I can add a few comments, although my region is very different than yours.

Jubilee Celebration--was a wimpish weakling its first three years in my garden. Now in its 5th year, it is becoming much more confident and vigorous and the blooms droop becomingly out of an aesthetic priniciple rather than due to weakness like before. Lovely big round blooms, touch of yellow at the base--I really love the blooms. As it has become more vigorous, its disease-resistance has also improved--thankfully.

The Alexandra Rose--didn't work out very well in my yard, but maybe it needed more sun--might have been in too much shade. The copper pink blooms were lovely, for about 4 hours. Then they faded to nondescript. Just never really took off in my garden, and never really showed any outstanding virtues. I spaded it after 3 years. In the right spot. . . maybe.

Lady of Shalott--I ordered this one for spring, so can't tell you anything about it other than what I've read--and all the descriptions have been glowing. The color will be unusual for my garden--really looking forward to it.

Princess Alexandra of Kent--don't know anything about this one except that I really want it but I have no place to plant it. You must take pictures of it and tell me about it. Are the blooms really that big and round and rich pink?

I can't imagine anyone planting 26 rosebushes in one day. I wouldn't be able to get out of bed for the next month if I tried it!

We are looking forward to some great pictures this summer!

Kate

Lady Emma Hamilton is my favorite, glossy leaves & healthy, very little thorns, the flower smells yummy fruit. Mary Rose smelled great in the nursery's acidic potting soil, but once planted in my high magnesium, alkaline soil, Mary Rose lost her scent. My Mary Rose is own-root so it's tiny - others report the same. Lady Emma Hamilton is much more vigorous than Mary Rose, and likes my alkaline soil better.

Hi JumboJimmy,

From the description on the Austin website and other photos I've looked at on the web, I would definitely expect Young Lycidas to have droopy flowers. I don't the think the bush is tall enough to carry drooping flowers. I'm instead going to be ordering both of the other 2012 new releases in Australia - Wisely 2008 and Sir John Bejtman.

I have several of the Austins mentioned in the original post. My highest praise goes to both PAK and Jubilee Celebration. Both have a very formal arrangement, last longer than the average Austin flower, and in sunny, hot Adelaide are virtually disease free.

Strawberry Hill has good repeat bloom, although flower shape can be somewhat variable and it is more prone to BS than many other Austins.

Munstead Wood I have only had for one year but it is very promising. Great repeat, lovely dark purple hue, healthy bush with a nice scent. I would rate this as the best 'red' Austin.

Mary Rose is outstanding, high flower production, little or no disease, charming flowers and scent. Only drawback really is its thorniness.

The Pilgrim for me was a disappointing rose which hardly rebloomed and I didn't really care for its washed out yellow appearance.

I've had Evelyn planted for only about 3 months and it is coming along very nicely. Totally healthy and quick to rebloom.

I should also mention that here in Australia, it is virtually impossible to buy even a maiden rose bush that is free of RMV (which I think is scandalous but that's just the way it is) and so I would expect that if in the USA or other parts of the world you can get these Austin varieties certified RMV free then their performance should be even better.

I don't grow any of your new roses, and look forward to hearing your reports of them as they develop in your garden.

I do highly recommend one rose you are considering, Munstead Wood. I saw it growing in the garden of a mutual friend of our Gardenweb friend Jon. I Fell In Love. It is low growing, filling that difficult niche for us warm-climate gardeners, very fragrant, richly colored, repeats well, and is healthy in my garden with only a single copper spray in winter at pruning time. Until I grew it Prospero was my favorite red Austin, but it has replaced Prospero in my estimation (though not in my garden).

Princess Alexandra of Kent I only had for one year in the U.K. before leaving her. So, I do not know how she would do long term, but in the first year, she grew weakly and had small blooms which flopped.
Mary Rose, I grew for many years and was one of my favourites. She was always comely and had a lovely, though not strong perfume.
Graham Thomas was good in the south east of the U.K., but when I moved to the damper climate of the far south west, he was plagued by black spot.
The Pilgrim was exceptionally good in both U.K. gardens. Lovely.

