The Ancient Mariner is an English shrub rose from David Austin, introduced in 2015 and named for Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It produces masses of large blooms packed with around 160 petals. They’re a glowing mid-pink at the centre, paling toward the edges, and as each flower opens fully it reveals a cluster of golden stamens. The fragrance is medium-strong, a warm myrrh. It repeats in flushes from late spring into fall. The shrub is bushy and fairly upright, about 120 cm tall and wide, and makes a good informal hedge or border rose. It’s adaptable, growing in full sun or partial shade, in any aspect and in all soil types, and it’s rated hardy to zone 4.

A generous, cold-hardy David Austin rose in glowing mid-pink with a warm myrrh scent.