Species Rose 'Kiftsgate': Murrell's 1954 Rambling Giant

Introduced in 1954 by Graham Stuart Thomas (often attributed to Murrell), 'Kiftsgate' is a selection of Rosa filipes from Kiftsgate Court Gardens in Gloucestershire. This species rose is a rambling giant—canes reaching 30-50 feet, smothered in early summer with hundreds of thousands of small, single, white flowers.

Botanical Profile

The flowers are tiny, 1 inch, single, white with prominent yellow stamens, borne in massive pyramidal panicles. The fragrance is sweet, musky, and carries on the wind. The canes are long, flexible, and thorny, reaching into trees, over buildings, across structures. The foliage is ferny, light green. 'Kiftsgate' is not a rose for small gardens—it's a force of nature. At Kiftsgate Court, it grows up a 40-foot beech tree and across a 60-foot wall. In the right place—a large tree, a ruined wall, a wild boundary—it creates a floral spectacle unmatched in scale. A species rose that writes its own rules.