{{gwi:231438}}

I also grew Crown Princess Margareta. It has a lovely bloom, but did not repeat as well as I expected.
Here in Crete, the only one from your list, that I grow is, Lady Emma Hamilton.
I cannot praise her enough. Even now in early February she is flowering fit to bust. She flowers all year round, has a gorgeous perfume and is completely healthy.
She is in full sun all summer and never turns a hair.
I am so impressed with her, that I have bought two more to join her.
Another Austin that you may like to consider, is Teasing Georgia. She repeats well and is well perfumed. I have her starting to climb over a short pergola in full sun. She is already doing very well,even though she has only been planted about eight months.
Here she is in her first summer.

{{gwi:231440}}

Daisy

I second John's remark about Mary Rose's thorniness. I tried her as cut flower and got pricked. She lasted 1 day in the vase, wasn't worth the annoying thorns.

Daisy, your pics. are gorgeous! The first one is Crown Princess Mar., right? I have both Teasing Georgia and CPM to be delivered this spring. I hope they both last in a vase.

Jerome, I am also interested in Perdita - I fell in love with its apricot-look in the catalog. However, HMF shows Perdita to be boring white pink, like Heritage. There's conflicting reports on Perdita' as cut flower. So I placed the order for Nahema instead, reputedly fantastic in fragrance, and lasts long as cut flower. Nahema looks like an Austin, but I don't know if I can grow it as a shrub in my zone 5a. It's supposedly to be a climbing rose. I tried growing Golden Celebration as a shrub but gave up, after seeing how tall it gets in Seil's zone 6.

Thanks for the great feedback. I am in a rush now...but will try to answer all. JumboJimmy: for me, Young Lycidas is bushy and a beautiful plant as well as nice flowers. It has lots of leaves to the ground, beautiful growth. Flowers arch but don't droop. It's 11 months in the ground now...from a 10 gallon potted plant bought at the nursery. It gets full sun where it is. Hope this helps. One of the best Austins for me.

Daisy - Gorgeous photos! I have Teasing Georgia and CPM, and love them both. I also have GT and he doesn't spot for me, because ORange County is very dry. Thanks for the good help.

Rosefolly, I'm definitely going to order Munst Wood soon.

I have Strawberry Hill...it nearly died last year but is coming back from the dead. Pretty plant.

Sorry gotta run.... By the way Strawberry, Perdita is a rose I already have one of....get it. It is a great rose.

Ok you guys...I'm on a roll! Talk about obsessive compulsive. More ordered today! First, to fill in gaps (i.e., to plant in 3s where I have 1 of a kind) Graham Thomas, Perdita, Scepter'd Isle, Crown Princess Margareta, Strawberry Hill...already have (and love) these.

And then new ones: Mary Rose, Munstead Wood, Redoute, Scepter'd Isle, Strawberry Hill, Tea Clipper, The Pilgrim, Winchester Cathedral.

The gardens should be lovely, even if the treasurer kills me before they're planted! :-)

Oh Jerome, I cannot wait to hear how all do. Did you purchase directly from Austin, or another source?

My only DA at this time is Mary Rose. I planted her last spring. I'm quite intrigued, still not knowing what to expect from the Austins in my climate as none of my neighbors or neighboring nurseries grow or carry them.

Mary Rose is a beautiful bush. What I love about her is that although when I try to sniff an individual rose I don't smell much, when I just walk by the bush my nostrils are filled with the most lovely of scents. She's not for the cutting, but I'm very happy with her, and long for more DAs.

Harmonyp - I ordered directly from David Austin...and whenever I could, I got own-root plants. When I get grafted plants I (now) plant the bud union about 2" below the soil line so they go own-root asap. I love the smell of Mary Rose. In the past, I have gotten Austins from David Austin in Texas, Vintage, Roses Unlimited and Chamblees. All have done well.

The more I hear about Young Lycidas and Munstead Wood the better they sound. I really shouldn't order any more this year.... I'm very curious about Buttercup. It looks so cute in pics. Please post some updates once you see how it does.

Melissa

Will do. I've really gone off the deep end this year. Hope they do well. It took me several seasons to be comfortable growing Austins. The easiest for me to grow from the start were the Teas. Austins come second and the hardest (for me) are the Noisettes and Tea-Noisettes. Don't know why, but that's another thread topic.

Jerome - are you in a coastal or inland part of CA? What made you decide to go with own root vs. Dr Huey Austins. Curious for my own decision making process. Thanks.

