any roses are damaged on receipt or fail to grow, we will replace them free of charge.
We are a family of ROSE
GROWERS OUR COMPANY
FROM PASSION TO PROMINENCE
In 1961, David Austin Snr. introduced his first rose ‘Constance Spry’. Now, over 60 years on, his collection of English Roses are celebrated throughout the world, winning a plethora of awards for their exceptional beauty, delicious fragrances and outstanding garden performance.
Continuing the legacy left behind by David Austin Snr., our rose experts are still absolutely passionate about developing new varieties of English Roses, continually striving to create an ever more beautiful, garden worthy rose.
BREEDING EXCELLENCE
Our roses are still grown on our family farm in Shropshire using traditional techniques, many still carried out by hand. Each English Rose goes through twelve years of trials and development before being released, to ensure we provide only the very best roses to compliment your projects.
USING OUR ROSES
PLANTING COMBINATIONS
“Create a tapestry of different colours and textures.”
English Roses are some of the best-loved, high-performance flowers in the garden. Their graceful, bushy habit and repeat flowering makes them perfect for the mixed border.
Here are a few of our favourite planting combinations
Lady of Shalott ® (Ausnyson)
English Shrub Rose 4ft (125cm) 4ft (125cm)
Paired with Geum ‘Lady Strathenden’
Vanessa Bell ® (Auseasel)
English Shrub Rose 3½ft (110cm) 3ft (90cm)
Paired with Verbena bonariensis
Princess Anne® (Auskitchen)
English Shrub Rose 4ft (125cm) 4ft (125cm)
Paired with Agastache ‘Cotton Candy’
Gertrude Jekyll® (Ausbord) English Shrub Rose with Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’
Size: Medium shrub 3½ft (110cm) 3½ft (110cm)
Color: Mid pink
Flowering: Repeat
Fragrance: Light-medium, fruity Bloom Size: Medium
Planted with Alchemilla mollis, Nepeta x faassenii ‘Kit Kat’ and Astrantia major ‘Hadspen Blood’.
A fantastic all-rounder, Olivia Rose Austin is the ideal mid-pink for a show-stopping and easy-to-maintain mixed border.
Shady Areas Pots & Containers
dormant is vital, but also focus on using plants that perennials such as work well, but gives you a second wind for creativity come autumn. or add movement and structural interest with grasses like
WILDLIFE FRIENDLY
It’s not just wild species of rose that help create wildlife friendly gardens. Many of the English Roses have single or semi-double flowers, ideal for pollinators to thrive. We have a range of roses to encourage bees and beneficial insects.
Delicate and tough in equal measure with large sprays of old rose scented blooms.
The Lark Ascending ® (Ausursula)
English Shrub Rose 5ft (150cm) 5ft (150cm)
Large heads of up to fifteen nicely spaced semi-double flowers to offer an inticing place for pollinators.
The Lady’s Blush (Ausoscar)
English Shrub Rose 4ft (125cm) 3½ft (110cm)
Semi-double flowers of pure mid pink with a creamy white eye and a fine cluster of golden yellow stamens.
Buttercup (Ausband)
English Shrub Rose 4½ft (140cm) 4ft (125cm)
The flowers are loosely cupped and a little more than semi-double; their colour being a lovely pure yellow.
Scarborough Fair (Ausoran) English Shrub Rose 3½ft (110cm) 3ft (90cm)
FEATURED ROSE
TOTTERING-BY-GENTLY ® (Auscartoon)
English Shrub Rose
Size: Medium shrub 4ft (125cm) 4ft (125cm)
Color: Yellow
Fragrance: Light-medium, musk
Flowering: Repeat
Bloom Size: Medium
With simple, pollen-rich blooms Tottering-by-Gently is perfect to help create an environment where bees, including honeybees and bumblebees, can thrive. It’s also ideal in a cottage garden design.
Mixed Border Rose Hedges
Attracting Bees Rose Hips
The Generous Gardener (Ausdrawn) English Climbing Rose 15ft (4.5m)
Bears beautifully formed, water lily-like, flowers that have a delicious fragrance with aspects of old rose, musk and myrrh.
USING OUR ROSES
CLIMBERS ON STRUCTURES
From clothing arches along an avenue to adorning an obelisk, climbing English roses offer the ability to add all important height to a garden whilst retaining the manageability of an 8-12ft height range.
