Enfant de France Potted Rose Bush

About Enfant de France Potted Rose Bush

Rosa ‘Enfant de France’
🧬 Breeder: Lartay, fils — France
🌹 Introduced: 1860
🌹 Rose Type: Hybrid Perpetual
💕 A silvery-pink French antique rose with peony-like flowers and the rich perfume of an Old Rose.

Enfant de France is a true piece of rose history.

Bred in France in 1860, this beautiful Hybrid Perpetual has survived for more than 160 years—and one look at its flowers helps explain why.

The blooms are large, full and light pink, with approximately 26–40 petals creating a wonderfully romantic, old-fashioned flower. Historical descriptions characterize its coloring as silvery pink and compare the exceptionally double flowers to a peony.

Then there's the fragrance.

Enfant de France carries a strong Old Rose perfume—the rich, unmistakable fragrance that makes antique roses so captivating.

It blooms in flushes throughout the season and develops into a tall, substantial shrub, giving collectors the opportunity to grow a genuine 19th-century French rose in their own gardens.

💐 Plant & Flower Traits

🌹 Rose Type: Hybrid Perpetual
🎨 Color: Light pink to silvery pink
🌸 Bloom Form: Large, full, very double flowers with a romantic, peony-like appearance
🌼 Petal Count: Approximately 26–40 petals
🌺 Fragrance: Strong Old Rose fragrance
🔁 Flowering Habit: Blooms in flushes throughout the season

🏡 Growth & Garden Habits

🌱 Growth Habit: Tall
↕️ Height: Approximately 4–6 feet
↔️ Width: Approximately 3–5 feet
❄️ Hardiness: USDA Zones 6b–9b
🪴 Garden Use: Antique rose collections, cottage gardens, fragrance gardens, mixed borders, specimen plantings, and romantic cutting gardens

🇫🇷 A Rose From 1860 France

Enfant de France was bred by Lartay, fils in France in 1860, placing its introduction during one of the most fascinating periods in rose-breeding history.

It belongs to the Hybrid Perpetual class—a group of roses treasured for combining the lush flowers and fragrance associated with older European roses with the ability to flower again during the growing season.

More than 160 years after its introduction, Enfant de France remains commercially available.

There is also a little mystery surrounding its history. Historical rose references contain several roses bearing the name Enfant de France, and HelpMeFind notes that this has created some confusion among older references.

For rose collectors, that complicated history only makes this survivor from 1860 even more intriguing.

🌸 Like a Silvery-Pink Peony

One historical description cited by HelpMeFind gives perhaps the best description of Enfant de France:

Its flowers are silvery pink and resemble a very double peony.

That's exactly the kind of flower antique-rose lovers dream about.

Rather than the sharply pointed form of a modern Hybrid Tea, Enfant de France gives you a soft, full, deeply romantic flower whose beauty feels unmistakably Victorian.

Add its strong Old Rose perfume, and this is a rose that doesn't simply look historic.

It smells historic, too.

💛 Why Grace Rose Farm Loves It

This is what growing a piece of history looks like.

Enfant de France isn't a modern rose created to imitate an antique flower.

It is the antique.

Bred in France in 1860, its silvery-pink, peony-like flowers and strong Old Rose fragrance give gardeners an opportunity to experience the kind of rose that captivated gardeners more than a century and a half ago.

We especially love that it blooms in flushes throughout the season rather than offering only a single spring display.

For collectors of rare and historic roses, Enfant de France has everything we love: beauty, fragrance, history, and just enough mystery.

🌿 Growing & Care Recommendations

Planting Site: Give Enfant de France room to develop into its naturally tall, substantial shrub form.

Spacing: With a mature width of approximately 3–5 feet, provide adequate spacing between plants for good air circulation.

Watering: Water deeply and consistently while your potted rose becomes established, allowing excess water to drain freely.

Pruning: Because this is a historic Hybrid Perpetual, avoid treating it exactly like a compact modern landscape rose. Focus on removing dead, damaged, or weak growth and maintaining a strong framework of healthy canes.

Fragrance Garden: Plant Enfant de France somewhere you'll regularly pass close to the flowers. Its strong Old Rose fragrance is one of the defining characteristics of the variety.

Cold Climate Note: HelpMeFind lists Enfant de France for USDA Zones 6b–9b.