BURNING LOVE® – red hybrid tea rose - Tantau
Imagine arranging cottage bunches of velvety red blooms for your kitchen table while an easy, bushy rose quietly does the work outside: BURNING LOVE® brings romance to small family gardens without demanding expert care. Its naturally compact, bushy habit fits narrow borders, front gardens and beds along paths, giving you that English hedgerow feel in an ordinary suburban plot. Semi-double, goblet-shaped flowers appear in generous flushes, their medium, classic scent creating a nostalgic, sweet note around garden seating. Colour is this variety’s great strength: the scarlet-red petals hold their fiery tone with excellent resistance to fading, even in unsettled British weather with blustery showers and steady coastal breezes. Dense, dark green foliage sets off the flowers beautifully and, being on its own roots, the plant establishes reliably and offers long-term structure with reassuring ease.
Usage options
| Target area | Reasoning |
|---|
| Front-of-border focal clump |
Compact, bushy growth and a maximum height under one metre make this rose ideal for the front half of a mixed border, where its fiery red blooms draw the eye without overpowering surrounding perennials; well suited to beginners and time-poor homeowners. |
| Romantic cottage-style hedge |
Planted at closer spacing, the natural bushiness and dense foliage knit together into a low, informal hedge that echoes cottage-garden boundaries while remaining manageable to prune lightly once a year; a charming option for lovers of traditional gardens. |
| Cutting patch for home bouquets |
The long-stemmed hybrid tea blooms, produced in clusters with a good second flush, lend themselves to regular cutting for vases and kitchen-table posies, giving a storybook “homegrown flowers” feel with only basic seasonal care for relaxed arrangers. |
| Small family garden feature bed |
Moderate maintenance and reliable repeat flowering make it easy to weave this rose into a family lawn edge or play-area border, providing colour and scent without complex spraying routines, particularly attractive for busy family-focused gardeners. |
| Large container on patio or terrace |
Its compact root system and moderate height suit a substantial pot of at least 40–50 litres, where good compost and regular watering support plentiful blooms beside seating areas, ideal for those creating atmosphere on balconies and patios. |
| Country-style kitchen garden border |
The vivid red flowers and dark, glossy foliage pair beautifully with vegetables and herbs, echoing traditional farmhouse plots and providing nectar for some pollinators, a practical yet decorative choice for rural and allotment-style growers. |
| Wind-exposed or coastal plots |
Its dense, well-branched structure and firm petals cope steadily with typical British gusts and showery spells, holding both shape and colour so beds stay tidy and bright even in breezier locations, useful for coastal and hillside owners. |
| Long-term framework rose in small spaces |
As an own-root plant it can regenerate from the base and maintain its natural form for many years, settling in with roots first, then steadily building shoots, before reaching full ornamental presence by about the third season for patient cottage-style enthusiasts. |
Styling ideas
- Kitchen-table – Underplant with pink lupins and soft grasses to echo the colour of home-cut bouquets – ideal for romantically inclined home decorators.
- Coastal-cosy – Combine BURNING LOVE® with blue globe thistle and silver foliage for a breezy, seaside-cottage feel – suited to coastal homeowners.
- Storybook – Line a front path with low-spaced plants and white edging plants for a fairy-tale entrance – for lovers of classic cottage charm.
- Patio-arbour – Place a large container beside a bench and frame with simple trellis panels supporting fragrant climbers – perfect for small patio retreat seekers.
- Kitchen-border – Weave plants among herbs and salad crops, picking stems for cooking-area vases – aimed at practical yet style-conscious kitchen gardeners.
Technical cultivar profile
| Parameter | Data |
|---|
| Name and registration |
Hybrid tea garden rose; registered cultivar name Burning Love, marketed as BURNING LOVE® – red hybrid tea rose - Tantau; exhibition hybrid tea type, ARS exhibition name Burning Love. |
| Origin and breeding |
Bred by Mathias Tantau Jr. in Germany from ‘Fanal’ × ‘Crimson Glory’; breeding completed 1956, introduced 1957, historically distributed by Hazlewood Bros. Pty. Ltd. in Australia, unregistered cultivar internationally. |
| Growth and structural characteristics |
Bushy, well-branched shrub reaching about 70–95 cm in height and 40–60 cm spread; dense, dark green, glossy foliage; moderately thorny stems; naturally rounded habit suiting borders, low hedging and container use. |
| Flower morphology |
Semi-double, goblet to cup-shaped flowers with 13–25 petals, large bloom size around 7–10 cm; borne mainly in clusters; remontant with a generous second flush, suitable for cutting and continuous ornamental display. |
| Colour data and phenology |
Uniform, vivid scarlet-red flowers; dark, velvety red buds; outer petals RHS 53B, inner petals RHS 46A; colour retention excellent, edges only slightly lighter, tone deepening a little before the petals finally fade. |
| Fragrance and aroma |
Medium-strength, clearly perceptible fragrance with a slightly sweet, classic rose character; noticeable on still days around seating and paths, adding traditional hybrid tea scent to cottage-style gardens without overpowering nearby plants. |
| Hip characteristics |
Produces moderate quantities of small, ovoid orange-red hips, typically 10–14 mm in diameter; decorative in late season and potentially of interest in informal wildlife-friendly or kitchen garden borders after flowering flushes. |
| Resistance and winter hardiness |
Hardy to approximately −21 to −18 °C (RHS H7, Swedish zone 3, USDA 6b); disease performance moderate overall, with good resistance to powdery mildew and black spot, and moderate susceptibility to rust in humid seasons. |
| Horticultural recommendations |
Plant at 35 cm for massing, 30 cm for hedging, 55 cm for specimens; around 8–9 plants per m² for blocks; maintenance moderate, with occasional plant protection and routine pruning to renew flowering wood and maintain shape. |
BURNING LOVE® offers compact, bushy structure, long-season scarlet-red blooms and a dependable own-root framework that suits busy gardeners seeking a lasting, romantic feature; consider it as a quietly reliable cornerstone for your cottage-style planting.
