Rose 'For Your Eyes Only' - Floribunda
A magnificent award-winning Persica rose that produces spectacular single blooms in rich pink with distinctive red blotches and golden stamens, combining exceptional wildlife value with outstanding disease resistance and continuous flowering performance throughout the growing season.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous Persica floribunda rose
- Eventual Height: 90cm
- Eventual Spread: 90cm
- Flowering Period: June to September
- Flower Colour: Rich pink with red blotches and golden stamens
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celsius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Compact, bushy, vigorous-growing
- Flower Type: Large, single blooms with distinctive eye pattern
- Awards: Rose of the Year 2015, RHS Plants for Pollinators
Overview
Rose 'For Your Eyes Only' is a truly outstanding Persica rose that exemplifies modern rose breeding excellence, winning the prestigious Rose of the Year award in 2015. This distinguished variety represents a new race of roses derived from Rosa persica, producing magnificent single blooms in rich pink tones with distinctive red blotches at the base of each petal, contrasting beautifully with golden stamens. The most striking feature is its exceptional combination of wildlife appeal with excellent disease resistance, complemented by glossy dark green foliage that provides perfect contrast to the vibrant blooms. With outstanding health, compact bushy growth habit, and continuous repeat flowering performance from July to September, this rose represents one of the finest examples of contemporary Persica roses for modern gardens. The RHS Plants for Pollinators recognition confirms its exceptional value for wildlife.
Key Features
The outstanding appeal of 'For Your Eyes Only' lies in its profuse single blooms that showcase the distinctive Persica eye pattern with substantial visual impact displayed in abundant clusters. Each bloom displays rich pink colouring with striking red blotches at the base of each petal, creating dramatic contrasts enhanced by prominent golden stamens. The flowers combine apricot and salmon tones with the distinctive deep pink blotch eye, creating sophisticated colour combinations that add depth and interest to the garden display. The single flower form combined with continuous flowering habit, excellent disease resistance, and exceptional wildlife value makes this rose suitable for a wide range of garden applications, from wildlife gardens to mixed borders and container cultivation.
Growth Characteristics
This Persica rose displays a naturally compact, bushy growth habit that makes it exceptionally suitable for modern garden applications and wildlife-friendly displays. The plant develops into a strong, well-proportioned head above the standard stem with excellent branching structure and robust performance. The compact yet vigorous-growing nature ensures reliable flowering whilst maintaining an attractive, manageable size perfect for contemporary gardens. The bushy growth habit makes it ideal for mixed borders, wildlife gardens, or positioning where its spectacular beauty and wildlife appeal can be fully appreciated. The strong stems provide excellent support for the abundant single blooms, making this variety particularly suitable for naturalistic garden applications.
Flowering Performance
From July through to September, 'For Your Eyes Only' delivers an exceptional flowering display that continues consistently throughout the growing season. The plant produces magnificent single blooms held in profuse clusters, creating substantial visual impact with continuous flowering from late spring into autumn. The flowers showcase rich pink colouring with distinctive red blotches and golden stamens, creating ongoing visual interest and dramatic elegance. The repeat-flowering nature ensures continuous colour throughout the growing season, with the abundant blooms providing a spectacular display that captures attention with its vibrant colours and wildlife appeal. The extended flowering period provides valuable long-season nectar sources for pollinators.
Growing Conditions
'For Your Eyes Only' 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 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 'For Your Eyes Only' is its excellent disease resistance, which significantly reduces maintenance requirements and ensures healthy growth throughout the season. The healthy, glossy, dark green foliage remains attractive and vigorous, with outstanding natural resistance to common rose diseases. This exceptional disease resistance makes it an excellent choice for organic gardening approaches and eliminates the need for chemical interventions, making it particularly suitable for busy gardeners seeking low-maintenance excellence.
Care and Maintenance
'For Your Eyes Only' requires minimal maintenance to maintain optimal health and flowering performance, making it ideal for busy gardeners and wildlife enthusiasts. Apply a balanced fertiliser and mulch in late winter or early spring, followed by another application of balanced 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 excellent disease resistance means this variety requires minimal intervention, making it an easy-care option. Light deadheading encourages continued flowering, whilst proper pruning following pruning group 21 guidelines maintains the bushy shape and promotes vigorous new growth.
Garden Applications
'For Your Eyes Only' excels in wildlife gardens where its single flower form and continuous flowering provide exceptional value for pollinators. The compact bushy growth habit makes it ideal for mixed borders, cottage gardens, and informal displays where its natural beauty can be appreciated. The rich pink flowers with distinctive red blotches suit both contemporary and traditional garden settings perfectly, whilst the manageable size makes it excellent for positioning where wildlife activity can be observed. The rose works beautifully in naturalistic plantings, creating impressive displays that combine visual drama with exceptional ecological value. The continuous flowering makes it particularly suitable for pollinator-friendly garden schemes.
