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058: pinklifestyle MY FAVOURITE ROSE? Whatever's in bloom on the day, or so any true rosarian will tell you, though I've narrowed it down to my top 10. 1. 'Charles de Mills'. A gallant, gorgeous, dark crimson gallica with flowers that open so flat you could be forgiven for thinking they'd been sandwiched between the pages of a book. And the perfume! Of all my dark roses, this one is to die for. But then, so too are 'Prospero', 'Falstaff', 'Tradescant', 'Chianti' and 'William Shakespeare 2000'. 2. 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. This is the first David Austin to bloom in my garden each spring, with large, lovely, full-petalled blooms on prickly stems. The first flush is deep crimson-pink, but its summer blooms are smaller and dark red. 3. 'Chevy Chase'. A climber with buttonhole blooms, but masses of them, in a deliciously vibrant shade of dark red/pink. It's dead easy to strike from cuttings too. 4. 'Rosa centifolia'. This intensely fragrant, hundred- petalled rose is unrivalled for romantics (and the Dutch masters), despite its unfortunate common name of cabbage rose. 5. 'Gertrude Jekyll'. Gertie, as David Austin's staff fondly call her, is a pink lady with panache and perfume. My all-time favourite pink rose? Perhaps, though, it's a toss up between her and the luscious bourbon 'Mme Isaac Pereire'. 6. 'Brother Cadfael'. The first time I saw – and smelled – this luscious David Austin rose was at the Scented Rose Garden in Tasmania's Huon Valley. Its cupped, pale pink blooms are the colour of fairground candyfloss and as big as peonies, with a full-on fragrance to match. It's a dead ringer for 'Heritage', which I also grow. 7. 'Raubritter'. Can a rose be cute? 'Raubritter' is. In spring this sprawling shrub rose is smothered in clusters of cupped pink pixiesized flowers. 8. 'Variegata di Bologna'. I love it, like 'Rosa Mundi' and 'Camaieux', for its striped candy cane blooms of red and white. But honestly, it's a mongrel. I don't spray my roses and every summer 'Variegata di Bologna' gets such bad black spot on its matt green leaves that it would technically be more accurate to describe it as having matt green spots on black leaves. 9. 'Wedding Day'. This once-blooming rambler is perversely unromantic in nature. It's a thug with a marvellously marketable moniker. 'Wedding Day' was already in the garden and is at least 8 metres tall. Having clambered up one of the liquidambars, it flings its white veil from the treetops for four weeks in late spring. 10. 'Roseraie de l'Hay'. My pick of the possum-proof prickly rugosas, this tough but beautiful rose has ruffled blooms of deep crimson-purple and a sweet, spicy perfume. I equally adore 'Scabrosa', 'Hansa' and the white 'Blanc Double de Coubert'. Did I say 10? I lied. I also wouldn't be without 'Gloire de Guilan', 'Veilchenblau', 'Mary Rose', 'Jean Ducher' and 'English Elegance', though I wish I hadn't let my heart rule my credit card when I ordered six bushes of the almost blackred 'Astrid Grafin von Hardenberg'. Released here in 2010 and named Most Fragrant Rose at the 2011 New Zealand Rose of the Year awards, it was love at first sight. I raved evangelically about her to Paul Holmes on his radio show, promising to send him a plant. I'm so pleased I didn't. Ours was a fleeting affair: Astrid's actually a bit of a dog. The flowers rarely reach their potential, as the dark outer petals brown off before the blooms have fully opened. I'm prepared to make allowances for prima donna behaviour, but I've no time for poor performers. My plants are destined for the compost heap. Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Lynda Hallinan Wedding Day by Sally Tagg