One rose that should be on your must-grow list is the Westerland rose.
This striking cultivar produces huge roses with plenty of fragrance.
It’s not only an award-winning variety, but it is also very robust, much tougher than its delicate appearance might suggest.
Interested in learning more? Here’s everything you should know about the Westerland rose.
At A Glance: What You Should Know About The Westerland Rose
As a floribunda rose, you’ll get plenty of flowers for your money, as this type of rose is famous for producing more roses than some types, without slowing down through the season.
It was introduced to the rose market in 1969, which is fairly recent when you consider that others have been around for hundreds of years.
What’s significant, however, is the impression it’s made on people around the world, and you can see that in the awards it has won.
It was bred by Reimer Kordes, by crossing two beautiful roses Circus and Friedrich Worlein.
Reimer Kordes was the son of the renowned rose breeder Wilhelm Kordes in Germany, who founded a nursery under the same name.
How To Recognize The Westerland Rose
The Westerland rose grows naturally as a shrub, though you can train it to become a climber if you give it the right support (this is also true of Joseph’s Coat Rose).
The plant can reach anywhere between 4 and 11 feet at maturity, making for an impressive sight in any garden. On average, it will grow about 4 feet wide, so make sure you give it plenty of space.
This gorgeous plant has rich, dark green leaves, and is very disease resistant.
Westerland is a repeat bloomer, producing roses which are gold in the middle, the petals deepening to peach and orange the further away they get from the center.
Another fantastic feature of this plant is that the long-lasting flowers have a strong perfume, with a spicy, clove-like scent.
Each rose can reach up to 12cm across, and the flowering season is very long in USDA zones 5 through to 9.
Related Roses And Westerland Awards
It’s unusual for a rose to win more than one award, and Westerland holds three, which gives you some idea of just how special this cultivar is.
In 1973, it won the Certificate of Merit and Fragrance award in the New Zealand Rose Trials. The year after, it won the General Rose Trials in Germany.
If this wasn’t enough, Westerland also received the Award of Garden merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993.
It also makes sense that Circus, one of the parent plants, received both the Rose of The Year award and the AARS award, in 1956.
Circus has gone on to win the New Zealand Certificate of Merit, and the ADR award.
As a general rule, roses that win awards tend to be very robust and disease resistant, as well as truly beautiful plants, and Westerland is no exception.
Child Plants
The Westerland rose has also gone on to create 8 child plants, which are new cultivars, featuring this rose as one of its parents.
Rosa ‘Above All’ is the result of crossing Westerland with Sweet Magic, resulting in a highly pigmented orange rose, and the flowers are unusually large for a climber.
Rosa ‘Autumn Sunset’ is a sport cultivar, meaning that it is a natural mutation of Westerland. It was discovered in 1986, and will grow happily as either a shrub or a climber, featuring golden yellow and orange tinted roses.
Rosa ‘Kiss Me’ is the result of crossing Westerland with an unknown seedling, and produces large pink flowers as a grandiflora rose. It’s much more compact than Westerland, on average reaching about 3 feet tall.
Rosa ‘Postillion’ was also created by Reimer Kordes, in 1985. It’s the result of breeding Westerland with Lichtkonigin Lucia, producing large, sunshine-yellow roses.
Final Thoughts
Westerland is a fantastic rose which is both hardy and disease resistant, a reliable bloomer worthy of any garden.
While it hasn’t been around for very long, it has certainly made an impression, having won numerous awards, and several of its child plants have followed.
If you’re unsure what rose to go for next, Westerland is a worthy option, as it ticks every box you could ask for.
