I ordered a very cheap root-bagged ‘Sutter’s Gold’ from a low-end online garden centre in the early spring. This variety has been unavailable anywhere in the UK for years, since Beales dropped it from its catalogue alongside many other earlier hybrid teas, and it seemed too good to be true to have found such an unlikely source for it… well, it was too good to be true. After a little research I established the rose is ‘Simply the best’. I have disposed of it, because, with very limited growing space available, I am very particular about the roses I grow; and this variety (although it does seem capable of producing the occasional sumptuous, more refined looking bloom) in many pictures has the neither-fish-nor-flesh form I don’t really care for (neither highly structured with reflexing petals, nor soft and loose). The scent, however, made it difficult to bring myself to throw the plant out. It is absolutely delicious, neither fruity nor tea, nor damask, but sweet and musky in the manner of Hanne, Golden Jubilee, and DA’s Buttercup, but also stronger than any of these.

Available from - Apuldram roses

Really pretty rose. Kind of the the architecture of a short grandiflora.

Definitely not very hardy, however. Some die-back, even in Zone 8b. This was a problem with New Year, too.