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These Austins in zone 5a

13 years ago

I am considering ordering the following Austin roses for this spring. Are they hardy in zone 5a and if so are they worth growing?

Tea Clipper

Lady of Megginch

Strawberry Hill

Carding Mill

Huntington Rose

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Comments (5)

the_bustopher z6 MO
13 years ago
Although I am a little warmer than you, I would venture to say that in general, the Austins are a pretty sturdy group and will stand the cold as well as any of them as long as they have gone into the winter healthy. Of those on your list, I only have Tea Clipper and Carding Mill. I am also curious about Strawberry Hill. Carding Mill is nice enough to have a dozen of and be quite content with them. It has nice, clear color, repeats reasonably well, has a restrained growth habit in that it grows cylindrically up to about 6 feet when established, has a good smell, and is reasonably healthy. The flowers are only medium sized, not all that large. Tea Clipper has been another story for me. It can have large, apricot flowers that look good right when they first open. From then on, it is downhill to where they age to look like dirty dishwater. Repeat bloom has been poor to non-existent for me. It wants to be an octopus with long canes and few, if any, flowers. If it doesn't do any better for me this year, both it and Sweet Juliet, another long-caned octopus with few to no flowers, will be gone. Sweet Juliet is pretty, but it doesn't bloom enough. Same story for Tea Clipper, but the dishwater color is annoying. These comments are meant to be just a heads up on these roses. Tea Clipper may like Chicago, but it doesn't like here. You might want to see if there are any of the roses on your list planted in the Chicago Botanical Gardens in Glencoe just to have a look.
karenforroses
13 years ago
Hi predfern,

I grow Carding Mill and Huntington Rose in my zone 5 garden here in Northern Michigan. They've made it through several of our winters beautifully, and are both lovely roses. Both have good re-bloom for me and are quite disease resistant. I liked Carding Mill so much I bought a second one - its apricot blooms hold their soft color nicely. Huntington Rose has wonderful ruffled petals (lots of them!) in a dusty raspberry shade, Both look great with blue companion plants.
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predfern
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the input. It sounds like Carding Mill and Huntington are buys. I have had mixed results with Austins. Let me know if you have any more suggestions.

Bought last spring (won't know till spring if they survived)
Brother Cadfael
Charlotte
Crown Princess Margareta
Gentle Hermione
Gertrude Jekyll
Harlow Carr
St. Cecilia
Winchester Cathedral

Died
A Shropshire Lad
Eglantyne
Golden Celebration
Graham Thomas
Heritage
Molineux
Tamora
The Prince
Wm. Shakespeare 2000

Survived
Abraham Darby
Evelyn
Jude the Obscure
Pretty Jessica
Sharifa Asma
Tradescant
pikoy
13 years ago
i would like to see some of it! keep us posted! cheerz!
jim_w_ny
13 years ago
All nine that I tried died. But that is nothing new as roughly 1/3 of the roses I've tried also died. It's a combination of shallow not so good soil and most likely some failing of mine in their care. However I also think perhaps there was some, for his early introductions, a natural inclination by DA to treat his offspring too kindly.

Anyway I've ended up seeking roses for which rose books describe a rose as growing in poor soil!

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