The Pilgrim ® (Auswalker)
English Climbing Rose 12ft (3.75m)
The colour is a soft yellow, the petals paling towards the edges. It will quickly reach some height and produce flowers and leaves lower down the plant.
Wollerton Old Hall ® (Ausblanket)
English Climbing Rose 12ft (3.75m)
A wonderful climber. Flashed red buds open to beautifully rounded, chaliceshaped blooms with a warm myrrh fragrance.
Strawberry Hill® (Ausrimini)
English Climbing Rose 10ft (3m)
Bears small clusters of mid pink, medium-large, cupped rosettes with a strong, delicious myrrh and heather honey fragrance.
(Ausorts)
English Climbing Rose
Size: Medium climber 12ft (3.75m)
Color: Light pink
Fragrance: Light-medium, old rose
Flowering: Repeat
Bloom Size: Medium
Our pick for climbing on multiple structures is Mary Delany. Delicately beautiful with loose double flowers produced over a very long season, this exceptionally healthy and almost thornless rose is ideal rose for obelisks, fences, doorways or arches. 6ft
TOP TIP - TRAINING ROSES
For pillars, train the stems in a spiral around them to encourage the flowers from the ground upwards. Tie-in at 8” (20cm) intervals, attaching the rose to the pillar.
For obelisks, train a couple of the main stems straight up to the top of the structure. Then spiral the other stems around the structure, tying-in as you go - this encourages flowers from the ground upwards. Once the stems have reached the top, regularly prune to keep them within bounds.
RAMBLING ROSES
There are few more magnificent sights than a rambling rose in full flower covering architecture or grown up a tree. With a choice of over twenty varieties, some of which repeat flower, these roses are a great addition to designs.
Exceptionally tall and vigorous bearing rosette-shaped flowers held in large, open sprays. Although it is only once flowering, its blooms are born in great abundance, making a magnificent display.
Malvern Hills (Auscanary)
English Rambling Rose 15ft (4.5m)
A repeat flowering rambler, bearing fully double, soft yellow blooms held in medium to large clusters.
Super Fairy
Rambling Rose 12ft (3.75m)
Fully double, mid pink flowers produced in great abundance. Lower growing and manageable. Repeat flowering.
Adélaïde d’Orléans Rambling Rose 20ft (6m)
Semi-double flowers, which quickly fade from cream to white hanging gracefully rather like the blooms of a Japanese cherry. Once flowering.
Paul’s Himalayan Musk Rambling Rose 40ft (12m)
FEATURED ROSE
FRANCIS E. LESTER
Rambling Rose
Size: Tall Rambler 20ft (6m)
Color: Pale pink and white
Fragrance: Strong, musk
Flowering: Once
Bloom Size: Small
A beautiful rambler smothered with huge bunches of small, single blooms reminiscent of apple blossom. Whilst only once-flowering, Francis E. Lester is our top choice based on its sheer quantity of blooms, health and strong musky fragrance which carries over a wide area.
Large Arch Pergola Large Structures
Shady Areas Rose Hips Attracting Bees
Kew Gardens® (Ausfence) English Shrub Rose 4ft (125cm) 4ft (125cm)
USING OUR ROSES
ROSE HEDGING
Frame the perimeter of a property or scale a boundary fence with a rose hedge. Roses grown as hedges offer wonderful impact, as well as creating a simple colour block effect.
Olivia Rose Austin ® (Ausmixture)
English Shrub Rose 3½ft (110cm) 3½ft (110cm)
Early flowering, beautiful cupped rosettes with a strong fruity fragrance. Vigorous, healthy growth with excellent repeat flowering.
Desdemona ® (Auskindling)
English Shrub Rose 3½ft (110cm) 3½ft (110cm)
Beautiful, white, chalice-shaped blooms with a strong old rose fragrance held on an attractive neat, rounded, bushy shrub.
Harlow Carr (Aushouse)
English Shrub Rose 3ft (90cm) 3ft (90cm)
Perfect, shallow cupped blooms with a strong, pure old rose fragrance. Very free flowering from early summer to late autumn.
