''Rosa'' 'English Miss' is a Floribunda

rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

bred by Roger Pawsey of Cants of

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in 1977. The cultivar was introduced into Great Britain in 1979. The plant is a compact, bushy shrub with light pink camellia-like flowers. It is disease resistant and blooms continuously from June to mid-October.

History

Cants of Colchester Cants of Colchester was a firm of commercial rose growers, and was the oldest in Great Britain, Britain at the time of its closure in 2023. The company was established as a general nursery by Benjamin Cant in 1765 in Myland, Essex. The family nur ...

is the oldest firm of commercial rose growers in Great Britain. The company was founded by Benjamin Cant in 1765 under the name, 'Benjamin R. Cant & Sons' and was located in

Mile End Mile End is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is east of Charing Cross. Situated on the part of the London-to-Colchester road ...

, now a northern suburb of Colchester. The nursery originally sold a variety of plants, seeds, bulbs and trees. With the rise in popularity of roses in the mid-1800s, Benjamin R. Cant (1827–1900), initiated a rose breeding program at the company in 1875. By 1880, Cant had become an award-winning rose exhibitor in England. Cant's nephew, Frank Cant (1857–1928), split from the family firm and established his own nursery in Colchester in the early 1880s. The two Cant families became fierce competitors. The rivalry between the two nurseries lasted until the 1960s, when their descendants decided to merge the two family businesses into one company. The 'Benjamin R Cant & Sons' of Mile End Colchester and 'Frank Cant & Company' of

Stanway, Essex Stanway is a suburb, civil parish & village in the City of Colchester, Colchester district, in Essex, England near Colchester. 'Stanway' is an Anglo-Saxon name for the 'stone way' of the Roman road, now the A12 road (England), A12. In 2021 the ...

became the 'Cants of Colchester' under the leadership of Cant family descendant, Roger Pawsey. Cants of Colchester has introduced several popular rose varieties, including ''Rosa'' 'Just Joey', ''Rosa'' 'Alpine Sunset' and ''Rosa'' 'Goldstar'. Pawsey developed the new rose variety, 'English Miss' in 1977. The rose was named in honour of Pawsey's three-year-old daughter Sally-Anne. It was introduced into Britain in 1979. The cultivar is a hybrid of ''Rosa'' 'Dearest' and ''Rosa'' 'The Optimist'. 'English Miss' was used to hybridize two child plants: ''Rosa'' 'Colchester Beauty', (Pawsey, before 1992) and ''Rosa'' 'Our Beth' (Beales, before 2006).

Description

'English Miss' is a compact bushy shrub, 2 to 3 ft (60–91 cm) in height, with a 2 to 3 ft spread (60–91 cm). Blooms are large, 4 inch (10 cm), with 24 or more petals, Flowers are double in form,

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...

-like and emit a strong and sweet fragrance with a spicy undertone. They are often borne in large clusters in the traditional floribunda style. 'English Miss' is pale pink in colour, often with darker pink edges. The plant blooms repeatedly, starting from June and progressing through to mid-October. Foliage is purple to dark green and leathery. Flowers do extremely well in rainy weather. 'English Miss' can tolerate exposed conditions and has good disease resistance, especially against the common rose disease black spot.

References

{{Rose, state=collapsed English Miss 1977 introductions