After 12 years of meticulous breeding, this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show sees family-owned British brand, David Austin®, reveal the latest addition to their English Rose collection with Danny Clarke.
Handsomely named ‘Dannahue®’, a nod to Danny’s full forename, the apricot-hued English shrub rose is noted for its beauty, excellent health, and fragrance. Dannahue® boasts a natural ability to thrive in containers and shaded areas and sits happily against walls or fences – perfect for urban living and city spaces, as well as cottage gardens.
Rightly, every David Austin rose has a story behind the name, and Dannahue’s is one with charitable connotations at heart; supporting a not-for-profit that promotes accessibility and inclusivity in horticulture.
In 2022, David Austin was hugely impressed with an RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden called ‘Hands off Mangrove’ by not-for-profit Grow2Know. The garden was designed by Danny Clarke along with Grow2Know
founder, Tayshan Hayden-Smith, and powerfully united the two prominent issues of social injustice and global deforestation.
Based in West London, Grow2Know was born from a community of guerrilla gardeners who came together in an act of healing following the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017. Tayshan encourages a more inclusive
environment within the horticultural scene with the aim to reconnect people with nature and one another. As a director of the charity, Clarke is delighted that the brand-new namesake rose, Dannahue®, will support Grow2Know to thrive.
The donated money will be used to reclaim further urban planting space, continuing to empower people through horticulture whilst creating a more inclusive environment. “Following the breeding progress of this rose has been an absolute delight and I am so pleased to be sharing it with the world at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Roses shouldn’t be restrained in our eyes, they’re a quintessential part of British horticultural history, something that should be able to be enjoyed by all. Together with the Dannahue® rose, Danny and Grow2Know, we’re thrilled to be adding to our range of roses suitable for city living.” David Austin.
Clarke adds, “What an honour to share the name my mother and father gave me with a David Austin Rose, especially one that enables planting in more inclusive environments. I’m so grateful and excited about the support Grow2Know will gain too.”
ABOUT DAVID AUSTIN ROSES LIMITED
David Austin Roses is a world-leading breeder of fine English Roses and has been since its founder
David C. H. Austin OBE released his very first rose back in 1961, Constance Spry.
A family business that calls the Shropshire countryside home today, it counts more than 200 varieties of roses to its name; roses that are enjoyed across the length and breadth of Britain and far beyond. Under the guardianship of David Austin’s son, also, handily, christened David Austin, its collection of English Roses gather award after award for their outstanding garden performance, exceptional beauty and heady scents. The collection grows each year, welcoming new varieties to the rose family following years of trialling within the meticulous breeding programme.
The quest is a constant one – for the promise of classic English Roses that enchant and that endure.
BLOOM
Expect chalice-shaped blooms that evolve from a globe to a mass of close-layered petals. When they open,
Dannahue becomes a more relaxed, informal flower with a petal palette that begins as deep apricot in bud and latterly blush apricot, caramel-yellow and finally cream as its swan song.
FRAGRANCE
Dannahue has one of David Austin’s most unusual and wonderfully complex fragrances. Fruity lemon, lychee
and fresh apricot are wrapped in a softer layer of tea and myrrh which balance out the zest, imbuing it with
warmth.
PLANTING
Compact and shapely, Dannahue grows upright to form a bushy shrub full of the old rose character for which David Austin is known. Happy in a shaded area, it would suit a container close to a wall, but also works well en masse in a border of its own type, or blended with other plants with warm orange and golden yellow tones.
