Piccadilly Rose Hybrid Tea Bushes

Piccadilly Rose

Bright, bold and just a teeny bit brassy, Piccadilly is a cheerful hybrid tea rose who flashes her charms unashamedly, just like those famous London hoardings. She's no shy and retiring sort, her big, colourful flowers a joyful, spirit-boosting combination of purest, warmest gold and fiery red, the yellow at the centre, red on the outer petals of the flowers. Like all hybrid teas, the blooms open from perfect pointed buds, and Piccadilly will carry on flowering from early summer all the way through to mid or even late autumn. Her scent is light, and her foliage glossy and naturally healthy, growing from a bushy, dense shrub, and making a strong addition to our range of hybrid tea roses.

What a (Circus?) performer!

Each long stems holds a perfect flower, which makes Piccadilly a lovely rose for cutting and bringing indoors for vases. Outdoors, she's strong, healthy and a prolific flowerer. She's not too big, either, so makes a good choice for smaller borders, or narrower strips of border around the front of the house, for example, in well drained soil in full sun or semi-shade (but note that hybrid teas don't like to be crowded by other plants). Piccadilly will do well in a pot, too, as long as you feed it and mulch with garden compost in spring.

Features of Piccadilly

• Height: 1m
• Width: 80cm
• Colour: warm red with gold petals at the centre
• Shape of flower: double
• Size of flower: large
• Scent: light
• Flowering: repeat, through summer
• Group: hybrid tea rose

A bright light

There's not much known about this glorious hybrid tea, except it was bred by Samuel Darragh McGredy IV in the 1950s, and introduced in Ireland in 1960. We imagine the rose's colour and bravura inspired him to name it after the glitz and glamour of London's busy West End meeting place.

How to plant Piccadilly roses

If planting against a wall leave about 45cms (18") between plant and wall. Dig a hole deep enough to allow the graft to finish at soil level when planted and with plenty of room for the roots. Improve the soil from the hole by removing large stones, weeds, roots and other rubbish and mixing in about 25% by volume of well rotted compost or manure. Wet the roots and sprinkle with Rootgrow so it stays in contact with the roots. If planting a pot grown plant gently loosen some of the roots before planting.

Position your rose so the roots are spread out and it is set at approximately the same level in the soil as it was before being transplanted. The union should be level with the soil when you have finished planting. Backfill the hole with the planting mix, firming it down as you go. Water in thoroughly. Water again a day or two later and then keep watering in dry spells.