Rose 'Margaret Merril' - Floribunda Rose
A legendary award-winning Floribunda rose that produces an abundance of exquisite semi-double blooms in pearly white with delicate pink blush, combining exceptional fragrance with outstanding disease resistance and continuous flowering performance throughout the growing season.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous Floribunda rose
- Eventual Height: 1.5m
- Eventual Spread: 1.0m
- Flowering Period: June to November
- Flower Colour: Pearly white with pink blush, cream centre
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celsius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Upright, bushy, vigorous-growing
- Flower Type: Semi-double blooms 10cm across with 25 petals
- Awards: RHS Award of Garden Merit, Geneva Gold Medal 1978, Edland Fragrance Award 1978
Overview
Rose 'Margaret Merril' is a truly legendary Floribunda rose that exemplifies the pinnacle of fragrant rose breeding, winning numerous prestigious awards including the Geneva Gold Medal and Royal National Rose Society Edland Fragrance Award in 1978. This distinguished variety, bred by Harkness and introduced in 1977, produces magnificent semi-double blooms in pearly white with delicate pink blush that emerge from dainty high-centred buds. The most striking feature is its exceptional combination of legendary fragrance with outstanding garden performance, complemented by healthy light green foliage that provides perfect contrast to the pristine blooms. With outstanding health, upright bushy growth habit, and continuous repeat flowering performance from June to November, this rose represents one of the finest examples of fragrant Floribunda roses for modern gardens. Each cupped bloom displays 25 petals with prominent golden stamens and an intoxicating lemon-spicy fragrance that has made it Europe's most popular white Floribunda.
Key Features
The outstanding appeal of 'Margaret Merril' lies in its exquisite semi-double blooms that showcase spectacular fragrance with substantial visual impact displayed in clusters. Each bloom displays pearly white colouring with delicate pink blush and cream centre, creating sophisticated colour combinations that possess a delicacy not frequently found in modern roses. The flowers combine pristine white tones with subtle pink highlights, creating harmonious displays that add elegance and romance to the garden. The semi-double flower form with cupped shape and 25 petals, combined with legendary fragrance, continuous flowering habit, and excellent disease resistance makes this rose suitable for a wide range of garden applications, from cutting gardens to formal displays and fragrance gardens.
Growth Characteristics
This Floribunda rose displays a naturally upright, bushy growth habit that makes it exceptionally suitable for modern garden applications and formal displays. The plant develops into a strong, well-proportioned specimen with vigorous branching structure and robust performance. The upright yet bushy nature ensures reliable flowering whilst maintaining an attractive, manageable size perfect for contemporary gardens. The sturdy growth habit makes it ideal for mid to back-border positions, formal rose gardens, or positioning where its spectacular beauty and legendary fragrance can be fully appreciated. The strong stems provide excellent support for the abundant clusters of blooms, making this variety particularly suitable for cut flower production and standard rose cultivation.
Flowering Performance
From June through to November, 'Margaret Merril' delivers an exceptional flowering display that continues consistently throughout the growing season. The plant produces magnificent semi-double blooms held in clusters, creating substantial visual impact with continuous flowering from early summer into mid-autumn. The flowers showcase pearly white colouring with delicate pink blush that varies with temperature conditions, becoming more pronounced in cooler weather. The repeat-flowering nature ensures continuous colour and fragrance throughout the growing season, with the abundant blooms providing a spectacular display that captures attention with its pristine colours and intoxicating perfume. The extended flowering period provides valuable long-season garden interest and exceptional cutting potential.
Growing Conditions
'Margaret Merril' thrives in full sun positions with fertile, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil, requiring at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily for optimal flowering performance and fragrance development. The rose adapts well to various soil types including acid, alkaline, and neutral conditions, providing adequate drainage is maintained. For best results, plant in fertile, well-drained soil that has been improved with organic matter, ensuring consistent moisture throughout the growing season. The rose benefits from good air circulation around the foliage and performs well in various exposures including south, west, and east-facing aspects, tolerating both exposed and sheltered conditions.
Hardiness and Disease Resistance
This rose demonstrates exceptional hardiness suitable for growing throughout the UK, being fully hardy (H6 rating) and showing excellent tolerance of typical British weather conditions. One of the most notable features of 'Margaret Merril' is its good disease resistance, which reduces maintenance requirements and ensures healthy growth throughout the season. The healthy, light green foliage remains attractive and vigorous, with natural resistance to common rose diseases. This disease resistance makes it an excellent choice for organic gardening approaches and reduces the need for chemical interventions, making it particularly suitable for busy gardeners seeking reliable performance with exceptional fragrance.
