China rose

June is the month of the rose. When the archetypal English garden is draped in their finery and you can bury your nose into their blooms and inhale their wonderful perfume.

But it’s not perfume that makes Rosa ‘Mutabilis’ very special but its colouring. Its large, cup-shaped single flowers start off a warm buff yellow, then change to copper pink, before turning red just as the petals drop. The young copper green foliage is the perfect backdrop to this stunning floral display that goes on in flushes from May until the first frosts.

This rose likes a sunny position and can be used as a shrub or a short climber, so against a south facing wall would be ideal. I have it mingling with the purple bronze foliage of an upright berberis and the combination works well. I hardly prune it at all, just removing any dead branches as I spot them, and it has few thorns. A very easy rose to care for, I’m constantly surprised that its not seen for sale more often at main stream garden centres.