William Baffin
William Baffin is one of the Explorer Series (named for explorers who had carved out routes through Canada and into the Arctic from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centureies), introduced in 1983. It is an extremely hardy climbing rose, having been grown successfully in Zone 2b. It is shade tolerant. Canes are stiff, grow to 10 feet, and can be trained on a post or trellis or allowed to form a very large shrub. Blooms are a strawberry-pink with yellow stamens, have a semi-double form, and occur in clusters of up to 30 blossoms in late June and early July. It's repeat bloom is sporadic the rest of the summer and into fall. Flowers have only a slight fragrance. Foliage is shiny green and very disease resistant.
Photograph (left) courtesy of Paul Bardin
Photograph (right) Ben Martin & Linda Kraus-Martin, Martin & Kraus
