Rosa 'Abraham Darby' 29 July 2019

I have a friend in his 90s, Alleyne Cook who just before Queen Elizabeth was crowned monarch he happened to be only one of two men working (gardeners) in Constance Spry’s School For Girls. She instructed Cook to cut flowers so that she could make floral arrangements for that coronation.

New Zealand-born Cook and his wife Barbara moved to Vancouver where he was instrumental (working for the Park Board) in planting rhododendrons in Stanley Park and in the VanDusen Botanical Garden. He is also an expert on magnolias. He and his wife are happily settled in North Vancouver. Barbara is no garden slouch.She knows her garden plants.

Many of my plants including a Rosa complicata that Cook gave me are prospering mightily (as friend and editor Malcolm Parry likes to say) in our smaller Kitsilano garden. When people come to visit they use all kinds of exclamatory words and expressions to describe our plants.

And yet, Cook only has one definition for  a plant that does well. He says, “That is a good garden plant. “

That defines the David Austin English Rose Rosa ‘Abraham Darby’. It has exquisite old-rose scent, it is floriferous (remontant with vigour) and the blooms are very large.

What more could one want from a good garden plant?