I have been disappointed with the disease resistance of yellow Austin roses. Charlotte took a while to take off, but it was beautiful this spring. It sends up such tall new canes that one may be able to train it as a climber. I had it planted near Golden Celebration and moved it when I expanded my flower garden. I picked up after one too many dogs one day and extended the flower bed to the sidewalk. I liked to have a margin of grass, but was tired of cleaning and disinfecting the grass daily before starting gardening. It was either remove the grass or install a camera. The hot pink "pick up after your dog" sign in the window hasn't been effective, maybe their owners can't read. It is a town law townhome community requirement that all dogs be leashed and cleaned up after. I can't imagine people wanting to live surrounded by "merde".
Golden Celebration has the worst black spot of any rose in my garden. I am using a strict schedule of Bayer disease control in the main rose bed this year following a two year experiment with natural disease control methods. I am going to be certain to spray while applying winter protection as well this fall. It may take another year for the Bayer to reach its full benefit. I have already seen improvement in black spot and insect damage in my other roses.
I realize that yellow roses are generally more disease prone, so I may have to learn to live with it. They both have nice blooms. I moved some purslane around the foot of GC to hide the defoliation. I was warned that the purslane is an aggressive reseeder but it looks very nice in its location. It is easy to pull out, so I can deal with it if it gets out of hand.
I chose these two yellow roses because Charlotte is reported to be better suited to cold climates than Molineux, which is recommended for warm climates. Golden Celebration is supposedly an improvement over Graham Thomas in both growth habit and disease resistance. They are both vigorous and generous with their blooms. Both have soft, pastel yellow blooms, which I prefer to the more golden color of Graham Thomas for this garden. Both have also survived one winter with little or no cane die off. (Well, Charlotte dropped all of its leaves after I moved it recently because I accidentally snapped a deep root when digging it out. Oops. The roses that I got the entire root ball moved without disruption, but the ones that went "pop" while digging dropped their leaves. Charlotte is recovering rapidly, so I am happy)
