What is the genealogy of English Roses?
When he was an amateur hybridizer, David Austin crossed the Gallica ‘Belle Isis’ with the Floribunda ‘Dainty Maid’. ‘Belle Isis’ has small, light pink, very double flowers and is a once bloomer. ‘Dainty Maid’ produces single flowers and is a repeat bloomer. Among the seedlings of ‘Belle Isis’ x ‘Dainty Maid’, one, in particular, was outstanding. ‘Constance Spry’, as it was named, produced surprisingly large, beautiful, pink flowers. The flowers were deeply cupped in the Old Rose tradition. In addition, ‘Constance Spry’ has a strong fragrance described as ‘myrrh’. It was introduced in 1961. ‘Constance Spry’ had nearly all of the qualities David Austin was trying to achieve, excellent Old Rose flowers with good color and fragrance, all on a vigorous bush, but it was once blooming. Since the repeat blooming gene in roses is recessive, a cross between a once blooming old rose and a repeat blooming rose almost always produces once blooming seedlings, so ‘Constance Spry’ was once blooming. H
