I'm glad Janice brought up Austin roses.
Today I went to this great rose nursery in Fillmore, Ca. (Otto and Sons) which was having an end of season 40% off sale on all their roses. They have a huge selection of Austins.
You'd never know by looking at their roses that it was the "end of the season" at all. Everything they had was loaded with blooms and in pristine condition.
I got a Queen of Sweden and a Love and Peace.
Here's the interesting part: They have a large "test area" where they grow Austins exclusively. Someone from Austin's co. comes and evaluates them and records how they perform, but they don't want the nursery to prune them at all or do anything to them except deadheading. It was amazing to see these bushes. They were ENORMOUS.
Most of them were planted in groupings of 3 or 5 and they were so dense and loaded with flowers it was staggering. A large percentage of them were well over 7 feet tall...some pushing the 9 foot mark.
I asked the owner how long they've been in the ground and he said only about 5 years. Some will get removed and new ones planted to test very soon. OF COURSE I didn't take my camera.
It was unbelievable how HUGE these plants were. Kind of makes me want to experiment with my roses and not prune them and see what happens !
