After a long hiatus from my beloved favorite flower, during which I was eradicating rose rosette virus from my garden, I'm happily adding roses again! In spring of this year I started with Kordes roses and in 2016 I'd like to add some Austins.

The only 2 I have left are an own root Molineux and a grafted Heritage. Molineux is only slightly larger than it was when I received it from Chamblee's about 10 years ago and only has a dozen or so blooms per year. I babied it a bit this spring and summer and it did improve somewhat, but still isn't worth the garden space it takes up. Heritage performed fairly well for several years but has been declining for the last few. I haven't decided what to do with that one- perhaps dig it up in spring, examine the roots, and move it to a new location if it looks savable.

The Austin that performed best for me was Tess of the d'Urbervilles that I lost to RRD. I really liked it, but haven't decided if I want to replace it because it lacked fragrance. That's not a deal breaker though, I can still love a non smelly rose LOL!

Which Austin roses have you found to be the most vigorous and disease resistant?
@Cem9165 Annette, I've been admiring your recent photos added to the data base and would appreciate hearing which varieties perform best for you in Georgia.

Neal, I'm three zones warmer than you, but I thought I'd toss out those that have done well for me anyway. Where I can, I'm sending pictures of the plants so you can get an idea of how they grow for me. All have pretty flowers except for Francine, but she has her own charm.

-Francine Austin- not much scent to speak of, but a good landscaping shrub. Lower growing, reliable and tough.


-Gertrude Jekyll- upright w/out the arching branches, good scent, but just can't seem to get excited about it. I think I probably need to move her to a more accessible location where I can poke my nose in a flower as a walk by.


-Christopher Marlowe- very pretty, tightly packed flowers. A changeling from bud to flower. Kind of twiggy growth. Not too tall.


-Nefertiti- my favorite of the ones that I grow.. More like a FL


-Tea Clipper- Nice scent, arching growth. Very pretty peachy flowers.


-Radio Times- delicious fragrance.. arching shrub or great espaliered. Does as well on own roots as grafted.

Yes Sherry, please do feel free to share your experiences and photos! OMG, I could stare at those images for hours! Those shots of Christopher Marlowe and Nefertiti are worthy of the finest gardening magazines or books!

Do you have blackspot issues in your area? Do you spray? Are your plants grafted?

I think most of the Austins are winter hardy here, but those I've tried didn't do much during the summer.

Neal, I think the only Austin I have is Heritage, but it is a champion. These images are from yesterday.

I was outside a little while ago looking at my poor little Heritage. It did improve quite a bit this summer and has a couple of decent canes now (about 3' tall).

Deb, is your Heritage grafted or own root? How big is the plant and how long have you had it? You're getting quite a few blooms in the garden right now aren't you! Blooms in December is much preferable to a white Christmas

Neal, I cannot remember where I got it, or if it is grafted. Based on my photograph dates, I have had it at least five years. Right now, the canes are nearly six feet tall, and the whole shrub is about five feet wide. I will take a photograph for you tomorrow.

Neal, all of the Austins but three (Dove, Jubilee Celebration, and The Endeavour) are hardy to zone 5, and some are even hardy to zone 4. Those three are hardy only to 6b and are recommended for California and other locations with warm climates. I don't think they're even sold in England anymore, so you probably should avoid those three.

Heritage in 2013, it is a bit taller and wider now.

Neal. The Austin's do well here in GA. My oldest plant is Charles Darwin, that has been in my back garden for >5 years. It does have long arching branches, with butter yellow blooms, and a delightful scent.

Charles Darwin





Christopher Marlowe has also done well, once I move it from a shady spot to get more full sun.




I have others that I'll share later. I have to say Evelyn has been my favorite DA rose for scent.


Sherry and Debra, your DA roses are beautiful!

Thank you, Annette.

Neal, in my email a few minutes ago. Propitious timing.

http://davidaustinrosesusa.cma...

Deb, your Heritage is a perfect specimen! I should show your photo to mine to shame it, LOL. And come to think of it, my Heritage isn't bothered by much blackspot. I'll probably continue working on reinvigorating the one I have, but may look for a 2nd. This one came from Wayside late in the season during one of their clearance sales. It was stressed from having been in cold storage for so long to start with, and over the years never seemed to have a lot of vigor. I was a much lazier gardener then, seems the older I get the more I enjoy fussing around with them. That's about the only benefit I've found to aging so far,

Zuzu, thanks for the heads up! Like you, I'm lamenting that Palatine no longer offers Austins. I would LOVE to see how they perform on multiflora rootstock!

