Graceful, romantic, and quietly resilient, Rose ‘Wildeve’ is a soft, dusky beauty from David Austin’s celebrated English Rose collection. Named after the enigmatic character from Thomas Hardy’s novel The Return of the Native, this rose blends the delicate aesthetic of old roses with the dependability of modern shrub varieties. With its blush pink blooms, gentle fragrance, and relaxed form, Wildeve is ideal for those seeking subtle elegance with long-season performance.
Type: English Shrub Rose
Breeder: David Austin, UK
Named After: Diggory Venn (The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy)
Fragrance: Light to medium, fresh with a touch of myrrh
Colour: Pale blush pink and apricot with soft peach and silvery undertones
Bloom Form: Rosette-shaped, fully double
Flowering Period: Repeat blooming from late spring to first frost
Growth Habit: Bushy, arching, and gently cascading
Height: 1.25m (4ft)
Spread: 1.50m (5ft)
Hardiness: RHS H6 – Fully hardy in UK climates
The flowers of Wildeve are a study in quiet beauty. Each bloom is a soft blush pink with delicate hints of peach and pale silver, arranged in classic David Austin-style rosettes. The petals are intricately layered and held in graceful clusters, providing a romantic, cloud-like effect.
As the blooms mature, the colour gently fades to an even paler pink, creating a multi-tonal display that brings a calming elegance to any garden.
Wildeve forms a bushy yet slightly arching shrub, making it perfect for gardeners seeking a rose with a relaxed and informal shape. Its arching branches allow the blooms to nod gently, giving a cascading, flowing appearance that works wonderfully in cottage gardens, mixed borders, or naturalistic planting schemes.
With its ability to blend easily into its surroundings, Wildeve also pairs beautifully with lavender, salvia, nepeta, and ornamental grasses.
From late spring through to the first frost, Wildeve offers generous, repeat-flowering displays. Its blooms arrive in flushes, and the shrub remains consistently covered in buds and blossoms throughout the season—making it a dependable and high-performing variety in both large and small gardens.
Though not overpowering, Wildeve offers a soft, fresh fragrance, sometimes with faint myrrh-like notes. It’s ideal for planting near walkways, patios, or benches, where the subtle perfume can be appreciated up close without being overwhelming.
While its blooms are full and double, Wildeve can still be attractive to some pollinators, particularly when petals open wide enough to reveal stamens. It won’t be the top choice for a wildlife-focused garden, but it can play a small role in supporting garden diversity.
Thanks to its form and colour palette, Wildeve works in a wide range of garden settings:
Cottage and romantic gardens
Mixed borders with perennials
Pastel or soft colour schemes
Informal hedging or loose shrub groupings
Raised beds and terraced planting
Large containers (with proper support)
Its gentle look makes it a natural companion to other pastel-toned or silver-foliaged plants.
Aspect: Best in full sun; will tolerate partial shade
Soil: Moist, fertile, well-drained soil enriched with compost
Watering: Regular watering in dry spells, especially during establishment
Feeding: Use a rose fertiliser in early spring and after first flowering
Pruning: Lightly prune in autumn to prevent wind rock over winter. In spring prune down to good, strong, outward facing buds
Wildeve has been bred with modern garden performance in mind. It is fully hardy across the UK and generally resistant to disease. With good air circulation and proper care, this rose will remain healthy and attractive throughout the growing season, even in challenging conditions.
Whether planted in honour of a loved one or given as a meaningful gift, Wildeve makes a poetic and memorable present. It’s ideal for:
Anniversaries and romantic occasions
Literature lovers and classic novel enthusiasts
Soft, sentimental planting schemes
Memorial or tribute gardens
Soft, romantic colouring and elegant form
Repeat flowering for season-long interest
Graceful, natural habit for informal borders
Light fragrance with old-world charm
Named after a literary character – a rose with meaning
If you’re drawn to refined beauty, timeless romance, and a touch of literary inspiration, Rose ‘Wildeve’ is a gentle and reliable choice that will grace your garden year after year.
Order today and enjoy the quiet, enduring elegance of this beloved David Austin rose.
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:

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
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.

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