Container Growing
The compact growth habit and excellent disease resistance make 'For Your Eyes Only' exceptionally well-suited to container cultivation for patios and wildlife areas. The rose thrives in large containers on balconies, terraces, and areas where soil conditions are challenging, making it perfect for urban wildlife gardening. Choose a container at least 50cm 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 compact habit means they remain manageable whilst delivering exceptional flowering performance and wildlife value throughout the season.
Seasonal Interest
Throughout the growing season, 'For Your Eyes Only' provides continuous interest that evolves beautifully with the months. Spring brings the emergence of fresh, healthy, glossy dark green foliage and the first flower buds, building anticipation for the main flowering display. The extended flowering season from May to October ensures months of colour and wildlife activity, with the rich pink blooms with red blotches creating vibrant displays that showcase remarkable consistency. The healthy foliage remains attractive throughout the season, providing an excellent backdrop for the distinctive single flowers. Even in winter, the strong branching structure provides architectural interest whilst promising another year of spectacular flowering.
Wildlife and Pollinator Value
The exceptional wildlife value of 'For Your Eyes Only' makes it outstanding for supporting local ecosystems. The single flower form provides easy access to nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects throughout the extended flowering season. The continuous blooming habit from July to September makes this rose invaluable for wildlife-friendly gardens, supporting pollinator populations throughout the growing season. The prominent golden stamens and open flower structure make it particularly attractive to a wide range of beneficial insects. The RHS Plants for Pollinators recognition confirms its exceptional ecological value, making it essential for wildlife garden schemes.
Fragrance Profile
'For Your Eyes Only' is bred primarily for visual impact and wildlife value rather than fragrance, featuring a light, subtle scent that doesn't interfere with its natural appeal. The gentle fragrance allows the spectacular visual display and wildlife activity to take centre stage, whilst the natural scent provides pleasant garden ambience without overwhelming other plants. This makes it particularly suitable for naturalistic plantings and areas where the focus is on ecological value and visual beauty rather than intense fragrance.
Companion Planting
The rich pink colours with red blotches of 'For Your Eyes Only' provide excellent opportunities for companion planting with a wide range of wildlife-friendly garden plants. The vibrant pink tones work beautifully with blue and purple flowers, creating complementary displays that attract diverse pollinators. The rose pairs exceptionally well with native wildflowers and naturalistic perennials, creating wildlife corridors that support local ecosystems. Silver and grey foliage plants provide sophisticated contrasts, whilst white flowers create fresh, clean combinations. The compact habit makes it suitable for planting with pollinator-friendly herbs and perennials, creating dynamic wildlife gardens that provide interest throughout the growing season.
Award Recognition and Heritage
'For Your Eyes Only' has received both the prestigious Rose of the Year award in 2015 and RHS Plants for Pollinators recognition, providing confidence in its exceptional garden performance and outstanding wildlife value. The Rose of the Year award is given only to roses that demonstrate excellent performance in garden conditions, whilst the RHS Plants for Pollinators status confirms its exceptional ecological value. These dual recognitions mark this variety as one of exceptional merit, combining stunning beauty with outstanding environmental benefits that meet the highest standards for both garden performance and wildlife support.
Persica Heritage and Innovation
As part of the new race of Persica roses derived from Rosa persica, a native of Iran, 'For Your Eyes Only' represents cutting-edge rose breeding that combines exotic heritage with modern garden performance. Bred by Warner and introduced in 2014, this variety demonstrates the successful integration of wild rose genetics with contemporary breeding techniques. The Persica heritage brings unique characteristics including the distinctive eye pattern, excellent disease resistance, and exceptional wildlife value that sets these roses apart from conventional varieties.
Unique Eye Pattern
The most distinctive feature of 'For Your Eyes Only' is its spectacular eye pattern created by the red blotches at the base of each pink petal, contrasting dramatically with golden stamens. This unique characteristic, inherited from its Rosa persica ancestry, creates flowers that are instantly recognisable and remarkably striking. The eye pattern adds depth and sophistication to the blooms whilst creating a focal point that attracts both human admirers and beneficial insects.
Continuous Bloom Performance
The exceptional continuous flowering habit of 'For Your Eyes Only' ensures that gardens remain colourful and wildlife-friendly from late spring through to mid-autumn. The ability to produce flowers continuously throughout this extended period makes it invaluable for maintaining consistent pollinator support and garden interest. This reliable performance makes it particularly suitable for situations where consistent colour and wildlife value are required throughout the growing season.
Why Choose 'For Your Eyes Only'?
Rose 'For Your Eyes Only' represents the perfect combination of award-winning beauty, exceptional wildlife value, and outstanding garden performance. The large single blooms with their rich pink colouring, distinctive red blotches, and golden stamens provide continuous flowering displays from July through to September, whilst the excellent disease resistance ensures healthy growth with minimal maintenance. The compact, bushy growth habit makes it suitable for gardens of all sizes, from wildlife gardens to mixed borders and container cultivation. Whether grown for its spectacular Persica blooms, exceptional pollinator value, or as a stunning Rose of the Year winner, this innovative rose offers outstanding ecological and aesthetic value that will provide years of gardening pleasure and vital wildlife support.
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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