Care and Maintenance
'Margaret Merril' requires standard rose maintenance to maintain optimal health and flowering performance, making it suitable for gardeners seeking exceptional fragrance with reliable cultivation. Apply a balanced fertiliser and mulch in late winter or early spring, followed by another application of rose fertiliser in early summer to support continuous flowering. Regular watering during dry periods, particularly in the first year after planting, helps establish strong root systems. The good disease resistance means this variety requires moderate intervention for optimal health. Regular deadheading encourages continued flowering and prolongs the blooming period, whilst proper pruning in late winter maintains the upright shape and promotes vigorous new growth with abundant fragrant blooms.
Garden Applications
'Margaret Merril' excels in fragrance gardens where its legendary perfume and continuous flowering provide exceptional sensory appeal. The upright growth habit makes it ideal for formal rose gardens, mixed borders, and positions where its spectacular beauty and intoxicating fragrance can be appreciated. The pearly white flowers with pink blush suit both contemporary and traditional garden settings perfectly, whilst the substantial size makes it excellent for specimen plantings or group displays. The rose works beautifully near seating areas and pathways, creating impressive displays that combine visual elegance with extraordinary fragrance. The continuous flowering makes it particularly suitable for gardens requiring consistent colour and exceptional scent throughout the season.
Container Growing
The robust growth habit and manageable size make 'Margaret Merril' well-suited to container cultivation for patios and areas where fragrance can be fully appreciated. The rose thrives in large containers on balconies, terraces, and areas where soil conditions are challenging, making it perfect for urban gardening applications and fragrant patio displays. Choose a container at least 60cm wide and deep with adequate drainage holes, and use high-quality multipurpose compost enriched with slow-release fertiliser. Container-grown specimens require more frequent watering and feeding than those planted in the ground, but the upright habit means they remain attractive whilst delivering exceptional flowering performance and legendary fragrance throughout the season.
Seasonal Interest
Throughout the growing season, 'Margaret Merril' provides continuous interest that evolves beautifully with the months. Spring brings the emergence of fresh, healthy, light green foliage and dainty high-centred buds, building anticipation for the main flowering display. The extended flowering season from June to November ensures months of colour and exceptional fragrance, with the pearly white blooms with pink blush creating pristine displays that showcase remarkable consistency. The healthy foliage remains attractive throughout the season, providing an excellent backdrop for the spectacular fragrant flowers. Even in winter, the strong branching structure provides architectural interest whilst promising another year of spectacular flowering and legendary perfume.
Cut Flower Value
The exceptional cut flower value of 'Margaret Merril' makes it outstanding for indoor arrangements and fragrant floral displays. The large, semi-double blooms with 25 petals provide exceptional longevity when cut, with the substantial size and pristine colouring making them perfect for both formal and romantic arrangements. The continuous blooming habit from June to November makes this rose invaluable for cutting gardens, providing abundant fragrant flowers throughout the growing season. The sturdy stems and long-lasting blooms make it particularly suitable for special occasions and regular household arrangements, whilst the legendary fragrance fills rooms with intoxicating perfume that enhances any indoor setting.
Fragrance Profile
'Margaret Merril' features a legendary, intoxicating fragrance that has earned it recognition as one of the most fragrant roses ever bred. The exceptional lemon-spicy perfume with citrus notes provides extraordinary garden ambience and has won prestigious fragrance awards including the Royal National Rose Society Edland Fragrance Award. This outstanding fragrance makes it invaluable for fragrance gardens and areas where scent is the primary consideration, whilst the strong perfume carries well throughout the garden creating an atmosphere of romance and luxury.
Wildlife and Pollinator Value
The exceptional wildlife value of 'Margaret Merril' makes it outstanding for supporting local ecosystems and bee-friendly gardens. The semi-double flower form with open centres and prominent golden stamens provides easy access to nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects throughout the extended flowering season. The continuous blooming habit from June to November makes this rose invaluable for wildlife-friendly gardens, supporting pollinator populations throughout the growing season. The abundant clusters and open nature of the blooms make it particularly attractive to a wide range of beneficial insects.
Companion Planting
The pearly white colours with pink blush of 'Margaret Merril' provide excellent opportunities for companion planting with a wide range of garden plants that enhance its elegant appeal. The pristine white tones work beautifully with blue and purple flowers such as lavender and catmint, creating complementary displays that highlight the rose's delicate colouring. The rose pairs exceptionally well with silver and grey foliage plants, creating sophisticated contrasts that emphasise the purity of the blooms. Pink flowers add tonal harmony, whilst deeper colours provide dramatic backdrop. The upright habit makes it suitable for planting with lower-growing perennials and herbs, creating layered displays that maximise both visual and fragrant appeal.
