In my Arizona garden (USDA zone 7b), Malvern Hills has been rather slow to establish. It's entering its sixth growing season and is finally more than six feet high. It would appear that this year will be its first year to demonstrate some of that noisette tendency to make great umbels of blossoms. Still, it is far short of the show put on by the three year old Blush Noisettes 20 ft to the west.

While I find the softly colored ivory-yellow blossoms quite beautiful, I must say that I am quite attached to the plant for its more subtle qualities. I love the look of its foliage: pointy leaves with a distinct olive tint. I love that although it grows slowly it seems untroubled by any fungal disease. I love that when I prune it the wood seems hard and substantial, as if the rose intends to be a permanent fixture in the garden. And I love that here in the mountains of AZ - where three weeks of 80F weather in spring can be followed by hard frosts - it survives unscathed. (This, btw, is true of most David Austin offerings I have planted. Sadly it's behavior lacking in virtually any hybrid tea rose bred in California, though sometimes found in some Kordes hybrid tea roses.)

In terms of flower size, flower abundance, or fragrance there is no superlative I can attach to this rose, yet its full house of dependable qualities marks it as one of the more cherished roses of the 200+ cultivars in my garden.

---

It's a year later and the rose has finally begun to hit full stride. This is definitely one of the glories of the garden this year. Although it will require pruning to keep it in bounds, it is a rose with a number of rare and wonderful qualities - certainly in my top twenty.