Pickering, sadly, is gone.
In 2015 I decided to plant a number of DA roses. A comment Zuzu made long ago about roses on Dr Huey stock being less prone to gopher damage prompted me to think about buying from David Austin Roses. Gophers are a great plague here and DA grafted roses are on Dr Huey stock, I think. I decided to place the order by phone, and I made it rudely clear that if a rose was not in prime condition in terms of health and size, I did not want it on the order. The list was rather long - more than a dozen plants. It included Wm Shakespeare 2000, Susan Williams-Ellis, Heritage, LD Braithwaite, Lady of Shalott, Teasing Georgia, and a number of others. One hundred percent made it through the first two seasons - an unprecedented percentage. None has reached full glory yet, but every glorious rose in my garden has taken at least three years, and some have taken six years to really reach their prime. A handful are on the list to be culled this year because of their susceptibility to black spot - Princess Alexandra of Kent for example. Still, this turned out to have been among the best rose orders I've placed in terms of survival through two seasons.
Pallatine does not cover DA roses very well. DA roses also get light coverage at Antique Rose Emporium; but the newer varieties are absent, and in my recent experience ARE's standards have dipped materially. (At the current rate of retrograde motion, their plants will be the size of RVR plants in just a few more years). RVR has some DA roses, but I am rarely successful with their plants because of size. Heirloom roses has some coverage of the best DA roses and their gallon plants are catagorically better than the rooted cuttings they sold two decades ago; but, IMO, the plants are still dear compared to good grafted stock. My success with them is middling.
A final off-topic comment: Is it just me or is Lady of Shallott one of the more remarkable introductions in the last several years for its vigor, shrubbiness, and general good health?