FEATURED ROSE
QUEEN OF SWEDEN
(Austiger)
English Shrub Rose
Size: Medium shrub 4ft (125cm) 3ft (90cm)
Color: Light pink
Flowering: Repeat
Fragrance: Medium, myrrh Bloom Size: Medium
A bushy yet upright shrub, the Queen of Sweden rose is tough and particularly healthy with shallow cups of the purest pale pink. An ideal hedging rose whose blooms hold their form extremely well and stand proud and tall, almost soldier-like.
TOP TIP
In order to give the illusion of a knitted together hedge, we recommend planting most small to medium shrub roses around 50cm (18”) apart. This allows the roses to grow in to each other and weave a dense structure. Larger roses can be planted slightly further apart, but planting a little closer than half the mature width will give you this effect.
Mixed Border Rose Hedges Cutting
Shady Areas Rose Border
RICHARD’S TOP THREE ROSES
1. THE LARK ASCENDING ® (Ausursula)
English Shrub Rose
“Wildlife friendly, this very long blooming rose is both healthy and reliable. It makes a great hedge or border rose. I grow Verbena Bonariensis with mine, the soft apricot and the blue look wonderful together.”
2. STRAWBERRY HILL ® (Ausrimini)
English Climbing Rose
“With healthy, shiny foliage and medium sized mid pink flowers produced over a long period Strawberry Hill is one of my favourite climbers. I often pick flowers off this at Christmas! It’s ideal for small arches, fences and obelisks.”
3. DESDEMONA ® (Auskindling)
English Shrub Rose
“A beautiful off-white shrub that has almost irradiance to the petal coupled with a beautiful scent, long flowering and health. It mixes well with apricots and orange pinks in mixed borders. A great hedge and also good planted in containers.”
BREEDER’S FAVOURITES
CARL’S TOP THREE ROSES
1. EMILY BRONT Ë ® (Ausearnshaw)
English Shrub Rose
“Emily Brontë has the most exquisite flowers with an unusual, but pleasing colouring. A robust variety with superb disease resistance and strong fragrance.”
LIAM’S TOP THREE ROSES
1. DAME JUDI DENCH ® (Ausquaker)
English Shrub Rose
“Free flowering and healthy with an arching and informal habit, the Dame Judi Dench rose is useful in mixed borders and can also be grown as a small climber. She is very versatile and pairs well in my own garden with Clematis viticella ‘Polish Spirit’ on an obelisk. Also, try Verbena rigida to clothe the legs when grown as a shrub.”
2. SCARBOROUGH FAIR (Ausoran)
English Shrub Rose
“Another extremely free-flowering, reliable and very healthy rose. Peony shaped blooms that work well with herbaceous perennials in front of a border, Scarborough Fair also produces good hips. A good tip being to leave some of the flowers after the first flush un-deadheaded to allow a good crop of hips. Pairs well with silver flowered groundcover type perennials like Stachys byzantina ‘Silver Carpet’.”
3. THE GENEROUS GARDENER (Ausdrawn)
English Climbing Rose
“A very healthy and vigorous, soft pink climbing rose that is a fantastic choice for a north-facing wall. The new growth starts out red in colour and is one of the first signs of spring for me. Dark green foliage clothes the plant and holds for a long period. If left un-deadheaded, the plant goes on to produce large, orange hips. The Generous Gardener has a wonderfully strong and complex fragrance and pairs well with the deep red flowers of Clematis ‘Kermesina’.”
2. JAMES L. AUSTIN ® (Auspike)
English Shrub Rose
“A variety of outstanding beauty. It has compact, upright and close growth which makes it ideal for the border, pot or hedge. Seldom is it without flower and is very healthy”
3. TOTTERING-BY-GENTLY ® (Auscartoon)
English Shrub Rose
“A rather simple, yet pretty rose that lights up the border. Perfect for all aspects in the garden making it truly diverse. Also attractive to pollinators, it is a very healthy variety with a pleasing, light fragrance.”