My alnwick from DA a year ago has been slow to grow but hopefully will pick up this year. Shepherdess has been a great plant growing strongly and flowering in flushes through the year. Mary Rose has been good. Not much fragrance and slower to repeat than some others and looks and acts like a short Hyb. Perpetual in my garden. I put her with the other Hyb. P's and she looks right at home. DA's Ambridge rose has been one of my very best bloomers and Charlotte and Abraham D have been very dependable as well. I am after an own root Evelyn this year because it seems like everyone has her and she can do no wrong.

I was out planting and moving bushes yesterday as well. I like to do it in the cool of late afternoon before a rainy day when the humidity will be high. My back is talking but it sure feels good to have the plants in place and ready for spring. Take some rose books with you to read as you soak in the tub and think about all the great roses you're going to get this spring.

Harmonyp, I am in the Trabuco Canyon area, 14.4 miles northeast of Laguna Beach. I like the idea of own root roses, and have had suckering of Dr. Huey on plants (not only Austins) and don't like to deal with that.

Kittymoonbeam - I agree with you about planting in cool weather - very relaxing.

Jerome -- We grew The Pilgrim.
It produces blooms of heartbreaking lovelieness -- but I'd recommend growing it as a horizontal climber, much like Graham Thomas. All attempts to turn it into a bush here near the coast proved unsuccessful.

Jeri

I'm using it in that type of way, Jeri. It's going to be right in the neighborhood of Crepuscule which will be lovely.

Hi Jerome,

Your gardens sounded wonderful several years ago, with all of the new additions over the past few years, I can only imagine it's a little bit of paradise by now.

Comments on the ones I'm most familiar with:

The Alnwick Rose - I like this rose for its blooms. They're really beautiful with a darker pink outside with a creamy, buttery colour inside.

Jubilee Celebration - One of my favourite roses for its scent. It has a wonderful fruity-wine scent that is, well, intoxicating. A great rose.

Princess Alexandra of Kent - Huge blooms that, on the bush, show many shades of pink as the colours change as the flowers age. A very good rose.

Lady Emma Hamilton - Reminds me of Jude the Obscure in a lot of ways, but with a more citrusy, strong scent. What I love most about this rose is the colour of the stems which are a deep burgundy, a great contrast to the flowers.

Lady of Shalott - I've not grown it, but the bushes at Austin's garden in England are really amazing. I've seen them at several stages and they really catch the eye and convince even a non-lover of orangey colours to grab the plant. The best ones at Austins tended to be grown against a wall. Not that they were climbing, but for some reason they really make an impression with the contrast.

Munstead Wood - I think the best deep coloured English rose. It is bushy and produces really amazing blooms that go through many stages as they deepen to a velvety purple. Good scent.

Evelyn - I grew it in San Clemente, and thought it was marvelous. I grew it next to Tamora, and they made a wonderful combination. The petals reminded me of tissue paper, big, blousy blooms with a very good scent. Even with all of the "diva" comments I've heard about it over the years, it never gave me the slightest problem, but then, I treat all of my roses like divas. :)

Enjoy the Austins!

Cheers,
robert

Jermone - Thanks for the reply. Could you tell me what the thorns like on Young Lycidas? And is the scent really strong? Do the blooms last a long time? Sorry for asking too many questions. I really hope this is a purple-ish rose.

johnnidappl- Looks like I'll be getting Young Lycidas for sure. I've read somewhere that 'Sir John Bejtman' don't have much scent on it. However, this rose should bloom really well in our climate. As for Wisley 2008 - that rose just reminds me of 'Kathyrn Morley' and 'Heritage'.
Your last paragraph sounds really interesting. Does that mean some nuseries that claim their "roses are budded onto virus free understock" are not really true? I did noticed a few of my roses showing symptoms of RMV and I'm trying to avoid buying roses from that supplier again. I really want to give Sharifa Asma and Jayne Austin another try. I really love their scent. But I'm afraid that I might end up with another virus one.

Sometimes all the available scion stock is virused. When that happens, grafting it onto virus-free rootstock does no good. In that case, heat indexing treatment is the only way to get clean stock back. I don't know that this is the case here. I only mention this because they could be telling the truth about virus free understock, and yet you could still get virused roses.

Folly is absolutely correct.

