Double Delight
DOUBLE DELIGHT
Hybrid Tea
(ANDeli)
Double Delight was bred and introduced in 1977 by USA rose breeders Swim and Ellis. First, it is one of the world’s most popular bi-coloured roses and secondly, its rich, fruity, spicy fragrance has set the benchmark for measuring perfume in a rose.
No one knows whether its name refers to the two contrasting colours in its blooms, or the ‘double delight’ is its colour and fragrance.
Each flower is approximately 12 to 15 cms and is delightful from bud to full bloom and comprises around 30 petals in creamy white edged in carmine. Double Delight makes a great cut flower and the bush repeat flowers very quickly all season long.
It is not an overly vigorous Hybrid Tea, growing into a neat bush 1.2m tall and 0.9 wide. Its size and growth are easy to manage, making it perfect in rose beds, as a standard or container grown rose.
Generally hardy, the plant does occasionally get a touch of mildew but this is not really a problem in our hot dry climate. Double Delight has received the highest praise and a multitude of awards including Gold Medals in Germany and Italy in 1976, a fragrance award in Switzerland in 1976 and inclusion in the All-America Rose Selections in 1977. It was inducted into the World Federation of Rose Societies Rose Hall of Fame in 1985.
Double Delight is available from Knight’s Roses, Wagner’s Rose Nursery, Newman’s Nursery, Treloar Roses and all good garden centres.
Text Kelvin Trimper
Photos Melanie Trimper