VARIETY
ENGLISH SHRUBS
Boscobel® (Auscousin)
Buttercup (Ausband)
Charles Darwin (Auspeet)
Comte de Champagne (Ausufo)
Dame Judi Dench® (Ausquaker)
Desdemona® (Auskindling)
Emily Brontë® (Ausearnshaw)
England's Rose (Auslounge)
Eustacia Vye® (Ausegdon)
Gabriel Oak® (Auscrowd)
Gentle Hermione (Ausrumba)
Gertrude Jekyll® (Ausbord)
Golden Celebration® (Ausgold)
Grace (Auskeppy)
Harlow Carr (Aushouse)
Hyde Hall (Ausbosky)
James L. Austin® (Auspike)
Kew Gardens® (Ausfence)
Lady of Shalott® (Ausnyson)
Lichfield Angel® (Ausrelate)
Lochinvar (Ausbilda)
Molineux® (Aumol)
Morning Mist (Ausfire)
Noble Antony (Ausway)
Nye Bevan® (Auspital)
Olivia Rose Austin® (Ausmixture)
Port Sunlight® (Auslofty)
Princess Alexandra of Kent® (Ausmerchant)
Princess Anne® (Auskitchen)
Queen of Sweden (Austiger)
Roald Dahl® (Ausowlish)
Royal Jubilee (Auspaddle)
Scarborough Fair (Ausoran)
Scepter'd Isle® (Ausland)
Silas Marner® (Ausraveloe)
Sir John Betjeman® (Ausvivid)
Skylark (Ausimple)
Summer Song (Austango)
Susan Williams-Ellis® (Ausquirk)
A QUICK USES GUIDE FOR ENGLISH ROSES
VARIETY
ENGLISH SHRUBS
The Ancient Mariner® (Ausoutcry)
The Country Parson® (Ausclergy)
The Lady Gardener® (Ausbrass)
The Lady’s Blush (Ausoscar)
The Lark Ascending® (Ausursula)
The Mayflower® (Austilly)
The Poet's Wife® (Auswhirl)
Thomas à Becket® (Auswinston)
Tottering-by-Gently® (Auscartoon)
Tranquillity® (Ausnoble)
Vanessa Bell® (Auseasel)
Wildeve (Ausbonny)
William and Catherine (Ausrapper)
Wisley 2008® (Ausbreeze)
Young Lycidas® (Ausvibrant)
VARIETY
ENGLISH CLIMBERS
Bathsheba® (Auschimbley)
Claire Austin® (Ausprior)
Constance Spry (Ausfirst)
Gertrude Jekyll® (Ausbord)
James Galway (Auscrystal)
Mary Delany® (Ausorts)
Shropshire Lass
Strawberry Hill® (Ausrimini)
The Generous Gardener (Ausdrawn)
The Pilgrim® (Auswalker)
Wollerton Old Hall® (Ausblanket)
ENGLISH RAMBLERS
Malvern Hills® (Auscanary)
The Albrighton Rambler® (Ausmobile)
The Lady of the Lake® (Ausherbert)
Emily Brontë® (Ausearnshaw) English Shrub Rose 4ft 3½ft
Strong, Tea/Old Rose fragrance
Wildeve (Ausbonny) English Shrub Rose 4ft 5ft
Light, Fruity fragrance
Gentle Hermione (Ausrumba) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4½ft
Strong, Myrrh fragrance
INDEX BY COLOUR
Trade Collection
ENGLISH SHRUB ROSES
Wisley 2008® (Ausbreeze) English Shrub Rose 4½ft 4½ft
Light, Fruity fragrance
Queen of Sweden (Austiger) English Shrub Rose 4ft 3ft
Medium, Myrrh fragrance
Scepter’d Isle® (Ausland) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Storng, Myrrh fragrance
Silas Marner® (Ausraveloe) English Shrub Rose 3ft 4½ft
Medium-strong, Old Rose fragrance
Olivia Rose Austin® (Ausmixture) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 3½ft Light-medium, Fruity fragrance
Scarborough Fair (Ausoran) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 3ft
Medium, Old Rose fragrance
Eustacia Vye® (Ausegdon) English Shrub Rose 4ft 3ft Strong, Fruity fragrance HEALTH FRAGRANCE
Hyde Hall (Ausbosky) English Shrub Rose 5ft 5ft
Light, Fruity fragrance
The Mayflower (Austilly) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 3ft
Medium-strong, Old Rose fragrance
The Lady’s Blush (Ausoscar) English Shrub Rose 4ft 3½ft
Light fragrance
Skylark (Ausimple) English Shrub Rose 4ft 3½ft
Light, Musk/Tea fragrance
The Ancient Mariner® (Ausoutcry) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Medium-strong, Myrrh fragrance
Harlow Carr (Aushouse) English Shrub Rose 3ft 3ft
Strong, Old Rose fragrance FLOWERING FRAGRANCE
Morning Mist (Ausfire) English Shrub Rose 6ft 5ft
Light, Musk fragrance
Boscobel® (Auscousin) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 3½ft
Medium-strong, Myrrh fragrance
Gertrude Jekyll® (Ausbord) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 3ft
Strong, Old Rose fragrance