Award Recognition and Heritage
'Margaret Merril' has received numerous prestigious awards including the RHS Award of Garden Merit, Geneva Gold Medal 1978, Monza Gold Medal 1978, and the Royal National Rose Society Edland Fragrance Award 1978. These multiple recognitions provide confidence in its exceptional garden performance and outstanding fragrance quality. The awards mark this variety as one of exceptional merit, combining stunning beauty with legendary fragrance that meets the highest standards for both visual appeal and olfactory excellence.
Breeding Excellence and Innovation
Bred by renowned rose breeder Harkness and introduced in 1977 with registration code HARkuly, 'Margaret Merril' represents exceptional Floribunda rose breeding that combines legendary fragrance with reliable garden performance. The breeding programme successfully created a variety that demonstrates good disease resistance, continuous flowering habit, and extraordinary fragrance that has made it Europe's most popular white Floribunda. This achievement ensures reliable performance whilst delivering the spectacular fragrance that makes this rose truly legendary.
Legendary Fragrance Heritage
The most distinctive feature of 'Margaret Merril' is its legendary fragrance that has earned recognition as one of the most fragrant roses ever bred, rated number one for fragrance by England's Royal National Rose Society ahead of all English Roses. This exceptional characteristic has made it the benchmark for fragrant roses and continues to captivate gardeners worldwide. The intoxicating perfume adds extraordinary sensory appeal whilst creating garden experiences that are both visually stunning and aromatically unforgettable.
Continuous Bloom Performance
The exceptional continuous flowering habit of 'Margaret Merril' ensures that gardens remain fragrant and beautiful from early summer through to mid-autumn. The ability to produce flowers continuously throughout this extended period makes it invaluable for maintaining consistent garden interest and fragrance. This reliable performance makes it particularly suitable for situations where consistent colour and exceptional fragrance are required throughout the growing season.
Why Choose 'Margaret Merril'?
Rose 'Margaret Merril' represents the perfect combination of legendary fragrance, award-winning beauty, and outstanding garden performance. The semi-double blooms with their pearly white colouring and pink blush provide continuous flowering displays from June through to November, whilst the good disease resistance ensures reliable growth with standard maintenance. The upright, bushy growth habit makes it suitable for gardens of all sizes, from fragrance gardens to formal borders and container cultivation. Whether grown for its legendary fragrance, exceptional cut flower value, or as a multiple award winner, this iconic rose offers outstanding sensory and visual value that will provide years of gardening pleasure and unforgettable fragrant experiences.
Reasons to Buy Roses from Jacksons Nurseries
(1) ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot
Buy with confidence from the only online rose grower rated ‘Excellent’ 4.9* on Trustpilot. We have been a trusted supplier of roses for 3 generations. We take pride in growing our own roses in the field before potting them up, allowing for meticulous quality control to sale.
(2) Best Prices Guaranteed – Direct from the Grower
Save £££s by buying direct from a grower you can trust. We’ve already price checked all of our roses against competitors so you don’t have to. We are so confident we offer the best value, if you find a rose of the same type and grade elsewhere, we’ll beat it by 10%.
(3) 12 Month Plants Guarantee
We offer a 12 month guarantee on every plant that you buy from us that we have classified as Fully Hardy. If a plant you've bought from us fails in the first year, we will either replace it or refund you. See our satisfaction guarantee page for more details and conditions.
(4) Third generation family-owned nursery specialising in roses
Jackson’s Nurseries is a 3rd generation family owned business which has been growing roses for over 60 years. Roses have always been our specialty, as you can see from the colourful array of blooms in the background to the old family photo below. Today, we offer over 200 different varieties of floribundas, hybrid teas, patio, shrub and David Austin roses. Our roses are initially grown in the field before being potted up for website dispatch.
(5) Grown at altitude to produce strong, healthy plants
Our North Staffordshire nursery is situated at 250 metres above sea level, producing strong, hardy plants that will thrive in your garden. Our nursery sits on clay, so you can be sure our roses can handle heavy soil too.
