Prolifera de Redouté is a Centifolia garden rose originating prior to the middle of the 18th century. Lineage is unknown. Proliferation in roses is a mutation where one or more roses may grow out of the center of the original flower. The original specimen of Rose Prolifera de Redouté had over a dozen of these proliferations.
Prolifera de Redouté is also known as Isabel (and many other names). Typical of many Centifolia roses, Prolifera de Redouté has grey-green foliage on drooping canes. The shrub grows to five feet tall or so at maturity with similar spread…but is often half this size in many gardens.
Flowers are fully-quartered old rose form, and they are large, to 5″ or so. Color is the medium pink (often described as ‘blush pink’) so often found in many of the old roses. Each flower has a very small yellow-green eye.
Fragrance is considered excellent, typical of many of the old roses. The shrub grows in a relaxed manner with foliage that is generally healthy.
Due to its relaxed growth habit, plant Prolifera de Redouté in mixed borders or a cottage garden.
About Centifolia roses
Often called ‘cabbage roses’ because of the large size of their flowers, Centifolia roses are so-named because of their many petals (‘hundred-petaled rose’). The Dutch were the primary hybridizers of Centifolia roses, mostly in the period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.
Scientific name: Rosa x centifolia Prolifera de Redouté
Common name(s): Prolifera de Redouté, Isabel
Rose Class: Centifolia
Size: 5′ high by 5′ wide at maturity…often smaller.
Bloom period: Once blooming mid-spring into early summer
Winter hardiness: 4b/5-9
Of note: Easy to grow. Good winter hardiness. Excellent fragrance and fully double old rose form flowers. Only blooms once per season. If you grow Prolifera de Redouté yours may have the proliferations for which the rose was named.