Today, most of our growing is still carried out by hand, just as it was at the very beginning. Every plant that we sell has been hand-budded, a traditional and intricate skill carried out by our experts millions of times each year.

Growing up in the Shropshire countryside, David Austin developed a passion for plants from a very young age. However, his interest in flowers was truly ignited when he first discovered a magazine called Gardens Illustrated, tucked away in the school library. After being encouraged by his teacher, he decided to pursue his new found passion.

James Baker, a friend of David’s father, ran a nursery down the road from their family farm. David would visit with his father and was dazzled by the new varieties of lupins that James was breeding. It was at this time that the idea of developing new varieties of plants himself really started to take hold. Coming from a farming background, David had an innate knowledge of plants but taking this knowledge and applying it to the less practical world of flowers did not meet his father’s approval. It wasn’t until his sister gave him A.E. Bunyard’s book, Old Garden Roses, for his 21st birthday, that he fell in love with roses.

Resolute in purpose, David began the slow process of breeding this new type of rose. Unfortunately, his inexperience revealed itself when he lost his first set of seedlings to a fungal disease, and he had to start all over again the following year. However, with time and extraordinary dedication, David created his first rose, ‘Constance Spry’ (Ausfirst), in 1961. Industry professionals said nobody would buy these ‘old fashioned roses’ and nurseries refused to stock them. Not one to be easily discouraged, David decided to ignore his detractors and sell his roses to the public himself, using his own kitchen table in Shropshire as his distribution centre. He also sold a wide range of other roses including Old Roses, climbers and ramblers.

Apart from his passion for roses, David had a great love for literature and his sitting room was lined with bookcases filled with a great variety of books. The first book he wrote was The Heritage of the Rose, published in 1988. In 1993 he published the first edition of The English Roses, the definitive work on his own creation, which won great critical acclaim around the world. He especially loved poetry and published a collection of his own poems in 2014 entitled The Breathing Earth, which draws on his life experiences and his love of nature.

He may be seen as the Father of English Roses, but David was also a family orientated man. Even as his business expanded he stayed close to his Shropshire roots, living with his family on the farm. In 1990 he was joined by his son David Jnr. Together they developed David Austin Roses into a worldwide business with offices in Europe, Japan and the USA all while establishing a thriving cut roses business for wedding and events. More recently two of his grandsons joined the fold and David Austin Roses remains a family business today.