Evelyn Rose

We have been enjoying a lot of flowers in the garden this year.  When the kids go out to feed their pets in the morning they often make comments about how fragrant the air is.  The strongest fragrance is coming from the orange blossoms but there are several roses that are really sweet-smelling.  One of them is the rose 'Evelyn'. 

'Evelyn' rose has beautiful flowers.  The pictures give a very accurate representation of the typical spring bloom.  The color is what I would call peachy-pink.  There's a color gradient that goes more intense towards the center of the flower, the outer petals being light pink.    In the spring the color slowly fades into very light pink.  During hotter months, the color is quite different.  They do not have the exciting color gradient.  I think that although Evelyn has a very desirable appearance and fragrance, its beauty is not consistent in all growing conditions.  In my yard I have two of them.  I transferred the one which used to be in my vegetable garden to a different location where it would get some shade during the later time of the day.    We'll see how they do when our temperatures rise to 100-115º F come July-August. 

Based on my own observations, 'Evelyn' does not have a beautiful form as a plant.  The canes and stems are long with a very heavy cluster of flowers on the ends.  As a result they tend to bend down.  (I had to prop up the flowers whe I took these pictures.)

This year I will try to limit fertilizer application to help shorten the canes and branches.  We'll see if it works.  So far I have not applied fertilizer to my roses this year.  After the first blooms are spent I will fertilize some.

'Evelyn' is one of the David Austin English roses.  It resulted from a cross between Tamara (pink rose)and Graham Thomas (yellow rose).  I believe it was bred and selected to be(become) the basis of  Crabtree & Evelyn's signature fragrance.