Rose 'Dawn Chorus' - Standard Rose Tree (Hybrid Tea)
A spectacular award-winning hybrid tea rose that produces abundant large, fully double blooms in vibrant deep orange with hints of yellow, combining exceptional flower quality with outstanding garden performance and delightful fragrance throughout the growing season.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous hybrid tea rose
- Eventual Height: ~1.6m (90-120cm stem)
- Eventual Spread: 80cm diameter head
- Flowering Period: June to October
- Flower Colour: Deep orange with yellow hints
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celcius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Upright, thorny shrub with bushy growth
- Flower Type: Large, fully double, high-centred blooms
Overview
Rose 'Dawn Chorus' is a truly outstanding hybrid tea rose that earned the prestigious Rose of the Year Award in 1993 and RHS Award of Garden Merit, along with a Gold Medal in Dublin in 1991. This exceptional variety produces magnificent large, fully double flowers in striking deep orange with subtle yellow hints, creating a spectacular display throughout the growing season. The most remarkable feature is its classic high-centred flower form that showcases the vibrant orange colouring to perfection, complemented by a pleasant medium fragrance. With excellent disease resistance, compact growth habit, and reliable repeat flowering performance, this rose represents one of the finest hybrid tea varieties for contemporary gardens.
Key Features
The outstanding appeal of 'Dawn Chorus' lies in its abundant production of large, fully double blooms that showcase the classic hybrid tea form with high-centred, perfectly shaped flowers. Each bloom displays vivid deep orange colouring with delicate yellow undertones, creating substantial visual impact that stands out brilliantly in the garden. The flowers release a pleasant medium fragrance that adds a delightful sensory dimension to the garden experience. The vibrant orange colouring is particularly striking against the backdrop of dark green, glossy foliage, creating mesmerising displays that are both elegant and eye-catching. The combination of repeat flowering, excellent disease resistance, and compact growth habit makes this rose suitable for a wide range of garden applications.
Growth Characteristics
This hybrid tea rose displays a naturally upright, bushy growth habit that makes it exceptionally versatile for garden use. The plant develops into a neat, well-proportioned shrub above the lollipop stem with excellent branching structure and strong, thorny stems. The medium-growing nature ensures robust performance whilst maintaining an attractive, manageable size perfect for modern gardens. The compact growth habit makes it ideal for smaller gardens, formal rose beds, or positioning where its spectacular flowering can be fully appreciated. The uniform habit ensures consistent performance whether planted individually or in groups, making it an excellent choice for mass plantings or mixed border schemes.
Flowering Performance
From early summer through to autumn, 'Dawn Chorus' delivers an exceptional flowering display that continues reliably throughout the growing season. The plant produces masses of large, fully double flowers with the classic high-centred form that hybrid tea roses are renowned for. The flowers showcase perfect symmetry and form with the distinctive deep orange colouring with yellow hints creating ongoing visual impact and sophistication. The repeat-flowering nature ensures continuous colour throughout the growing season, with each flush of blooms providing a spectacular display that captures attention and admiration from visitors and passers-by alike.
Growing Conditions
'Dawn Chorus' 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 colour development. The rose adapts well to various soil types providing adequate drainage is maintained, and shows good tolerance of typical garden conditions. 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, which helps maintain the excellent disease resistance that characterises this variety.
Hardiness and Disease Resistance
This rose demonstrates excellent hardiness suitable for growing throughout the UK, being fully hardy in zones 6 and higher and showing good tolerance of heat and typical British weather conditions. One of the most notable features of 'Dawn Chorus' is its excellent disease resistance, which significantly reduces maintenance requirements and ensures healthy growth throughout the season. The dark green, glossy foliage remains attractive and healthy, with natural resistance to common rose diseases including black spot and powdery mildew. This disease resistance makes it an excellent choice for organic gardening approaches and reduces the need for chemical interventions.
Care and Maintenance
'Dawn Chorus' requires standard hybrid tea rose care to maintain optimal health and flowering performance. Apply a balanced fertiliser in early spring, followed by regular feeding throughout the growing season to support continuous flowering. Water regularly until established, then maintain consistent moisture during dry periods, particularly in the first year after planting. The excellent disease resistance means this variety requires minimal intervention, making it an easy-care option for busy gardeners. Deadheading regularly throughout the summer encourages continued flowering, whilst proper pruning in late winter maintains the shape and promotes vigorous new growth for the following season.
Garden Applications
'Dawn Chorus' excels in formal rose beds where its classic hybrid tea form and vibrant colouring create stunning displays. The upright growth habit makes it ideal for structured bedding schemes, whilst the spectacular flower colours suit both contemporary and traditional garden settings perfectly. The medium size makes it excellent for positioning in prominent locations where the beautiful blooms and light fragrance can be fully appreciated. The rose works magnificently as a specimen plant or in groups, creating impressive displays that combine visual impact with classic rose elegance. The large, perfectly formed blooms make it exceptional for cutting, providing stunning flowers for indoor arrangements.
