All About the ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ Garden Rose

Of the many varieties of roses I grow in my garden, there is one that stands out. Vigorous, outstanding cut flower, long stems, and beautiful–‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ has stolen my heart forever.

If you long to have a rose cutting garden, you simply must add this rose. In this article, I’ll walk you through the background for this garden rose variety and why I think it is worthy of a spot in your garden.

Background of Princess Charlene de Monaco

Princess Charlene was bred before 2010 by noted French rose breeder Alain Meilland. The Meilland family have been breeding roses for a long time–since about 1850!

She was later introduced to the public in 2012 in Germany. Other names that you may find this variety sold under are Duftjewel(R) and ‘Forster Rosentraum’. Her breeder identification name is MEIdysouk.

If you’re new to roses, the breeders typically give new roses a distinct name. Roses can be sold under many different common or variety names, so the breeder name helps keep us humans a little more organized so there’s no disputing. (Sadly, many heirloom varieties have been confused because of the inconsistency with naming back in the day.) Since Princess Charlene was bred by Alain Meilland, the first three letters of her breeder ID name is “MEI”. This lets you quickly discern the origins of the rose variety.

‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ was the result of a cross between the rose variety ‘Louis de Funes’ with a seedling of ‘Pink Panther’ crossed with ‘Graham Thomas’ [Louis de Funes x (Pink Panther x Graham Thomas)].

Characteristics of ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ Rose

Charlene is a beautiful apricot pink to light pink rose with ruffled petals. The average diameter of the blooms is about 5 inches across. The blooms are born mostly solitary on the end of stems, but sometimes they will be clustered (mostly on smaller diameter stems).

The fragrance is considered strong for a modern rose. It is very light and crisp.

FYI: Sometimes when a modern rose variety is listed as having “strong” fragrance, it really isn’t that strong. Breeders are working on trying to introduce fragrance back into their new varieties, but sadly I haven’t found many modern roses that have as strong of a scent as the old roses like the Mosses, Damasks, and Hybrid Perpetuals.

The variety description says that this rose only reaches about 31 inches high by 39 inches wide. However, in my experience, that is inaccurate! This rose can get extremely tall! Over 5 to 6 ft on average and sometimes close to 12 ft!

This rose is classifed as a hybrid tea and/or grandiflora rose. If you want to learn more about rose classes and how roses are classified into groups, check out our rose guide.

Uses for ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ Rose

The growth habit of this rose is very tall and upright. It would make a perfect specimen for the back of a garden bed, but more importantly, it’s upright growth and long stems make it great for cut flowers.

So many times with garden roses, it can be a challenge to get long enough stems to use them as cut flowers in arrangements. This rose produces long, strong stems. I cannot say enough good things about this rose as a cut flower.

In the first year I planted my Charlene roses, I was able to cut several stems from the first year’s growth. It throws out new long canes every year.

Strangely enough, I have also tasted the petals. Yes, I know–it sounds really weird and nerdy, right? The petals have a very crisp, slightly floral, astringent taste. I could see value in drying the petals and adding them to teas or using them in the kitchen in some way.

Overall Thoughts on ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’ Garden Rose

What I’ve found the most surprising with this rose is that it can completely die back to the ground over Winter and still produce long canes very rapidly once Spring comes around. For this reason, I would highly recommend you grow this rose on it’s own roots. I’m not aware of any grafted sources for this rose, but if there happens to be any on the market in the future, I wouldn’t recommend growing it as a budded or grafted specimen as the canes do not seem to be Winter hardy (I live in Zone 6b, for reference).

Remarkably, I am still able to get several cuts from new canes, though. If you were to see my Charlene roses at the end of the season, you would have never known they died all the way back to the ground.

This garden rose is also very healthy. I have not seen any signs of disease on my 10 (soon to be 20!) specimens.

The ruffly apricot pink blooms have a unique texture for a rose. Often we think of roses as that typical high-centered rolled-up shape (think grocery store roses), but this one certainly is a blend between the typical hybrid tea roses and old garden roses. The waviness at the edge of the petals gives it some extra texture. If you can’t tell already, I’m a diehard fan of ‘Princess Charlene de Monaco’.

I would not recommend this rose as a landscape specimen particularly. It certainly could be used in a mixed border planting, but there are many other roses that will shine in the landscape. A shorter version with large blooms and a similar color would be ‘Bliss’. ‘Bonica’ is a lighter pink color but is an absolutely fantastic landscape rose, too!

Want to learn more about rose variety classes?

Hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora, shrub… what do all of these mean when it comes to describing roses?

In our free rose guide, I break down the differences between rose classes and share a little bit of history for each of the classes. Why is this important to know? Knowing the difference between rose classes may help you choose the right type of rose for the right spot in your garden.