Absolutely Fabulous Rose Bushes

Absolutely Fabulous Roses

Rose Absolutely Fabulous certainly lives up to its name! It has fragrant double blooms with an unusual myrrh scent and ruffled petals in a buttery yellow, which darken to a deep golden centre. The blooms gently fade in colour as the flower ages, giving a delightful multi-tonal effect. If you're looking for roses of other colours, why not check out our full range of floribunda roses? As a repeat-flowering floribunda bush rose, the flowers are held in clusters right the summer and until the first frosts, above contrasting, glossy, dark-green foliage. Another quality which makes Absolutely Fabulous stand out is how compact it is, usually reaching 75cm in height, certainly no more than 1m with usual pruning, making it ideal for large pots, smaller gardens or near the front of the border. It also has excellent disease resistance, so is a good choice if roses in your garden have suffered from black spot or similar before.

Absolutely Fabulous is relatively new, bred by Tom Carruth in the USA, who described it as one of the best roses he has ever bred. It won the Rose of the Year Award 2010 and has been honoured with the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit - a benchmark of quality and performance in the horticultural world. New roses take a few years to become well known but Absolutely Fabulous has taken the gardening world by storm. If it's a compact fragrant yellow rose you're looking for, here it is!

Absolutely Fabulous Roses look wonderful with

Rose breeders have woken up to the fact that gardens are getting smaller or non-existent and plants really need to earn their keep, flowering for longer and not taking up lots of space. With this in mind, Absolutely Fabulous makes a perfect patio rose - you don't need a garden to grow it. Frame a doorway with two large decorative pots with a rose planted in each. They'll do well, as long as you keep the pots well watered, fed and they are mostly in the sun - a little bit of shade shouldn't affect performance too much. If you do have a patio or terrace, plant several in identical pots around the seating area. Contemporary gardens tend to minimise the number of colours and plants used, so keep repeating the Absolutely Fabulous roses as key features. Guests will love the scent, particularly in the evening.

If you do have a garden, don't plant one rose on its own - follow the example of RHS gardens and plant several en masse at the front of the border - you'll get a spectacular effect of the changing yellow hues and myrrh-like scent. They'll do best near paths, where the scent can be enjoyed, perhaps underplanted with catnip or dwarf lavender. Heucheras with contrasting, deep foliage (Ebony, Plum Pudding, Obsidian, Dark Storm and Black Taffeta) are ideal choices - they will also keep their leaves during winter after the roses have been pruned, continuing the interest.

If you're a flower arranger, Absolutely Fabulous roses are very popular with British florists, being very long-lasting in an arrangement. Cut the flower stem while still in bud to use in a vase or bouquet - the plant will quickly form new blooms.

Features

• Size: Compact
• Colour: Golden/buttery yellow
• Shape (of flowers): Double
• Flower type: Repeat continuous
• Scent: Medium, myrrh
• Flowering: June-October
• Group: Floribunda bush
• Height: 75cm-1m
• Awards: RHS Award of Garden Merit, Rose of the Year 2010
• Good disease resistance
• Ideal for use in large pots, on a patio or terrace

Did you know...

Rose Absolutely Fabulous is also known as the Julia Child rose.

How to plant Absolutely Fabulous

You can order bareroot roses at any time and plant them from November to April, or container roses are available all year round.

Choose a spot in the border with good light. Dig a hole large enough so your rose will be planted with the graft union at soil level and with plenty of room for its roots around the sides. Improve the soil from the hole by removing weeds, large stones, rubbish and roots and adding a shovel full of compost or rotted manure. Sprinkle Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi in the bottom of the hole so it will make contact with the roots. Potted roses should have some roots gently teased out of the rootball before planting.

Position your Absolutely Fabulous rose so its roots are spread out and backfill the hole with soil, firming it gently as you go. Water in thoroughly.

Feed and mulch with well rotted manure in spring every year and keep well watered during dry periods for the first year.

Floribundas are pruned in late winter, when the strongest shoots can be cut back to an outward facing bud 30-40 cms above soil level and the weakest shoots are removed altogether. Absolutely Fabulous should be deadheaded throughout the summer to encourage continuous flowering.