Growing in about five years to four and a half feet tall and about as wide, Claire Austin produces flowers about the size and shape of a smallish tangerine. The blossoms start out a pale lemon sherbet yellow that fairly quickly fades to white. Compared to, say, Rainbow Sorbet, the plant seems a little spare with its blossoms - both the number on the plant at once and the frequency with which they are borne through the year. On close inspection, I find that there is a special quality to them, a delicacy that is almost heart-rendingly beautiful. The plant is not so densely branched as a polyantha, but it is well branched enough to look good standing alone in the garden without lots of knee-high plants around it. It has a lovely open shrubby apearance.
As did Charlotte and The Poet's Wife, this rose developed some leaf yellowing that I presumed to be chlorosis in its early years. The problem killed Charlotte and TPW, but this season - with nothing but some foliar sprays that included a bit of iron - Claire Austin's leaves turned a darker shade of grassy green. Fans of really dark rose foliage tinged with gray, purple, or blue may be a little disappointed in the leaves, but the grassy green works pretty well with the flowers. I've observed no disease problems on Claire Austin. I suspect it might be happier in my zip code if it had a few hours of PM shade. I've been pleasantly surprised that the thrips aren't very drawn to the flowers. As of this writing, I cannot report detecting any remarkable fragrance.

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