Royal Jubilee (Auspaddle) English Shrub Rose 4½ft 4½ft
Medium-strong, Fruity fragrance
Noble Antony (Ausway) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 3½ft
Medium, Old Rose fragrance
England’s Rose (Auslounge) English Shrub Rose 3ft 3½ft
Medium, Old Rose fragrance
Young Lycidas® (Ausvibrant) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Strong, Tea/Old Rose fragrance
Princess Anne® (Auskitchen) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Medium, Tea fragrance
Princess Alexandra of Kent® (Ausmerchant) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Strong, Tea fragrance
James L. Austin® (Auspike) English Shrub Rose 4ft 3½ft
Light-medium, Fruity fragrance
FRAGRANCE
Gabriel Oak® (Auscrowd) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft Strong, Fruity fragrance
Thomas à Becket® (Auswinston) English Shrub Rose 4½ft 4½ft
Medium. Old Rose fragrance
Sir John Betjeman® (Ausvivid) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft Light fragrance FLOWERING
Summer Song (Austango) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Strong, Tea fragrance
FLOWERING
Lady of Shalott® (Ausnyson) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Medium, Tea fragrance
Dame Judi Dench ® (Ausquaker) English Shrub Rose 3½ft 4ft
Light-medium, Tea fragrance
ENGLISH SHRUB ROSES
ENGLISH SHRUB ROSES
Tottering-by-Gently® (Auscartoon) English Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
Light-medium, Musk fragrance
Molineux® (Ausmol) English Shrub Rose 3ft 3ft
Light-medium, Tea/Musk fragrance
Buttercup
Golden Celebration® (Ausgold)
Shrub Rose 4ft 4ft
The Poet’s Wife® (Auswhirl) English Shrub Rose, Wynyard Hall, County Durham
OTHER SHRUB ROSES
Ispahan
Rosa
Bonica
Pichard
R. Gallica ‘Officinalis’ Old Rose
Rose fragrance
Hansa Rugosa Rose
Old Rose fragrance
William Lobb Old Rose
6ft
Old Rose fragrance
Roseraie de l’Hay Rugosa Rose
7ft
Rhapsody in Blue Shrub Rose
Tuscany Superb Old Rose
Grouse
Cover Rose
Blue For You (Pejamblu) Floribunda 3ft 2½ft Medium, Sweet fragrance
Charles de Mills Old Rose 5ft 4ft Medium-strong, Old Rose fragrance
Penelope Shrub Rose
Champagne Moment (Korvanaber) Floribunda
Iceberg
Sweet fragrance
Little White Pet Shrub Rose
Fragrance
Mme. Hardy Old Rose 5ft 4ft Strong, Old Rose fragrance
The Generous Gardener (Ausdrawn) English Climbing Rose 15ft Strong, Old Rose/Musk/Myrrh fragrance
Strawberry Hill® (Ausrimni) English Climbing Rose 10ft
Strong, Myrrh fragrance
James Galway (Auscrystal) English Climbing Rose 12ft
Light-medium, Old Rose fragrance
Constance Spry (Ausfirst) English Climbing Rose 20ft
Strong Myrrh, fragrance
Mary Delany® (Ausorts) English Climbing Rose 12ft
Light-medium, Old Rose fragrance
Shropshire Lass
English Climbing Rose 15ft
Medium-strong, Myrrh fragrance
Cécile Brunner Climbing Rose 25ft Medium, Sweet fragrance
Blush Noisette Climbing Rose 10ft
Strong, Musk fragrance
Constance Spry (Ausfirst) English Climbing Rose, Private Gardens, Dorset
CLIMBING ROSES
Gertrude Jekyll® (Ausbord) English Climbing Rose 8ft
Strong, Old Rose fragrance
Warm Welcome (Chewizz) Climbing Rose 8ft
Light, fragrance
Bathsheba® (Auschimbley) English Climbing Rose 10ft
Medium-strong, Myrrh fragrance
FRAGRANCE
Wollerton Old Hall® (Ausblanket) English Climbing Rose 12ft
Strong, Myrrh fragrance
FRAGRANCE
HEALTH
FRAGRANCE FLOWERING
English
Strong, Fruity fragrance
Iceberg Climbing Rose 15ft Light, Sweet fragrance
Mme. Alfred Carrière Climbing Rose 25ft
Claire Austin® (Ausprior)
Climbing Rose 12ft Strong, Myrrh fragrance
The Pilgrim® (Auswalker) English Climbing Rose 12ft
Here we have compiled a list of a few of our favourite gardens with collections of our English Roses. Immerse yourself in these spaces for inspiration on how to use our English Roses in different settings.