Container Growing
The compact growth habit and excellent disease resistance make 'Dawn Chorus' well-suited to container cultivation. The rose thrives in large containers on patios, balconies, and areas where soil conditions are challenging, making it perfect for urban gardening situations. Choose a container at least 45cm 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 manageable size means they remain practical whilst delivering exceptional flowering performance throughout the season.
Seasonal Interest
Throughout the growing season, 'Dawn Chorus' provides continuous interest that builds beautifully with the months. Spring brings the emergence of fresh, glossy dark green foliage and the first flower buds, building anticipation for the main flowering display. The extended flowering season from early summer to autumn ensures months of colour and fragrance, with the vibrant orange blooms creating spectacular displays that showcase the classic hybrid tea form. The healthy, glossy foliage remains attractive throughout the season, providing an excellent backdrop for the stunning flower display. Even in winter, the architectural branching structure provides some interest whilst promising another year of spectacular flowering.
Cutting and Floral Arrangements
The large, fully double, lightly fragrant blooms make 'Dawn Chorus' exceptional for cutting and indoor arrangements. The vibrant deep orange colour with yellow hints works beautifully with a wide range of other flowers and foliage, whilst the medium fragrance adds a delightful dimension to indoor displays. The classic high-centred form of the blooms adds elegance and sophistication to arrangements. The strong, sturdy stems support the large flower heads well, making them ideal for both formal arrangements and casual displays. The unique colour and perfect form add distinctive appeal to arrangements, whilst the pleasant fragrance provides a lovely sensory experience.
Fragrance Profile
The pleasant, medium fragrance of 'Dawn Chorus' provides a delightful sensory experience in the garden. This lovely scent emanates from the large blooms, creating a gentle fragrance that complements the visual beauty of the flowers. The medium fragrance carries well in the garden without being overpowering, making it suitable for positions near seating areas where the pleasant aroma can be appreciated. The classic rose scent profile makes this variety particularly suitable for traditional garden settings or areas where a genuine rose fragrance is desired.
Wildlife Value
The large, fully double flowers provide some nectar sources for bees and other pollinators throughout the extended flowering season, though the double form makes access somewhat limited compared to single roses. The continuous blooming habit from summer to autumn makes this rose a valuable addition to wildlife-friendly gardens, supporting local pollinator populations throughout the growing season. The medium fragrance serves as a natural attractant for beneficial insects, contributing to a healthy garden ecosystem. The repeat-flowering nature ensures that wildlife benefits extend throughout the growing season.
Companion Planting
The vibrant deep orange with yellow hints of 'Dawn Chorus' provides excellent opportunities for companion planting with a wide range of garden plants. The warm orange tones work beautifully with purple and blue flowers, creating striking complementary displays. The rose pairs exceptionally well with silver-foliaged plants such as artemisia and lavender, creating elegant contrasting combinations. Yellow and cream flowers provide harmonious colour schemes that enhance the orange tones. The compact habit makes it suitable for planting with herbaceous perennials, creating dynamic mixed borders that provide interest throughout the growing season.
Unique Colour Appeal
The most distinctive feature of 'Dawn Chorus' is its remarkable deep orange colouring with subtle yellow hints that creates a truly spectacular display in the garden. The vibrant orange tones are particularly striking and eye-catching, providing a warm and welcoming presence that brightens any garden space. The classic high-centred form of the hybrid tea flower showcases the beautiful colouring to perfection, with each bloom displaying the ideal rose shape that gardeners cherish. The consistent colour throughout the flowering season ensures reliable performance and ongoing visual impact.
Award Recognition
'Dawn Chorus' has received multiple prestigious awards including Rose of the Year 1993, RHS Award of Garden Merit, and Gold Medal Dublin 1991. Bred by Dickson, this variety has proven its worth in gardens across various climatic conditions since its introduction. The extensive award recognition provides confidence in the rose's performance and indicates that it has been thoroughly tested and proven in garden conditions, making it a reliable choice for gardeners seeking proven excellence combined with outstanding beauty.
Why Choose 'Dawn Chorus'?
Rose 'Dawn Chorus' represents the perfect combination of classic beauty, pleasant fragrance, and outstanding garden performance. The abundant large, fully double blooms with their spectacular deep orange colouring provide continuous colour and visual impact from summer through to autumn, whilst the excellent disease resistance ensures healthy growth with minimal maintenance. The compact, upright growth habit makes it suitable for gardens of all sizes, from small urban spaces to large country gardens. Whether grown for its award-winning blooms, medium fragrance, or simply as a stunning addition to the garden, this exceptional hybrid tea rose offers outstanding value and enduring beauty that will provide years of gardening pleasure and admiration.
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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