(6) Help & Advice and Aftercare
We are help to help you with any help and advice you need in choosing, planting and growing your roses before, during and after your purchase from us. The help and advice section of our website has extensive information, see below some examples of articles you may find useful:
- Different types of roses and what they each mean
- Guide to climbing roses
- Guide to floribunda roses
- Guide to hybrid tea roses
- How to plant a climbing rose
- How to grow hybrid tea roses
How our roses are supplied through the seasons
All our roses are cultivated in an open field and are carefully dug up when the weather is optimal, typically in October or November. While other nurseries supply roses bare root, once our field-grown roses have been potted up we supply them freshly potted. This better protects the roots and helps keep them moist in transit, ensuring your roses arrive as healthy as when they left our nursery. So don’t be alarmed if the compost comes away from the roots when you remove them from the pot.
The roses can remain in their pots over the winter, as long as they are properly watered and fed, but it's best to plant them out as soon as possible. If you do plant them straight away make sure the planting mix is prepared first, hold the root close to the top of the hole as you tip the pot upside down and try to keep as much compost as possible from falling away. They will already be pruned, so no additional pruning is needed except for trimming any dead tips. Regular pruning can start in late winter, the year after planting.
Rose Types
Hybrid Tea Roses (HT)
Hybrid Tea roses are probably the most popular group of roses, available in both bush and standard form they have long flower stems and shapely blooms. Blooms are typically medium to large in size, with many petals which form a distinct central cone.
Floribunda Roses (FL)
Floribunda roses bears its flowers in clusters or trusses, with several blooms open at time in each truss. A popular choice the Floribunda rose group is unrivalled for colour, reliability and longevity as a bedding display however the flower form in generally inferior to the Hybrid Tea.
Patio Roses (PATIO)
Patio roses were introduced in the 1980’s and the group now contains several popular varieties. Generally low-growing roses that were once grouped with the Floribuna group but have now been put in their own group of compact versions. Usually growing about 50cm high they make excellent plants for patio containers or at the front of borders.
Climbing Roses (CLM)
Climbing roses as the name suggests are the perfect choice for covering a wall or screen. Often grouped together with Ramblers, Climbers tend to have stiffer stems, larger flowers but smaller trusses than Ramblers.
Rambling Roses (RAM)
Rambling roses are often grouped with Climbing Roses but the ramblers tend to have a more pliable stems that can be used to run along the soil to use as groundcover or can be used to make weeping standards.
Miniature Roses (MINI)
Miniature roses have increased in popularity in recent years due to their versatility, even grown indoors as temporary pot plants that grow to a maximum height of 40cm. An ideal choice for planting in tubs, edging beds and rockeries.
English Roses (ENG)
Often referred to as Austin or David Austin Roses, English roses are hybrids of old English roses and more modern varieties bread by David Austin to provide the best of both, mixing old rose shapes and scents with more modern colour range, compact habits and repeat flowering.
Planting Advice
Roses like a generous root space, so dig a deep hole approximately twice as wide as the current root system, preferably adding composted organic matter to the soil. Never plant into frozen soil – in winter, await a frost-free period. Carefully remove the pot and gently tease the roots apart to spread them around the hole. Position the plant so that the ‘bud point’ (the place where the shoots emerge from, where the cultivated rose was grafted onto the rootstock) is at soil level. Replace the soil, firming it down gently, then water copiously. Ideally, a general purpose fertiliser should be applied to the surrounding soil as a top dressing. We also highly recommend the use of Rose Rootgrow, which provides a friendly fungus that prevents ‘rose replant syndrome’.
Buying our Roses
Pot Size
Most of our roses are supplied in a 4 litre pot although this may vary slightly depending on rose variety. If the size of pot differes significatly from 4 litres then we will make this clear somewhere on the product page.
Seasonality
Our roses are grown outdoors and as such are subject to seasonal changes. As we sell potted stock throughout the year your rose may not arrive and look like you expect it to. If you are uncertain how your rose will arrive (especially if buying for a gift) then we suggest you contact us prior to making a purchase.
Freshly Potted
Each year a new batch of roses is potted up ready for the following season. Once potted (usually November/December time) they go on sale as 'Freshly Potted'. If you purchase a freshly potted rose and plant it soon after you will find that when removing the rose from the pot there will be a lot of loose soil as the roots will not have had time to grow and bind the compost.
Pruned/Cut Back
In autumn the majority of our roses have finished flowering and begin to look untidy, at this point we prune them quite hard in preparation for the following season. We continue to sell roses throughout the year, when a rose has been pruned in such a way we will identify it has being so. If you are not sure what to expect then please ask prior to making a purchase. Some garden centres/supermarkets sell stock that has been grown abroad or in poly-tunnels so they look 'picture perfect' out of season, while this is ideal for a gift they are short lived once planted.
Aftercare
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