Virused Scion + Virused Rootstock = VIRUSED PLANT
Virused Scion + Virus-Free Rootstock = VIRUSED PLANT
Virus-Free Scion + Virused Rootstock = VIRUSED PLANT

Only Virus-Free Scion + Virus-Free Rootstock will = VIRUS-FREE PLANT.

Jeri

Jimmy, Young Lycidas...doesn't strike me as being particularly thorny. It's not unarmed, but not very thorny either. The scent is knock-your-socks-off strong, to my nose. The flowers are on the large side (but keep in mind, we're talking about a plant I put in in March of '11...so it isn't mature by a long stretch). Yes they are purple. It's a magnificent plant.

Robert, your descriptions are great. I love Evelyn too. I really look forward to all these plants growing up now after your evaluations of them. Wish you had been able to make it up to the abbey. Maybe sometime in the future.

J

Wow! What a day! I was going to dig out some old shrubs to get the Austin bed ready today, and fraters Simeon and Joshua were going to help me. But...this enormous box arrived and we had 40 bare root rose bushes on our hands. Fr. Ambrose joined in on the fun and the 4 of us ripped out shrubs, got the bed ready, planted all the roses and it looks Grreat! I'll post pictures when it begins to grow out. Should be lovely. Very excited, and have not had such a fun day in many a moon. :-)

Can't wait to see your pics of your garden, Jerome.

Today, I placed an order for Young Lycidas and Munstead Wood. I wasn't too sure about Munstead Wood because I don't really like red roses. I hope it's a much darker colour and I hope Munstead Wood don't look anything like Burgundy Ice-berg. I hope Young Lycidas is a nice rose. From the pics I've seen on the internet, the leaves look crinkly, the bush looks short and messy and the blooms flop downwards. I just have to wait and see.

Forty roses in one day!!? I feel like such a slacker. All I managed yesterday was ONE rose, a couple delphiniums, a foxglove, and a few other small flowers. Today it rained a bit and I got planted nada. You are setting a much better example!

Melissa

Jimmy, I can't tell you about Munstead Wood, because I just planted it for the first time myself. As for Young Lycidas - I can't see you not liking it. If you plant it on good soil and it likes the climate you're in, you're going to love it. Beautiful plant as well as a beautiful rose. I ordered 4 more of it after having it in the garden last year. Love that rose.

Melissa...I had a ton of help. There were 4 of us, and the next youngest to me (I'll be 51 on March 3) was 37, and the rest were in their early 20s, in short, a work tank! With 4 people, it goes very fast. We had a ton of fun.

Jerome,

You have said that Austin roses grew poorly for you and now you grow them with great success. What do you think has made the difference? Site? Fertilizer? Water? Prayer? Other?

Cath

Jerome, Enjoy yourself going off the deep end. I'm sure they are all lovely roses. I can't urge you enough to get Crown Princess Margareta. In my garden it has been one of the most commented on roses. Don't forget how large most of these Austins can get. I let my Graham Thomas grow on an arch it wanted to get so big. Crown Princess Margareta hangs over a retaining wall. Lady of Shallot did so well after planting. I expect good things from her. The color is really attractive. You won't go wrong with your choices in your climate. Some day I really would love to se your garden.

Hi Pam. I love Crown Princess Margareta so much that I ordered 2 more (which we planted Monday) from the one I had since 2010. I love that rose. Cath - I think the Austins grow better for me because 1. sI am planting them in soil that was better. The very first bed I worked with in 2004 was terrible soil - compacted clay. I've been amending it each year and it's gotten better and better. That helped. 2. I recognize now (Fr. Ambrose was a real help here) that they need more water than the Teas, in general. I water them more now. 3. I learned that they're shrubs more than hybrid teas, and I am pruning them more wisely now. I think all this has helped.

Thank you Jerome, Your information should help a lot as the rose garden, such as it is, is on a dry sunny hill composed of clay subsoil.

Cath

Jerome, I just got in from planting two bare-root roses and a potted lilac. I thought of you and shook my head in amazement. It takes me an average of an hour per plant. First rake off the mulch, then dig the hole, then set up the gopher basket, then arrange the plant, cover it with soil, water, rake back the mulch and water again. Twenty-six in one day! It's not just that I would be too tired, I genuinely could not do it.

Congratulations on a job well done. I'm sure the new garden is going to be amazing.

