Phyllis Bide Rose
Phyllis Bide is a restrained (almost shy) small climbing rose with fluffy pinkish apricot flowers. After rain they get beautifully speckled with darker pink spots. They remind me of flowers made of crepe paper.
A Good Archway Rose
When I was first choosing roses to cover the new house archways (it seems many years ago!) I liked the sound of Phyllis Bide - she seemed well-behaved and subtle. I bought one for each side of a metal arch, and a third to grow along a fence between a while climbing Iceberg and the eggy-yellow The Phyllis Bide roses which grow up the house archway have taken their time covering it, though. Still, they are the perfect sized climbing roses for this simple task. Being on their own roots has possibly made them weaker. There's now another Phyllis on an orchard archway growing on root stock, and she's much heathier. I'm surprised that Phyllis Bide as a so-called 'modern rose' is in fact so old. My big rose book calls her a Polyantha and dates her introduction as 1923. She is an old-lady rose!
Phyllis is Still Blooming - 2010
Phyllis Bide Roses