Shropshire, England — David J.C. Austin, the quiet steward who transformed his father’s passion for fragrant, old-fashioned roses into an internationally recognized horticultural empire, died this week at his home in Shropshire after a battle with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare and incurable brain condition. He was 67.
His death marks the second loss in eight years for David Austin Roses, the family business headquartered in the rolling countryside outside Albrighton. His father, David C.H. Austin, the celebrated rose breeder who created the “English Rose,” died in December 2018 at age 92.
From Niche Nursery to Worldwide Name
Austin joined the family company in 1990, walking into an operation that was already gaining attention for his father’s singular mission: restoring fragrance, fullness and romantic form to roses that had lost those qualities in exchange for continuous blooming.
The elder Austin had spent decades crossbreeding old garden varieties with modern hybrids, producing what he called the English Rose. Against industry expectations, gardeners and florists embraced the result.
It fell to the son to scale that vision. Over more than three decades as chairman, Austin expanded the business far beyond its Shropshire roots. Under his leadership, David Austin Roses grew to license its varieties across continents. Its blooms became fixtures at flower shows, in florist windows and, increasingly, in the nostalgic bridal bouquets that became a signature product.
Despite the commercial growth, colleagues said Austin never lost focus on what mattered most: the roses themselves.
A Gardener First, a Businessman Second
Those who worked alongside Austin described a man far more at home in a greenhouse than in a boardroom. Modest and understated, he preferred walking trial beds to giving speeches.
His children — Richard, James and Olivia — said in a family statement that their father was, above all, a gardener. They noted he carried his own father’s vision forward with humility and an unwavering sense of responsibility, always placing the roses, the business and his employees before himself. They remembered a kind, modest man with a playful streak and a real appetite for life, who met his illness with the same quiet courage he brought to everything else.
Tributes poured in from across the horticultural world. The Royal Horticultural Society expressed deep sadness at the news. Monty Don, the broadcaster and gardening writer, noted that Austin had left behind millions of exquisite roses that would outlive him — a tribute that, as many observed, was quite literally true.
Online, hundreds of gardeners and rose enthusiasts left messages beneath the company’s announcement. Many recalled roses that had survived house moves, marriages and decades, all tracing back to a single small nursery in Shropshire.
The Road Ahead
The company has indicated it will continue under its existing leadership team, working alongside the next generation of the Austin family. The statement serves as both corporate reassurance and an act of continuity — a signal that the roses are not going anywhere.
There is a poignant symmetry in the timing. It has not yet been eight years since David C.H. Austin died, having spent 75 years pursuing a single idea: that a rose should be beautiful, yes, but that it should also smell like something. His son spent the rest of his life turning that conviction into a business capable of reaching gardens on every continent.
With his death, David Austin Roses enters a new chapter for the first time without either of the two men most responsible for its identity. Yet with a third generation of Austins already close to the business, the roses themselves will likely carry on, unbothered by the change — fragrant, full, and unmistakably English.