Rose 'Othello' - Shrub Rose
A magnificent shrub rose that brings dramatic intensity to any garden space with its abundant clusters of extraordinarily formed deep crimson blooms, powerful old rose fragrance, and exceptional flowering performance throughout the season, perfectly complemented by attractive dark green foliage and vigorous robust growth that makes it ideal for mixed borders, specimen plantings, heritage gardens, and commanding garden displays where passionate presence and theatrical beauty are essential.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous shrub rose
- Eventual Height: 150cm
- Eventual Spread: 100cm
- Flowering Period: June to September
- Flower Colour: Deep crimson with rich burgundy undertones
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celsius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Vigorous, bushy, with strong upright habit
- Flower Type: Fully double cupped blooms in sumptuous clusters
- Fragrance: Powerful, rich old rose fragrance
Overview
Rose 'Othello' exemplifies dramatic garden excellence, producing continuous displays of spectacular deep crimson blooms that create breathtaking passionate intensity throughout the extended growing season. This outstanding English rose variety transforms garden spaces with its perfectly proportioned vigorous growth that showcases abundant clusters of fully double cupped blooms, where individual flowers feature magnificent deep crimson petals with rich burgundy undertones in extraordinary arrangements that create commanding visual presence in any garden setting. The dramatic passionate colour palette makes this rose particularly impressive for contemporary mixed borders and theatrical garden displays, representing passion, drama, and garden intensity. The flowers emerge in repeated displays throughout the season with excellent repeat flowering, creating sustained displays that reach perfect proportions with consistent appealing beauty. The powerful old rose fragrance enhances the spectacular visual impact, creating memorable garden experiences that complement both traditional mixed borders and modern landscape designs with dramatic beauty and reliable vigorous performance.
Key Features
The outstanding appeal of 'Othello' lies in its abundant fully double cupped blooms that showcase classic formation with spectacular colour intensity and perfect vigorous presence. Each flower displays magnificently formed structure with fully double cupped petals featuring deep crimson colour with rich burgundy undertones in extraordinary cluster arrangements, creating displays of exceptional beauty and passionate charm. The sumptuous deep crimson colour provides enchanting displays that maintain their dramatic impact throughout the flowering season, creating spectacular visual intensity that symbolises passion and garden drama. The flowers are produced in clusters with excellent repeat flowering characteristics, emerging continuously throughout the summer that add magnificent anticipation to the garden display. The powerful old rose fragrance complements the dramatic visual appeal, creating memorable garden experiences that enhance both border applications and garden enjoyment with passionate colour sophistication and intoxicating aromatic charm.
Growth Characteristics
The vigorous bushy growth provides excellent proportioned structure for impressive border displays and substantial garden features, making this variety particularly valuable for mixed plantings, specimen positions, and garden applications where strong presence and spectacular flowering coverage are essential. The attractive dark green foliage is produced abundantly throughout the growing season, creating an exceptionally attractive backdrop that perfectly complements the deep crimson bloom colours whilst maintaining excellent vigour and lustrous appeal. The strong upright growth habit ensures reliable flowering whilst creating substantial visual impact that fits perfectly into diverse garden settings, with the robust size making it ideal for both prominent border positions and specimen garden locations where its dramatic beauty can be fully appreciated.
Flowering Performance
Throughout the summer to autumn, 'Othello' delivers exceptional flowering displays with excellent repeat blooming that continues reliably throughout the extended growing season. The plant produces abundant clusters of deep crimson blooms consistently, creating impressive visual impact with exceptional performance that ensures ongoing garden drama. The individual fully double cupped blooms develop with classic formation, allowing gardeners to appreciate the perfect deep crimson colour sophistication and passionate quality, whilst the generous cluster size ensures impressive presence for extended periods with substantial garden impact. The free flowering nature with excellent repeat characteristics ensures magnificent displays throughout the season, with the ongoing dramatic blooms providing persistent focal points that enhance garden spaces with their sumptuous colour palette and powerful old rose fragrance.
Growing Conditions
'Othello' thrives in full sun to partial shade with fertile, well-prepared, moist but well-drained soil, requiring good drainage whilst maintaining consistent moisture for optimal vigorous performance and colour development. The rose adapts excellently to various garden situations and performs brilliantly in mixed borders, specimen positions, and substantial garden spaces where the deep crimson colours can create maximum visual impact in generous areas. For best results, plant in sunny to lightly shaded locations with good air circulation, incorporating well-rotted organic matter or quality garden compost to support the healthy vigorous growth and dark foliage development. The variety benefits from regular feeding during the growing season and responds exceptionally well to traditional garden cultivation practices, whilst the substantial size makes it suitable for diverse garden situations from prominent borders to specimen positions where its dramatic qualities and deep crimson colour intensity can be celebrated.
Hardiness and Disease Resistance
'Othello' demonstrates good disease resistance characteristics with reliable resilience in UK growing conditions, maintaining healthy growth throughout the season with outstanding vigour and robust constitution. The variety shows excellent hardiness with good cold tolerance, making it dependable for gardeners seeking reliable substantial plantings. The attractive dark green foliage remains vigorous and healthy with good disease resistance, making it an excellent choice for gardeners seeking dependable plantings with manageable maintenance requirements. The hardy nature ensures consistent performance across different growing conditions and seasonal changes, supporting reliable colour development and flowering performance throughout the growing season.
