Erfurt is a Classic Shrub - one of the Hybrid Musk roses hybridized by Kordes in 1939.

Large, semi-double flowers of medium to deep rose pink show off cream centers full of gold stamens. ‘Erfurt’ looks like one of the prettiest of wild roses, but it reblooms heavily. The strong Musk fragrance adds to the charm of a very classy plant.

Clusters of blooms with 15 to 20 petals appear several times each growing season, giving a lovely display in the garden. The foliage is bronzy-green, wrinkled and leathery, providing good disease resistance and a handsome frame for the blooms. A bushy plant, in some climates the growth can start to sprawl, growing faster sideways than upwards.

Parents of this attractive shrub are [Eva × Reveil Dijonnais]. Eva was a Hybrid Musk (also by Kordes) with reddish, semi-double blooms and very rampant, vigorous growth. Reveil Dijonnais is an older Climbing Hybrid Tea (1931, Buatois) with bright reddish blooms with a yellow center and a yellow-streaked reverse that had great disease resistance and bronzed foliage. Together, they passed on that disease resistance, vigor, and height to this seedling.

If you have a place in your garden for a fragrant shrub with lovely pink blooms and a hounting fragrance, try Erfurt.

Photo: Dave Candler  (as grown and shown by Audrey and Oz Osborn)