‘Windermere’

 

I bought ‘Windermere’ as a substitute for ‘Jude the Obscure’. Although Jude’s fragrance is one of the best I’ve ever smelled, Jude did not want to grow or bloom.  The yellow flowers also didn’t go with my color scheme. ‘Windermere’ was said to have a similar but lighter fragrance, and people on the rose forums described it as blooming a lot. It also had a creamy white color that would go better with my color scheme. I was still hesitant about it because people said that the flowers lasted only a very short time (a couple of days at most) and was susceptible to thrips. It was also only available grafted, and I only grow own-root roses. This suggested that it wasn’t a strong grower on its own roots. I decided not to grow this rose for many years because of those reviews, but this year I saw that it was becoming very rare. None of the big mail order rose companies, and none of the specialty rose growers produced this rose. It was only sold by its creator, David Austin Roses, and there was a suggestion that this would be the last year it was offered. So I went for it. In its first year it has not been particularly vigorous, but has grown more than Jude did for me. It has had many blooms lasting about 3 days, and it does have Jude’s fragrance albeit not as strong. I was not very impressed with the color and appearance of the flowers over the summer, but these fall flowers of apricot tinted creamy white cabbages have been very beautiful.