'Falstaff', like the Shakespeare character for whom it is named, can keep good company with an unusual variety of friends.  It has taught me a lot about Austin roses, about using purples in a fragrant landscape, and even about climbers and espalier plantings.

Austin Roses: 

Falstaff shares several characteristics with other Austin Roses.  One of these is that, as a garden catalogue once  stated, Austins behave differently in Southern California than they do anywhere else on the planet: the plants are more than twice as big here.  In fact, I grow 'Falstaff' on the California Coast as a climber, though I have seen it as a nice four-foot shrub inland.    Another characteristic of Austin roses is that each variety will strive to reach a particular height before it will bloom profusely.  This varies from three feet for 'Perdita' to sometimes twelve feet for 'Graham Thomas' or 'Teasing Georgia'. My Austins don’t like heavy pruning and can simply skip one or more bloom cycles when this occurs.  On 'Falstaff' I only prune lateral stems.  As for timing bloom cycles, my Austins march to the beat of a different drummer.  They bloom when they are ready and have more bloom cycles some years than others.  I’ve learned not to blame myself for their variance.

Purples in a Fragrant Landscape Garden:

For those who like the real, deep purple roses, a beautiful landscape can be created by using several purple rose varieties, some surrounding white minis and floribundas, some silver-leaved herbal plants such as lambs’ ears and  'Powis Castle' Artemisia, and some teal blue color in the ornamentation and hardscape.   (Silver plants work best when they comprise no more than one third of the plant material in a garden bed.)    A touch of sparkling silver in a garden ornament would be a nice added touch.  In an inland garden, white climbers can provide accents over arbors or pillars, but most white climbers develop too many brown petals on the coast due to the moisture in the air from the night and early morning fogs.  A great bonus for all of the above-mentioned plants is that most of them have delightful fragrances.

My 'Falstaff'

'Falstaff', being a richly colored and heavily fragrant purple in color, can be planted as a bush but can also be bent over an arbor or pegged into a curve to produce more blooms.  With patience it can even be groomed into an espalier.   In recent years several other spectacular purple roses which will blend with 'Falstaff' have been introduced.   These include the incredibly fragrant 'Della Reese', the tall 'Wild Blue Yonder', 'Rhapsody in Blue', 'Outta the Blue', and 'Ebb Tide'.   'Route 66' will work if it has part shade; 'Intrigue' is an old favorite deep purple floribunda which blooms every 6 weeks for me. These are each a little different in hue or shade, but can be tied together by the white or silvery companion plants.  One note for exhibitors: The foliage of purple rose plants can show discoloration from too-heavy spraying.

'Falstaff' can win in exhibition in the Austin category, the fragrance class, or in bouquets or boxes,  but I’d grow 'Falstaff' and its companions for their beauty and fragrance, even if I couldn’t show them.