Care and Maintenance
'Othello' requires standard English rose maintenance to achieve optimal flowering performance and vigorous development. Apply balanced rose fertiliser in early spring and again in early summer, with regular watering during dry periods to support the healthy vigorous growth and abundant flower production. The rose benefits from mulching around the base to retain moisture and suppress weeds during the growing season. The good disease resistance means this variety requires minimal intervention with standard care practices, making it ideal for gardeners seeking reliable substantial plantings with dramatic impact. Regular deadheading encourages continued flowering and maintains the spectacular colour display throughout the season, whilst annual pruning in late winter maintains the vigorous structure and promotes strong new growth for optimal flowering performance.
Garden Applications
'Othello' excels in dramatic border displays and passionate garden features where its intense beauty and substantial proportions can be fully appreciated. The deep crimson colour makes it ideal for theatrical mixed borders, eye-catching specimen features, and romantic landscapes where passionate colour impact and reliable vigorous performance are essential. Perfect for contemporary gardens, mixed borders, formal features, and dramatic garden displays, this rose provides outstanding cut flowers that enhance floral arrangements with intense colour for special occasions and passionate displays. The vigorous growth and excellent repeat flowering make it particularly suitable for creating stunning focal points in established gardens and dramatic collections, whilst the substantial size and commanding nature ensure it provides impressive presence in generous spaces where its deep colour creates spectacular passionate beauty.
Border Integration
The vigorous bushy growth makes 'Othello' excellently suited to mixed border cultivation alongside perennials and shrubs. The rose thrives in garden borders with good preparation and quality soil, responding well to regular feeding and consistent care where the vigorous growth can create maximum flowering impact in substantial plantings. Plant with adequate spacing to allow for mature spread, incorporating companion plants that complement the deep crimson colour scheme. Regular border care during the growing season ensures optimal flowering coverage and healthy development, maximising the spectacular garden display and seasonal enjoyment.
Seasonal Interest
Throughout the growing season, 'Othello' provides exceptional seasonal interest with continuous substantial displays and outstanding performance. Spring brings the emergence of attractive dark green foliage and strong new vigorous growth, building anticipation for the main spectacular flowering display. The magnificent deep crimson blooms from summer through autumn with excellent repeat flowering provide months of intense colour that maintains its passionate appeal throughout the season, creating consistent dramatic impact. The attractive dark green foliage remains healthy throughout the season with good disease resistance, providing perfect backdrop for the substantial flower displays, whilst the vigorous bushy structure provides attractive garden interest year-round with strong architectural form.
Fragrance Profile
'Othello' features powerful old rose fragrance that will magnificently captivate the senses, complementing the dramatic visual display and enhancing the garden experience. The rich old rose perfume adds substantial aromatic appeal to garden spaces whilst making this rose particularly valuable for border positions where both visual beauty and strong fragrant interest are desired for passionate occasions. The powerful fragrance enhances garden atmosphere and makes this variety suitable for areas where pronounced scent contributes to the dramatic garden experience, particularly near pathways and seating areas where the old rose perfume creates lasting intense impressions.
Companion Planting
The deep crimson colouring of 'Othello' provides excellent opportunities for companion planting with complementary garden plants and rich passionate colour schemes. The sumptuous deep crimson colour works beautifully with plants that provide harmonising or contrasting tones, whilst silver and grey foliage plants provide excellent backdrop that allows the colour intensity to shine in mixed plantings. Pale pink and cream flowers provide striking contrasts that highlight the deep crimson blooms, whilst complementary perennials and dramatic garden plants can create stunning combinations throughout the growing season.
Dramatic Garden Integration
The excellent vigorous qualities and commanding nature make 'Othello' particularly valuable for gardeners who wish to integrate passionate beauty into dramatic displays and theatrical garden features. The bushy vigorous growth, abundant fully double cupped blooms with intense colour drama, and powerful old rose fragrance create outstanding garden displays that provide lasting seasonal enhancement whilst maintaining the passionate significance of the deep crimson colour intensity. The reliable vigorous growth ensures impressive flowering impact whilst maintaining substantial proportions, making it ideal for both contemporary garden beauty and dramatic border displays that provide commanding statements for passionate garden areas with excellent performance.
Modern Appeal
'Othello' represents exceptional English rose breeding that combines dramatic beauty with substantial vigorous proportions and contemporary appeal, making it an excellent choice for gardeners seeking distinctive roses with modern characteristics. The intense deep crimson colour offers exceptional visual passion whilst maintaining classic English rose appeal and performance, making it particularly suitable for contemporary garden designs and dramatic border displays where passionate colour statements and substantial presence are important considerations.
Passionate Garden Value
'Othello' offers gardeners a commanding variety that combines dramatic beauty with exceptional reliability and passionate appeal. The variety's intense appearance and dependable vigorous growth habit have made it popular among gardeners who appreciate roses that combine visual drama with reliable garden performance and suitability for contemporary applications and passionate spaces that celebrate bold garden beauty.
Why Choose 'Othello'?
Rose 'Othello' represents the perfect combination of dramatic vigorous beauty, passionate colour intensity, and outstanding reliability. The abundant clusters of fully double cupped deep crimson blooms with their powerful old rose fragrance provide exceptional displays from summer through autumn with excellent repeat flowering, whilst the vigorous healthy growth and good disease resistance ensure dependable performance with standard maintenance requirements. Whether grown for dramatic border displays, passionate garden features, theatrical plantings, or simply for its intense beauty and reliable vigorous nature, this outstanding shrub rose offers exceptional value that combines commanding appeal with reliable garden excellence, creating lasting memories and enduring beauty that celebrates passion and garden drama with substantial intensity that enhances any garden setting where drama, reliability, and perfect passionate impact are appreciated.
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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