Annette, your Charles Darwin is glorious! I love those buttery globe shaped blooms And Christopher Marlowe is apparently a good performer in many regions. I like its twiggy growth, sort of airy looking and pretty with other plants to my eye.

A big garden center in Lexington had a nice selection of potted Austins last spring that appeared to be grafted plants. I was tempted till I saw the price- $50. I'm much too frugal for that, especially knowing I can get 2 for that price bare root. I only visit those big garden centers in spring, but should probably check them out from time to time during summer. I don't know if they discount roses or not, but it would be worth checking.

Thanks for the link Deb! This could be a nice way to spend some Christmas bonus

Zuzu, which varieties are the most disease resistant for you?

I've checked and in England DA still offers Jubilee Celebration, but not Dove or The Endeavour. I'm a DA enthusiast and have a good number of them, both in England and in the south of France.

There is a huge choice but based on our experience, I would recommend Lady of Shalott to anyone - it's really vigorous and disease resistant, has a lovely scent and reblooms so well that it seems never to be without flowers. Claire Austin (white), Graham Thomas (yellow), the Generous Gardener (strong scent, pale pink), Crown Princess Margareta (which I bought because the scent was so lovely, but it does have rather vicious thorns) and Princess Anne (strong pink, changing to a lovely antique pink) are all also strong and problem-free performers for us in England.

And you might look at Olivia Rose Austin, which was introduced in the UK in 2014 - it's an exquisite pastel pink, low growing (about 3.5 feet) and very disease resistant. I've only had it a year but really love it - when he first introduced it, David Austin described it on his website as the finest rose he had ever created (they've removed that comment, probably wise from a marketing perspective!)

And if you like something a little different, Fighting Temeraire (one of my favourites) has lots of large single blooms of a lovely apricot colour. Very strong growing, wonderful scent, really healthy. DA put the height at 4 feet but ours are taller - around 6 feet.

I think any of these would be happy in your zone, but if you like I'd be happy to phone DA for reassurance?

Thank you so much Clifton! I've always admired Lady of Shalott- such a scrumptious color, nice to hear it is vigorous and disease resistant! Summer heat here diminishes re-bloom most years, but perhaps you deal with that somewhat in your garden in France? (I'm unfamiliar with the climate there). I have been eyeing Fighting Temeraire, good to see a glowing review of it.

Neal, I can't say that any of my Austins are more disease resistant than others. They all seem equally resistant (or non-resistant) to me. There's no rust or powdery mildew in my garden, so black spot is the only problem here. It affects every rose in my garden, with the exception of Ping Lim's roses and a few of Ralph Moore's. All of the Austins appear to be equally vulnerable to black spot.

Interesting, Zuzu, because we haven't had black spot here on any of the DA roses I listed, with the exception of our Graham Thomas (standards) in their first year after planting. We do apply Viresco soluble and foliar, so that may be the reason.

Different climate and different gardening methods. I don't use any chemicals in my garden. For one thing, it would be a full-time job, and for another, it probably would be the death of me and my cats.

Absolutely. But for info, Viresco is purely biological (we don't use chemicals either) and hasn't harmed us, cats, dogs or even our fish! 'Our' cats are now limited to France, where we have a whole colony of ferals and one non-feral who I think must have been abandoned by her previous owner. She insists on staying with us when we're there. We pay someone to put out cat food for them all when we're away, but I'm sure she's also eating somewhere else because she's getting very portly. We had a cat in England who died a year ago, aged 23 (certainly nothing to do with Viresco!) 'Our' dogs are not our dogs at all, but belong to Pete, who helps in the garden and brings his two dogs to work every day. I'd love to get a dog, but we travel a lot and it doesn't seem fair.

Hmmm, interesting info, but Viresco appears to be available only on your continent. I'm sure there are comparable products here, but it all comes down to time, energy, and money. As the years go by, I have less energy to work in the garden and less money for supplies and help in the garden, so a lot more has to fit into the time available, which is finite, unfortunately.

I commend you for feeding that feral colony. I acquired nine kittens from a local feral colony several years ago, and now they're fat and happy indoor-outdoor cats.