About the name
Name. 'Vanessa Bell', after Vanessa Bell (1879-1961), the British modernist painter and designer of interiors and textiles. Co-founder of the Bloomsbury Group with her sister Virginia Woolf (1882-1941). She lived and worked at Charleston Farmhouse (Sussex) with the painter Duncan Grant, and the house became a centre of modernist painting in Britain, with its walls and furniture painted by both artists. Vanessa Bell designed the covers of Virginia Woolf's books, including 'Orlando' and 'To the Lighthouse'. A typical Austin-style tradition is to name varieties after British cultural figures.
Breeding. Bred by David Austin at David Austin Roses (Albrighton, Shropshire, UK). Code AUSeasel. Bred 2009, introduced 2017. Parentage not disclosed.
Significance. A modern Austin XXI-century rose with a cultural allusion to the Bloomsbury Group, the intellectual movement that shaped modernism in Britain. The rare honey-lemon-green-tea fragrance trio is a complex note typical of the latest Austin developments. Two-phase colour: pink buds open to lemon-yellow flowers with fading edges. USDA 5-11: all of Ukraine without cover. A 'Bloomsbury' corner: together with Tranquillity (English Musk), Vanessa Bell makes a modern Austin composition for gardens of lovers of British literature. No major international awards are documented; Vanessa Bell is valued above all for its cultural significance and complex fragrance.