MIDLANDS
DAVID AUSTIN ROSES, Shropshire
WOLLERTON OLD HALL, Shropshire
WYNYA R D HALL
WALES
BODNANT GARDEN, (National Trust) Conwy
SOUTH WEST
POOLE HARBOUR PARK, Dorset
RHS ROSEMOOR, Devon
NORTH & SCOTLAND
PORT SUNLIGHT, Wirral
ALNWICK GARDEN, Grantham
WEMYSS CASTLE, Fife, Scotland
WYNYARD HALL, Tees Valley
EAST MIDLANDS
BELVOIR CASTLE, Grantham
SOUTH EAST
RHS HYDE HALL, Chelmsford, Essex
LONDON
KEW GARDENS, Richmond, Surrey
RHS WISLEY, Surrey
BORDE HILL GARDEN, West Sussex
ESG STRATEGY
BLOOM
BLOOM is our commitment to the future. It’s an ambitious socially responsible plan, focussing on bringing everything we do for our people, our planet, the wider community, and gardeners of the future under one umbrella.
We know that as growers of natural products we have a duty to care for the environment. We continually work on ever growing our responsible decision making, using our business as a force for good.
USE OF CHEMICALS
In our horticultural regime we were early adopters of non-neonicotinoid pesticides in our production beds and now host several beekeepers who have hives around our nursery.
We do not spray the roses in our extensive trial programme and it is our intention that the latest generation of David Austin roses should be able to survive well in the garden, without the need for continual spraying by our customers.
We continue to implement crop IPM (outdoor and under protection) to reduce our use of pesticides.
We minimise reliance on herbicides by utilising alternative husbandry methods like mechanical weeders, bark toppers, membranes, cover crops and field rotations.
WATER AND ENERGY
A reliable source of water is the lifeblood of our nursery. It is vital that we protect the river which feeds our nursery and consider the ecosystem downstream. It was with this in mind that we invested £0.75m in a water capture and recycling system that means that we capture 60-80% of the rainwater and irrigation water that falls on our nursery, which provides at least 90% of our annual water consumption. Our extended reservoirs have also provided a new habitat for many wildfowl.
We have also installed an efficient biomass boiler which provides 100% of the heating for our rose-breeding greenhouses. This has now been running for eight years and has completely removed our reliance on heavy fuel oil to provide this heating.
For our production facility, offices and cold stores we have installed electro-voltaic solar panels across a number of our roofs. These panels are generating around 50% of our peak electrical needs, increasing to 80% of our needs in quieter periods.
WASTE AND MATERIALS
We have agreements in place with our waste-disposal company to recycle most of our waste products and the company wide waste policy ensures that waste is sorted into different streams to facilitate this.
Our distinctive David Austin Roses 6 litre pot has gradually changed recipe so that it is now formed of post-consumer waste and is fully recyclable at kerbside. The distinctive slot in label is also fully recyclable.
Our mail order packaging is now recyclable too, the internal “plastic” bag is made from potato starch and we are continually working towards 100% recyclable packaging.
We are pleased that our use of black plastics has been reduced to zero.
As part of our BLOOM commitments, we are pleased to be a key partner of the Young People in Horticulture Association (YPHA), supporting the future of our industry.
CONTACT US
Our team are based at our Head Office in Albrighton Shropshire. We welcome visits from our trade customers and are available to talk through any requirements on 01902 376 347 or be emailing protrade@davidaustinroses.co.uk
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David Austin Roses Limited, Bowling Green Lane, Albrighton, Shropshire WV7 3HB www.davidaustinroses.co.uk
