Geoff Hamilton Rose
Back in 2004 Geoff Hamilton was the latest David Austin English roses to join my garden. In his first summer he decided to bloom beautifully. The flowers were light pink, and very pretty, in an old-fashioned rose way.
Geoff Hamilton
The Geoff Hamilton rose is named for a famous British gardener, who was a gardening TV guru, and who died in 1995. In its first two flowering seasons my Geoff Hamilton got a little bit 'bud-bound' - and I was suspicious of his potential to flower properly. Then he had a good flowering season, and I was relieved I hadn't ripped him out.
My antipodean love affair with the so-called 'English Roses' has continued well past 2004 - and I wish I'd had a chance to see the real Geoff Hamilton. Unfortunately his rose is no longer with me. There ended up being too many bloomless seasons of tightly balled rotting buds, I'm afraid. Sorry about that.