The first rose in my garden to flower, this delightful Rosa chinensis Mutabilis. This variety rivals ‘Old Blush China’ for its excellence as a garden shrub. Its pointed copper-flame buds open to single copper-yellow flowers of butterfly daintiness, soon turning to pink and finally almost crimson. Given a warm sheltered position near a wall it will form a 2.5m/8′ shrub which will probably flower as constantly as any other rose. My thanks here to David Austin for his description – see his excellent book ‘The Rose’ – for it has been a long day and poetry has forsaken me..
The Teddington Gardener 