Rosa 'Golden Celebration'

David C. H. Austin (1926 – 2018) was an award-winning rose breeder, nursery owner and writer from Shropshire, England. He began breeding roses in the 1950s with the goal of creating new shrub rose varieties that would possess the best qualities of old-fashioned roses while incorporating the long flowering characteristics of hybrid tea roses and floribundas. His first commercially successful rose cultivar was 'Constance Spry', which he introduced in 1961. He created a new, informal class of roses in the 1960s, which he named "English Roses". Austin's roses are generally known today as "David Austin Roses".^[4] Austin attained international commercial success with his new rose varieties. Some of his most popular roses include 'Wife of Bath' (1969), 'Graham Thomas' (1983), 'Abraham Darby' (1985) and 'Gertrude Jekyll' (1986).^[5][6]

Austin developed 'Golden Celebration' using the apricot shrub roses, 'Charles Austin' x 'Abraham Darby'. The cultivar was introduced into the UK by David Austin Roses Limited (UK) in 1992. The rose is part of the David Austin English Rose Collection, and is one of the largest-flowered English Roses. 'Golden Celebration' was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 2001. The rose cultivar was used to hybridize five child plants: 'The Alnwick Rose' (2001), 'Crocus Rose' (2000), 'Jubilee Celebration' (2002), 'Portlandia' (2002) and 'Golden Zest' (2005).^[1][7]

• Quest-Ritson, Brigid; Quest-Ritson, Charles (2003). Encyclopedia of Roses. DK Publishing. ISBN 978-0756688684.
• Phillips, Roger; Rix, Martyn (1993). The Quest for the Rose. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-43573-0.