Rosefolly

I hope you come to visit it, Rosefolly! :-) If I had to tend to gopher baskets and do everything you outlined - it'd take me forever. Also I had 3 strong young guys with me. It's amazing what 4 motivated guys can blaze through in an afternoon.

Cath...at least here, I have come to realize that (up to a point) clay is our friend. I'd rather have my soil here than sandy soil, any day.

So impressed by your Austin blitz, Jerome, and so looking forward to your photos. We, too, are on clay, and I'm interested in learning what you used to amend your soil. I'm guessing compost, yes? Or was it something special?

My new Munstead is looking daggers at me, as yet unplanted, leafing out but still in its cardboard pot. (Yes, I feel guilty about that.) It will go where the recently SPed Susan Williams-Ellis used to be (and I don't feel guilty about that at all). When it bloomed, it looked like small used tissues on a runty shrub. Then its supposedly white blooms reverted to pink.

Hopefully Renee (Hosenemesis) will check in soon. If I remember rightly, she ordered several Munsteads from Austin late--very late--last spring. I thought what she did was terribly brave, and others here (not me) gave her tons of good advice about how to protect them from the heat until they could settle in. Her pictures are always gorgeous. If they bloomed, she might have captured their wonderful very dark red color.

Kay

Jerome, I have grown Scepter'd Isle for a few years. It has been very good for me.

I only have had it a little under 2 years (April of '10) and have liked it so much that I ordered a couple more and planted them Monday. It blooms a lot, I love myrrh small, and the flowers are magnificent.

Does Scepter'd Isle scent waft in the air or do I need to plunk my nose in those blooms to smell them? I need to grow more roses that have scent that floats in the air. I miss having Heritage and Sharifa Asma. I hope Young Lycidas scent could make up for them.

That's a good question, Jimmy. I have Scepter'd Isle planted in a place where it would be hard to pick up wafting fragrance - wide open area with too much rapid air circulation. Another variety I have (Glamis Castle) with a myrrh fragrance in a different area does definitely carry on the air. Young Lycidas is too young for me to tell if it "wafts". I don't think its fragrance is as strong as Sharifa Asma - I don't have Heritage. Can't you replace these two? Sounds like you lost them?

I was checking on Young Lycidas an found this thread. Thanks, Jerome for the info. of Young Lycidas' knock-your-socks off scent. I force my roses to go own-root by burying them 6" deep and water Dr. Huey to death.

Hi Jumbojimmy: Mary Magdalene is very compact (1' x 1.5') as own-root. Now she has at least 20 buds with my alkaline soil/water. Her scent wafted into my kitchen window at night: totally magical, like the Catholic church's incense. Bottled Frankincense falls short of her scent. Someone else rated Mary's myrrh scent as better than Scepter'd Isle and Tamora. She doesn't take up much space, her branches are swirly and stay low - she looks like a mini-rose here.

I have Jubilee Celebration and Crown Princess Maragareta and Graham Thomas. I love JC, I have it own root from J&P, also CPM. Graham Thomas is also bare root from Ashdown. I have him in a slightly shady spot so he hasn't grown that large but he puts out the most beautiful blooms:

Crown Princess Margareta:

{{gwi:231442}}

Jubilee Celebration:

{{gwi:231443}}

Graham Thomas

{{gwi:231444}}

I've always wanted Alnwick Rose and I won it at the raffle at the Rose Club show this year. I can't wait to see it bloom.

Neat that this thread got "called up" again. All the plants are doing well. Not all have bloomed yet. Princess Alexandra of Kent is a Wonderful Rose! It is covered in flowers, fragrant, vibrant hued flowers. Jubilee Celebration is glorious, so are Windflower, Buttercup, The Alexandra Rose and Othello (a recent gift from Kittymoonbeam).

Lady of Shalott is getting ready to burst forth, and the others are just budding out still. I need to put in another word for Young Lycidas. Fragrant Fragrant - great in a vase, beautiful growth habit - one of the best. I need to stop being lazy and get photos.

Beautiful pics. I love rose porn.

I'm jumping up and down seeing your CPM bloom Buford as I planted 4 new Austin bareroots about 4 weeks ago, and she is one. Thank you so much for posting it. With so much posting about patience - I'll be needing it awaiting for these guys to bloom.

