Phyllis Bide Rose

Phyllis Bide is a restrained (almost shy) small climbing rose with fluffy pinkish flowers. After rain they get beautifully speckled with darker pink spots. They remind me of flowers made of crepe paper.

A Good Archway Rose

When I was first choosing roses to cover the new house archways (it seems many years ago!) I liked the sound of Phyllis Bide - she seemed well-behaved and subtle. I bought one for each side of a metal arch, and a third to grow along a fence between a while climbing Iceberg and the eggy-yellow Graham Thomas.

The Phyllis Bide roses which grow up the archway have taken their time covering it, though. Still, they are the perfect sized climbing roses for this simple task. Being on their own roots has possibly made them weaker.

Fluffy Flowers

This is my best colour co-ordinated garden bed - the rose colours are well complemented by bronze and red flaxes and a brilliant wine coloured Berberis. Phyllis's fluffy flowers are nicely complemented by the strong lines of the flax bush.

I'm surprised that Phyllis Bide as a so-called 'modern rose' is in fact so old - my big rose book calls her a Polyantha and dates her introduction as 1923. She is an old-lady rose!