Something is def. not right here ... I just went outside and took a look at my 6 feet tall rose bush - that I grow next to my front door - and it has really grown on me during the last 5 years. It really should bloom already the first year if you got it as a bareroot grafted plant? Mine are grafted - and took off well the first year - even though I had to support the huge floppy flowers - rebloom was sparse - but as you can see on the pictures I have posted on HMF (Niels) the first flowers in the first flush are huge! Like small bowls - with up to 200 petals. I secured the long 5-6 feet basal shots to a wall support since I intended to grow it as a low climber. And it has performed better each year since I planted it - producing more and flowers and repeat has become better. The flowers have a sweet good rose fragrance that wafts even though not very strong -but often put a smile on my face when I come home. It has earned the prime spot in my garden - very few Austins perform as well as this rose for me - in my climate - has been so hardy, been so resistant to disease - I grow it no spray - and only seen it get a little mildew - no black spot or rust. Last summer we had 3 times as much rain as a normal summer - the 2. largest summer rainfall recorded in 120 years. And no - since this may be the rose that has the highest petal count of all roses - I do not expect it to like wet weather - but the blooms did not ball or turn into spongy messes like so many other very, very double roses did. They nodded so gracefully and the rain trickled down the outer petals protecting the inner petals and the blooms developed well. Sadly it will be the last year in my garden - along with all the other roses aginst my walls - since we need to have the brick walls repaired next year :-(( I can only imagine what a monster this rose can become in Dallas. Well fed and watered it can probably become a 8-10 feet monster shrub over 3-5 years - and the first flush will be magnificient with many hundreds of roses - and even though the roses in later flushes are smaller - you should get 2 more nice flushes in a season - even though it may go heat dormant in August. It really has been a pleasant surprise for me this rose - but that goes to show how different the same roses perform in different places of the world. But yours should still have bloomed ...something is not right ... How many basal canes has the rose? How big and tall? Are the canes blind shooting - not producing any buds? And it would really help to see a picture of the plant - with the leaves up close for identication. I would never put up with or accept a rose not to bloom in 2 seasons ... granted some Austin Roses repeats better than others ...but no blooms?

For me, Summer Song has one of the most amazing scents and colors. Just gorgeous. In my Western European garden, it is a spindly plant, gangly, but thriving. It was purchased from David Austin EU. In its habit, it reminds me a bit of a less vigorous Claire Austin. It just shoots out canes in different directions, and every which way, and is happiest thus. It is not just growing perfectly upright, like some of its neighbors in the same bed (Olivia, for example). It does not get to be anywhere as large as Claire Austin. And it would work in smaller space. It really does not like the repeated 32-35 degree celsius heatwaves this summer, which are exceptional in this climate, and hopefully will not become the new norm. Before I moved it, it was in a pot on the patio (afternoon sun). In that spot, blooms would crinkle and wilt in the sun on the same day they opened. This was not a question of watering and other roses are doing fine there, so it is perhaps more heat sensitive than most. So it had to be moved from a pot on the patio to a shadier spot between other plants where the sun is not as strong. The sun still hits it, but the ground is just a bit fresher and cooler in its new spot. It is also between other roses, which compensates for its lack of bushiness. As the DA Rose Geek video was mentioned above, I seemed to recall her mentioning that the plants were often planted in clusters of more than one bush at DA to give them a fuller look, so that might explain why it looked fuller in that clip. In its first year in my garden, Summer song probably had a handful of blooms in two small flushes. But as it was healthy, had zero dieback, and had just a color like no other--this rich, vibrant pinkish dark orange--it stayed on for year two. It now has far more blooms than in its first year, and lovely leaves. It is not as prolific as, say Royal Jubilee Mary Rose, both of whom, starting in their first year, were almost continuous bloomers. On Summer Song, in its second summer, there is almost always a bud if not a flower, and it did have a good first flush of 5-10 flowers, so it is really doing quite well. And might have been even more impressive if the poor thing hadn't been moved this summer. But it seemed to rally from that quickly, perhaps the relief of being some place cooler. The fragrance is also magnificient. Not the typical David Austin myrrh sent but very sweet, And it's one of the better fragrances, I would say. Most roses really come into their own in their third year, so I imagine, it will keep improving with age in this climate, which is usually moderate in both summer and winter, especially when compared to many parts of the US.

In the US Heirloom Roses still has SoF listed own root but its sold out right now. You can sign up to be emailed when in stock. There may be other places that still carry it. I no longer see it on the DA website which is a crying shame since its so pretty and kind of unique. It starts out light pink then ages to a lilac pink. Smell this morning is divine. I cant think of a good reason for it to discontinued. It does get big and the flowers get big and heavy since it has such a high petal count (around 200) that sometimes the blooms can nod a little, which I actually like with tall roses. They look down on you so youcan see them. I dont have a ton of stuff blooming right now, being January etc. but today she has an open flower and a few buds. Side view of blossom and bud. The buds are so tiny that its a miracle that they can unfurl to such a big bloom with so many petals in it lol. Another side view...see how dark the reverse of the bottom petals are ! The bud is much darker than the inside of the flower..kinda pretty!

Though DA does deserve to be boy-cotted,I tend to agree with Sheila-get the varieties that you really want while they are still available. The fact is, DA is not about the love of roses; I don't think it ever was. I read somewhere that David Austin himself, was not even trying to breed roses when he started; his first one was an accident. Over the years, he made it prretty clear that he was out to make money,I think. Again, I read somewhere that someone questioned his advice about spacing 3 of the same variety very close together and his cynical reply was: "would you rather sell just one plant to a customer, or three all at once?" The clincher for me was one year, in their catalogue, they stated that roses only live for about five years,and after that should be replaced.(I think they did have the decency to remove THAT, or else it was just too many customers protested). Now, I can't prove any of this, since it's stuff I gleaned over the years in my rose questing,but when I see their glossy catalogue and all the rest it just stikes me as snobby and false. It also does seem to me that the new varieties -from the photos at least-look more and more alike , there are always lots of yellow and pinks,beginning just to look a bit like a lot of cupcakes or something; the older varieties seem to have more character. Another thing that baffles me: one thing I did like about DA was the fact that they produced some nice deep,velvety purple-reds (Falstaff, Munstead Wood, The Prince, William Shakespeare, WS2000,etc).They don't seem to even try to do those any more. Now, some of these as plants might have had several defects, but that colour range is so rare and special in re-blooming roses that I feel that I, at least, would be willing to close an eye on the defects. In fact, even though I'm so anti-DA,I DO indeed toy with the idea of trying to get new plants of Falstaff, WS 2000, and maybe even The Prince, all of which I once had but failed to grow properly and had to sp. I still do have Tradescant, also from years ago-now that plant has been ignored completely by me for years, was mistreated in the beginning,as well-and yet last year I discovered it among the weeds-small, yes, but with those beautiful dark blooms,and in decent health, too. I dug it up, potted it (removing a cane that had gone own-root and potting that up seperately ). So for at least 10 years that plant has survived in good health with no real care-that is a good rose! but has been discontinued, of course. I plan to coddle mine along a bit in a pot (it looks great so far) until it's big enough, and then plant it out in my garden-this time in a better spot; it seems to deserve it. To be honest, I suspect that. since this company never was about the love of roses,by now they are gradually in the process of dropping all attempts to breed interesting, lovable, "real" roses, and will more and more aim towards developing -how shall it put it? -a new brand of "pseudo Knock-outs", because all they want is to make money. Now there is nothing per se wrong with Knock-outs and their ilk, but they can NOT take the place of "real" roses. So grab the real ones while they are still available.