Harmony, thanks, that was from last year, I think it was a perfect bloom. It took awhile for my CPM to come to life. Probably because I planted it in the middle of a bunch of large junipers and it's really hard for me to get to it. I finally did last year and put her up on a pillar so she peeks above the junipers. If you can get her canes horizontal, you can get a lot more blooms. I have her where she gets a bit of shade so they don't fade out too fast.

I'll throw in my 2 cents worth on these also. Lady Emma Hamilton, as previously mentioned, has a good color, nice fragrance, and does not get overly large. It does tend to sprawl sideways. It doesn't have lots of flowers all at once here, but it does have a fairly steady trickle. I wouldn't mind having several of these, space permitting.

My Lady of Shalott is on its second year. It bloomed fairly well up until late summer/early fall, and then it quit. It did not have any later in fall flowers. It is now quite busy blooming its head off with flowers that are similar in color to Pat Austin, but they are less sensitive to the heat. I think this rose will also get quite large given the opportunity. It is a nice one.

My Munstead Wood is currently blooming with dark, wine-red flowers that exude a powerful fragrance. The bush will throw some long canes, but mine have been flopping over sideways almost to the ground. Whether that is indicative of anything I can't say, but it will need some corrective pruning. We have had a very mild winter this past year, and everything is blooming about a month early. The result is more intense colors because the sun is not as intense as it would normally be. So, Munstead, along with many of the rest of the plants in my garden blooming now, has extra dark color. It is similar the The Prince at the moment. Of these two, I like Munstead Wood better because it doesn't burn as badly in high heat as The Prince does. Repeat bloom is quite good and reliable here.

Port Sunlight is another story. This year it seems to be doing better. I think it is its at least 3d year. The flowers are a little larger now, maybe about 3 inches. The color is a good apricot color, and there is some fragrance. I like the color, but I would have thought the flowers would have been larger judging from the pictures of it that were on DA's website when it was shown at the Chelsea Flower Show when it was being introduced. For me, it has been not much bigger than a mini-flora rose up until now. The plant has not gotten very large either considering how large it was getting in the pot it was in before I stuck it in the ground.

Finally, The Shepherdess is a nice, pale apricot rose also. I am hoping that it will survive its transplanting back to a pot for a while until the bed area it was in gets redone and the city gets done with its project there also. The Shepherdess is pretty, and it seems to have a restrained growth habit, at least in comparison to some of the others. I hope my comments are helpful.

Hi the _bustopher: I appreciate the info. on the above. It helps a lot on Port Sunlight. I grew Wise Portia last year and had problem with her flowers being small. Thanks again for a very good report on Austins.

Hi Jerome, thanks for all the great info. No one's mentioning The Endeavor. I planted one early this year and so far I love this one. Would love to see pics of all your roses. I love seeing the whole bush to see what the growth habit is. Munstead Wood is a great one too. On your recommendation I got Young Lycidas. So far, she's great.

All the new roses doing very well. I don't know that photos of such a young garden (they're all only 4 months in the ground) would be very interesting. All are really good plants. Particularly good are:
Munstead Wood - the fragrance is unbelievable.
Princess Alexandra of Kent - Blooms over and over again.
Gentle Hermione - an exquisite rose

I also love The Alexandra Rose, Buttercup, Windflower and Jubilee Celebration. The extra gardens have really increased the workload, but it's fun...and I have lots of help in Fr. Ambrose, fr. Basil, fr. Simeon, fr. Sean and about 5 other novices and junior professed who like to garden.

This has been the best season since I started all this in 2004

Thanks for the report. I was wondering how your new garden was woking out. Perhaps we could see some pictures next year?

Rosefolly

This is totally off topic, but every time I hear "Mary Rose" I think of this: Mary Rose was a new secretary next to me, I didn't really know her at all, but needed a partner to go on a department group trip to the Bahamas, back in 1985 (my husband just doesn't have any desire to travel). Hey, she agreed, we went, and had a ball! Sometimes they work out, and this was one that worked out great! We had so much fun doing things, got to know one another really quite well in just a matter of days... I will always think of Mary Rose with fondness! Lost track of her a number of years ago...

I want to plant a Austin or english rose near the front of my raised planter..so I need a smallish one. I read the Alywick rose might fit the bill..but I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas.