Kate's Rose

Kate's Rose is an Australian rose bred by Kate Cox and released in 1988. Pictured above with an unknown species rose, she is an utter delight in the garden, and I would love to source some more plants to add to the one sole specimen that I have.

She is a polyantha, being a seedling from the rose baby Faurax. I had the privilege of meeting Kate and her husband, rose expert Peter Cox, some years ago, and felt totally star-struck as I held out Peter's fabulous book "Australian Roses" for him to autograph. Nerdy, I know.....

To use the description of Kate's Rose written by Peter himself in his book:

"KATE'S ROSE-1988. Seedling of Baby Faurax. Polyantha bush rose. Semi-double, no fragrance, purplish pink cupped flowers on clusters, fully recurrent. Light to mid green foliage. Few prickles. Flower- 15 petals, 25mm, 5 to 26. Small bush: 0.5 x 0.75m."

Planted in a garden where roses fend for themselves and the golden rule for success is "Survival Of The Fittest", Kate's Rose has thrived. She has never been pruned or sprayed or fed or even mulched, yet she flowers her head off and NEVER gets hit with black spot. Her foliage is always fresh and healthy, and all this whilst having to cope with own-root species roses that are creeping their way out of the section that was designated 'the wild garden'. The big pink rose in the photo above is one such pushy neighbour.

I think what I love most about Kate's Rose is the cuteness of her little cupped flowers...they really are just so sweet. She is definitely a rose that I would place in my imaginary "What roses would I save in a fire/flood/tornado?" scenario.