Rosa Mutabilis aka 'Butterfly Rose' (Shrub)
Rosa Mutabilis aka 'Butterfly Rose' (Shrub)
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Rosa Mutabilis – The Butterfly Rose
Rosa Mutabilis is one of the most remarkable and enchanting roses in cultivation. Known as the Butterfly Rose for the way its delicate single blooms flutter and shimmer on the plant, it produces an endlessly changing display of colour from a single bush – honey yellow buds open to soft apricot, then deepen through orange-pink to a rich cerise red as they mature. The result is a plant simultaneously displaying three or four warm tones at once, creating a uniquely animated and striking effect throughout the season.
Exceptionally healthy, shade-tolerant, and with a generous non-stop flowering habit from late spring right through to autumn, Rosa Mutabilis is one of the most rewarding and versatile shrub roses you can grow. It thrives in almost any soil, can be grown as a specimen shrub, an informal hedge, or a large container plant, and even – with minimal pruning – trained against a sheltered wall to considerable height.
🌸 Plant Specifications
| Colour | Multi-coloured – yellow to apricot to orange-pink to cerise red, all at once |
|---|---|
| Fragrance | Good fragrance – sweet, delicate scent |
| Flower size | 6 cm (2.5") – single flowers in clusters |
| Petal count / form | 5 petals, single open form, cluster flowers |
| Height × Spread | 110–180 cm × 110–150 cm (4–6 ft × 4–5 ft) |
| Flowering season | Continuous flowering – late spring through autumn |
| Sunlight | Tolerates shade; best with 4+ hrs daily |
| Disease resistance | Exceptional disease resistance |
| Thorns | Thorns present on growth |
| Bee friendly | ✓ Excellent for bees and pollinators |
| Pot size (potted) | 5.5 litre |
🏡 Ideal For
- Mixed borders and cottage gardens where a long season of colour is needed
- Informal hedging – naturally bushy and dense
- Large containers on sunny patios
- Training against a warm sheltered wall for maximum height
- Wildlife-friendly gardens – loved by bees and butterflies
✂️ Pruning Guide
Prune in late February or early March. Cut back main stems by one third and remove any dead, diseased, or crossing wood. Deadhead spent flowers through summer to encourage further flushes into autumn.
🌱 Planting & Care
Plant in well-prepared soil enriched with organic matter. We recommend adding Empathy Rootgrow mycorrhizal fungi at planting to establish a strong root system quickly. Water regularly during the first growing season. Feed with a specialist rose fertiliser in spring and again after the first flush of flowers.
📦 Buying Options
- Potted (5.5 ltr) – £24.49: Ready to plant any time of year. Plants arrive established and ready to grow away quickly. Rosa Mutabilis is currently available as a potted plant only.
🏆 Why Buy From Henry Street Nursery?
- Family-run rose growers established in 1890 – over 130 years of expertise
- 5× Hampton Court Gold Medal winners
- Rated 4.8 / 5 from over 2,600 verified reviews on Judge.me
- 2-year growing guarantee on all our roses
- Fast UK delivery – dispatched in 2–3 working days
- Flat-rate delivery just £3.49 per order
Grown with care by Henry Street Nursery, family rose growers since 1890.
FAQ
Free Gift Message
If your rose is for a gift, please write your message on the "Cart" page and we'll hand write it to send with each rose. If you can't find where to enter the message, don't worry just email us at roses@henrystreet.co.uk and we'll include it with your order.
Henry Street 2 year Guarantee
Having grown roses as a family for over 100 years, we are confident that any rose you buy from us will thrive in your garden.
Henry Street Nursery offer a 2 year guarantee with any roses bought from this website or through our garden centre. If you experience any issues with the establishment of roses purchased from us within the first 2 years of planting please send pictures to roses@henrystreet.co.uk or call our team on 0118 9761223 to speak to a member of our team.
Henry street reserve the right to offer a direct replacement, alternative rose, additional care advice to give the existing plant more time to grow or a full refund for any roses covered by the rose guarantee. A picture of the rose will be required for any guarantee requests alongside a picture of the colour plant label supplied with each rose.
Shipping & Returns
Delivery cost £3.49 per order. Delivery 2-3 working days.
We use DPD for all our Bush rose deliveries & DX Freight for all standard roses, upon dispatch you will receive an email confirming your rose has been shipped and providing you updates through delivery confirming estimated time of arrival.
Unfortunately due to updated plant health requirements following Brexit we are only able to ship to Mainland (including Isle of White) UK excluding Northern Ireland.
Our standard delivery is 1 - 3 days from point of order although may be extended in busy periods. We do not post roses on Fridays. As our roses are live plants we sometimes delay sending in extreme cold or heat to avoid them perishing due to extended delivery times.
Bare root roses on pre-order will be dispatched in the Autumn / Winter, any orders placed not on pre-order will be dispatched on a Tuesday.
How will my rose arrive
We have specially designed boxes to ensure any roses bought from us will travel safely to your home.
Bare root roses are dispatched between October and February each year. We do allow pre-orders of bare root roses and will send them out once the stock is ready. It may be the case that some orders are fulfilled earlier than others depending on which varieties were on order.
Our new crop of potted roses are dispatched from October and will arrive as newly potted bare root plants. These are ok to be planted out straight away or you can wait till the rose has started rooting in and plant in the spring. Sending out these potted roses ensures you receive the best product as the rose remains well in moist compost through the journey and when planting you have a pot of our special blend of compost to get your rose off to the best of start.
In spring our roses will still be very small to look at but will have rooted into the pot and will be showing strong young growth.
May - September we will do our best to send out roses in flower or in bud but this will depend on the growing season as we may have to cut back the plant to keep them healthy with fresh growth.
How to care for Roses
All our roses arrive with our helpful rose care leaflet.
Our Rose Care pages are also a great place to look for advice on planting, pruning, feeding and caring for your roses.
Can I buy your roses in Store
Our Garden Centre in Reading, Berkshire has our full selection of roses in store for you to choose from. Our expert team are always on hand to advise on choosing the perfect rose for your garden. Coming in store is also the best way to guarantee getting the best price.
We also supply roses to a large number of independent Nurseries and Garden Centres across the south of England. Give us a call today on 0118 9761223 to see where you can see our roses in person.
Nicely packaged and in beautiful condition. Very reasonably priced.
Thank you.
The rose arrived quickly and well packaged. It is a lovely bushy specimen and is flowering madly even though we are halfway through September. Lovely!
Excellent quality rose and came with good amount of information. Would definitely buy from you again.
The plant arrived well packaged and in excellent condition. Really pleased with it.
Arrivedpromptly in good packaging. Rose healthy and in bloom which it still is.
My first mutabalis. I love it.