Yesterday, I posted a picture that one of our group had sent to me earlier this week, of this rose just starting to flower.
Now those buds are opening, giving a lovely June flush, and she has sent some updates. Here they are.
‘Francis E Lester’ is a hybrid musk rambler, and therefore flowers only once, but makes up for it in the great profusion of blossom. It’s a very healthy rose, with a strong fragrance. It was bred in the Lester Rose Gardens in 1946 (now called Roses of Yesterday and Today, in California).
It was bred from ‘Kathleen’, a hybrid musk rose, crossed with an unnamed seedling.
It’s vigorous enough to grow into medium-sized trees, reaching about 8m x 5m, so not, perhaps, for the faint-hearted or those with limited space. It’s a lovely thing. The RHS has given it the Award of Garden Merit.
The Pleasure Gardener 