It's wonderful that the Spring Hill roses have survived so long for you. I have to say, my original roses survived despite me, I had not a clue about rose care when I first started growing them.

Last spring I got adventurous, and ordered 3 own root rose. 2 of them were David Austin's, ( I didn't know that then) I got Falstaff and William Shakespeare. Now that I know I have these treasures, I'll have to take better care of them from now on😁

Austin roses grow very well in Kansas, so well, in fact, that I order 5-10 each year. I STILL have not received the 2014 catalog from Austin, but I know I will be buying 1 or 2 or more of Boscobel. Take a look at it, Cem! Isn't that a lovely blend of sherbety colors?

http://www.davidaustinroses.co...

Very pretty rose! - - but what does myrrh smell like?

A lot of the Austins are myrrh-scented roses. I don't particularly like the fragrance. It smells like old face cream or bubble gum to me.

Oh...thanks, I guess.

Do you remember cold cream, Porkpal? That's the smell.

Myrrh is a deep, earthy scent, like fresh mushrooms, or leather, or some kinds of tree bark. Some people pick up a black licorice smell in it, but I don't. The spice element is much more subtle than licorice. I love myrrh incense. I don't think I've ever smelled a rose that had just myrrh scent. Most times, there's also a fruity or green tone on top. Even the "scentless" roses have a scent to me. It's kind of a mixed blessing to have the nose of a bloodhound. Guess it makes up for bad vision and hearing.

zuzu, thanks for approving the pictures of Charles Darwin for the database

Cindi and porkpal, I have to agree that Boscobel is beautiful. Cindi, I appreciate you sharing the link, fueling my addiction to the DA roses. 🌹🌹

I've been looking at roses all day, trying to find climbers for the trellises I ordered today. I spent forever on the Antique Rose Emporium, Rouge Valley Roses, and the Roses Unlimited websites. I would love everyone's opinion if you have ever ordered from these vendors. I'm looking for a few new plants here's my list.

Souvenir de la Malmaison (climbing version)
Mme. Isaac Pereine
Gertrude Jekyll
Lady of the Mist
Paul Neyron
Versigny

I already have a Variegata di Bologna that I want to plant and train along my back fence. I'm going to put clematis Kardynal Wyszynski at the base, and train that through the rose for added color later in the year.


Annette

I wouldn't recommend Rogue Valley. Their roses are quite small and very often mislabeled. Most of the mislabeled roses in my garden came from Rogue Valley.

I've never ordered from Antique Rose Emporium. I think their shipping to California is too high, and they've never had anything I wanted that I couldn't buy somewhere else.

Roses Unlimited is the best of the three, but I've stopped buying from them too. No more own-root roses for me. I want my roses to be grafted.

Thanks for the info about the vendors. I would love your opinion about grafted vs own root roses. The majority of my roses are grafted. As I mentioned earlier, I tried own root roses for the 1st time last year. I was surprised about how small the plants were when they arrived.

What's the advantage of own root vs grafted plants?

In most cases, they'll remain small. At any rate, that's what happens with the types of roses I like the most -- hybrid teas and large-flowered climbers. Most of those were never meant to grow on their own roots and need to be grafted onto a more vigorous rootstock for peak performance.

Souvenir de la Malmaison, Paul Neyron, and Madame Isaac Pereire will grow well on their own roots, but the other roses on your list would do better if they were grafted.

The David Austin roses do better on their own roots than hybrid teas and large-flowered climbers do, but they also benefit from grafting. I have a few own-root Austins and they're nice, but they're only half the size of my grafted Austins, even after growing in my garden for many years.

This is great information, which will help me determine what kind of rose to order.

Regan Nursery has a good selection of grafted Austins.

http://www.regannursery.com/in...

They buy them from David Austin, but they charge less than David Austin because they buy them wholesale and have a lower retail markup than David Austin. Some are already sold out for this season, unfortunately.

I love their plants. I got Bishop's Castle, Christopher Marlowe, Glamis Castle, Crown Princess Margareta and The Prince from them several years ago. I got Young Lycidas from them 2 years ago, but it didn't survive, which was my fault, it wasn't planted soon enough after I got it. The other plants have thrived.

I can't add anything here 'cuz I don't do many Austins, but I will say that, for me, Austins stay pretty stunted. Even my climbers don't climb much. My oldest climber is Charles de Mills (thorniest rose on the planet next to George Burns) and he gets maybe 6' max. Probably because I have to prune all my roses almost to the ground every spring. This spring I'm not looking forward to pruning. I did some inspection this past Saturday and I've got some MAJOR winter kill this year. Even the roses that traditionally stay green almost 100% to the top of their canes are purple & black this year. I hope I didn't lose too many with that cold snap we had...

Cindi - One of these days I'm gonna ship my Sonya to you. It stinks to high hell to me... peppery smelling. And the scent sticks to my hands many times after I wash them. I thought it was the scent of a earwig I was smelling, but no, it's the rose itself. I've smelled other Sonyas and they smell good. But mine.. yuck. Only reason why I haven't ripped it up is because she's one of my best bloomers.

Skie,
Thanks! I'll adopt her if you do decide she needs to go. Poor Sonya. Wonder why she isn't like the others?
I was ranting somewhere on here about Austin not sending me a 2014 catalog, then decided to check my mailbox. OMG. The mailbox was stuffed absolutely full, and we have one of those large rural ones! We've been out of town 25 of the last 30 days, but I thought my daughter had brought the mail in! I have several plant and seed catalogs to look at now.
Austin has their "buy 5-get cheapest one free" offer again. Only I thought it was, "buy 4 get cheapest one free" in the past? Anyone remember?
The catalog has a page in the back where all the roses are arranged by color. It might be a good page to save for confirming identities. I have trouble telling the yellow Austins apart. They do differ in size, though. I have some that are 6 feet tall and wide!
Our temps went to -9, so I may have lost roses that are considered zone 7 plants, along with all the other plants that are technically zone 7. The roses are mulched, so we'll see how much help that is. I don't know if we had snow cover when it got that cold. Probably not.

Cindi - I've had lots of zone 7 survive -10 and colder with all the mulch, so I'm betting that yours are just fine. I have no idea what's up with Sonya. I have a couple of roses that stinks like Sonya. I have no idea why.

Eventually I got my camera working..it is better than nothing...Still I think will need to get another camera..and the DIY is still going on..

My yellow rose is still flowering even thought it slowed down in January. It took the bud about three weeks to develop and open up despite of the bad weather we have been having here. This rose has never stopped flowering during the last 12 months. The only time it has very few flowers is the January time. It has been fighting the cold judging by spots on the leaves. Otherwise this rose is one of the healthiest plants I have in my garden. The color of the rose is stunning canary yellow. Because of the cold in January and February there is a hint of green mixed with the canary yellow on the flower. The rose is about 70cm tall and at least 12 years old.
I still do not know the name of it though. I hope I can get an answer here.

Why I can't load any image? I tried to load the images of the rose in the garden and can not see them? What is wrong?..trying again....

Look at "Graham Thomas", it looks and sounds similar. Mine is tiny and has not bloomed yet.