The Rose Of The Year award began in 1982, when the yellow Floribunda Mountbatten (‘Harmantelle’) was the first winner. Ten years later Mountbatten received the RHS Award of Garden Merit and is still recognised as an excellent variety. Last month at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, the 2014 Rose Of The Year award-winner was announced – Lady Marmalade (‘Hartiger’).
Lady Marmalade is a neat Floribunda rose reaching about 90cm in height. The 10cm flowers are a gorgeous rich and bright tangerine with amber overtones, cupped in the old fashioned style with about fifty petals in each flower and with the outer petals reflexing attractively as the flowers mature. With up to eleven flowers in each cluster the impact is impressive and, especially with regular dead-heading, the flowers keep coming from June into the autumn.
And then of course there’s the scent. Rated by the breeder as 6, the fragrance is not exceptionally outstanding – that would rate a 10 – but the spicy perfume is certainly impressive.
Lady Marmalade (‘Hartiger’) was developed by Hertfordshire specialists Harkness Roses, who’ve developed a huge number of fine roses, including that first Rose Of The Year winner Mountbatten, since the nursery began creating new varieties in 1959. The name is sometimes seen spelled as Lady Marmelade (with an e) but this is incorrect.
Editor-in-Chief of the RHS Encyclopedia of Perennials; writer for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including The Garden and The Plantsman; member of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee and Floral Trials Committee; author of many books on plants and gardens.
Source: RHS My Garden – Rose Lady Marmalade: Rose of The Year for 2014 – Graham Rice
