Well, there's a good reason why England's waters do not harbor alligators. They'd freeze to death! In other words, even though England is wet it's not very hot. I once read a headline in an English paper "England Sizzles in the Seventies". I doubt that any of us on this side of the pond have ever sizzled at that temperature. Several people on the forum have stated that the Austins seem to do much better in areas that are cool, which makes sense since they were bred and tested in a cool climate.

Ingrid

And one day I would love to visit California, where every day is hot and sunny, in blue cloudless skies, everyone spends all day on the beach and all the girls wear flowers in their hair :)

Best wishes
Jon

Thonotorose, during my visits to friends gardens in different climates, I noticed they do better with a little cooler temps and a little less blackspot pressure. I had no idea how beautiful David Austin's roses could be until I witnessed them in a garden in Long Island. If I lived in such a climate I would have a garden full of them. There are some of his roses that do well in our heat and humidity, it's just a matter of figuring out which ones. So far, Prospero, Pat Austin, and Graham Thomas have done very well in my garden. I keep trying different varieties because I think they are lovely and they are very fragrant.

Jon, you made me laugh again.

Carol

Carol I love your email address. What a pain that they are making us do this.

One day I plan to go to England. I need to find out what month is best. I want to see Jon when I go along with all the beautiful rose gardens.

Its on my bucket-list. ;o)

Ronda

Yes, but it doesn't have to be your real email address.

Ronda, that is too funny. I was telling LA the other day that a trip to England was on my bucket list :-)

Hairy, you are correct and funny as always.

Carol

test

One thing to keep in mind is that England is surrounded by a cold sea and Florida is surrounded by a warm-ish sea. The difference in the dew point and night temps can be 20 degrees in the summer. The Pacific on the west coast is also rather cool and also leads to drier conditions and cooler nights.

[Where do we put our zone in this new msg format?]

It is very damp here too. My friend here that is from England says our climate is very similar.

I'm a Native Californian and we hardly ever went to the beach.
With fog, Great Whites lurking and very cold water, we'd much rather hang out by the pool.

And now it knows I'm me.
About England. Years ago I was there to train one of our scientists in a sister company and went to a new garden exhibit in Liverpool and the gardens were suffering because it was so dry. But the shocker was that the gardens didn't have the option of hoses and faucets because noone there thought that they might need to add water.
The Times Books "World Weather Guide" gives average rainfall for a number of cities in England. Between two and three inches a month is the average for the 'heat' of summer. Maybe 2/3 of the days each month have measurable rainfall. Humidity is higher. Temperatures don't have the swings that we are used to.
If I could reform the globe, I'd give us all islands to live on outside of the horse latitudes.
But they don't have the intense sunlight so their evaporation may be a lot less.

Thanks Rose Buds! Very interesting.

Carol, Thanks for the DA info. I have GT and it has put out one bloom per year in the last two. I don't spray and it looks reasonably healthy. I just moved it to a sunnier spot. I am much happier with Abe Darby and Heirloom is doing well. Poor Charlotte is hanging on by a thread and Madame Issac has yet to bloom, though she is looking so much better from the bag of cow doo and thick wood chip mulch.

Those who garden in steam for parts of the year may be interested to know that I have a Winchester Cathedral in a large pot that is doing VERY well. Lots of foliage and always putting out a few blooms (for here).

Additionally, I am basically a novice, but no spring chicken. Lol. I have learned SOoo much from this forum. Actually, here is where I found out WHAT a novice I was.

Ok, My point is that these DA's were bought from Wayside and are on the wrong root stock for here. They are also the survivors of about a dozen I bought.

Hence my next question in a new thread.

Jon, when you come to visit make sure it's not on a day when we're having huge wildfires, raging floods, a few earthquakes or gale-force Santa Ana winds that last for days and dry every rose you own to a crisp. I've experienced all of the above more times than I'd like, and would not have sneezed at a nice sit-down on a garden bench at Mottisfont on any of those occasions.

Regards,

Ingrid

One thing that suprised me is that in June in England it could be foggy and warm(not hot). Here when we see fog the air is fresh and a little chilly. Other than the fungus problem I think plants love that moisture.

I would say the best time to visit us here near the ocean in the LA area is around March and April. The roses look the best and local Arboretums have spring bulbs. The temps hang around the 80's in the day. All you need is a sweater at night. The Huntington is going to open a fabulous new Chinese garden this year. They have brought in people from China to design it and install the traditionally built teahouses and bridges. An amazing amount of rock was brought in from china as well. I go over and take sneak peeks through the fence as they work on it. Fun to see the young men having their lunch together, sitting on the stone bridge and speaking in Chinese. Right now, the majority of Camellias are getting going and will last into late March.

England sounds heavenly any time of year.

But Harry grows great Austins. I know Penn is not as humid as our summers, but I'll bet they can still get pretty hot and humid. I can't recall if Ann and Jean grow Austins. Does anyone in MidSouth or Deep South do well with them?

Some of them do great in my yard, but I do spray. Most of mine are new, so the jury is still out on some of them.

The weather wasnÂt truly damp, not during days when I was there. Out of 3 or 4 visits I remember, maybe, two rainy days. During our first visit that lasted a bit less than a month it rained only once. Needless to say that was the day when we visited Ely to see the cathedral. The cathedral was magnificent but we were unable to make out the stained glass windows whether old or (much) new(er). In the evenings, however, one could appreciate a warm room but in my experience Britons have a very adverse attitude towards keeping the heat/fireplace on. (My only complaint about England was the observed hostility toward any source of heat while having single windows.) On the other hand, I remember unusually hot spring temperatures one time I visited around the end of April/early May and quite warm days during another visit in March. I think I never was in England during the summer months. I guess I must have been lucky but the saying that "it is always raining here/there" seemed to be some kind of urban legend or a convenient subject for conversation.

Actually, I'm thinking Jon got it right, although he had tongue firmly in cheek.
Every time I've visited California it actually has been near perfect weather.
I don't recall if all the women had flowers in their hair, but I do recall a good many of them were attractive :-)

But for what it's worth, I have no problem with rain, clouds, & relatively mild weather. So, I'd most likely love England too.

Randy