Falstaff was a stingy bloomer for me and I finally shovel pruned it. Benjamin Britten is a sort of orangy-red and is a cupped-shaped Austin. I really like this rose but gophers got it before it had a chance to mature. I kept it in a pot and now it is leafing out. From one of the blogs I think it was Niels (cup-shaped?) it is not one of the most prolific bloomers though. I think Benjamin Britten is a much bigger rose than Falstaff.

I don't know anything about Falstaff, but I have Benjamin Britten. It wants to grow tall, but doesn't sprawl out very wide. It starts as a vermilion red, but fades to a watermelon pink. It does have a nice smell. The flowers are not large for me, about 3 inches. It blooms more or less all season, but not in large quantities. It has survived our disastrous late freezes reasonably well. It does need to be sprayed in my yard. It is also rather thorny. I wish the flowers were bigger, had more petals, and didn't fade so much. I like the initial vermilion color. It is attention-getting, but would be more so if the flowers were larger. Maybe somewhere else they are.

In both cases, big octopus-like plants with small stingy flowers. Using them as a Climber is a stretch, unless you grow for foliage only. Neither are great for our mild climate.

I have Falstaff. It has very pretty flowers on a large bush, not quite as awkward as Othello, but I wouldn't put it out for all to see. I doubt it could be effectively trained as a climber. It does stop bloming in hot summer, which I consider sensible. If you want a spectacular red climber, consider Cherryaide from Vintage.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences even if most of them were kinda negative! :~) Looks like I'm back to square one.

Nastarana, Thanks for the suggestion but I couldn't find any info at all about Cherryaid, including at Vintage Gardens. Can you please give me some details and if possible post a pic?

Robert, thank you. In addition to disease resistance, does it bloom a lot for you? It would be placed in the back of a border so I hoped it would climb and/or be tall. I was surprised at how much I liked the blooms on the plants I saw in the nursery and was hoping I'd hear positive things about it. Would you possibly have any pics you could post?

I've had 2 Benjamin Brittens from the first year introduced here and I can't see them as climbers (been there, tried that). The bushes will get tall with spindly growth typical of several of the taller Austins but only repeat well here if pruned after each flush. Mine are in the back of the border, pruned as needed, and provide a great backdrop to lower growers.

Falstaff grows as a climber in our garden and, after several years, has proven himself as a good bloomer. I would not call him "small". Tradescant might be worth a look instead..in a cooler climate, I think the color would be awesome like it is here in the spring and fall.

I have about 8 DA roses and I totally agree with Robert...Benjamin Britten is the best...great disease resistance, blooms are gorgeous, and the smell is wonderful. It is thorny, but that doesn't bother me. It sometimes shoots big canes, but I just cut them off and keep fertilizing with Spray & Grow. It is my favorite rose behind Maggie (which isn't a DA rose)
However, It doesn't have the characteristics of a climber, mine is more of a medium to large size shrub. Also, the foliage is very pretty to me. and the yellow in the middle of the rose is very striking in the garden. Good luck with your selecting.

Michelle
ps...sorry the pics are large...I'm still learning photobucket (*.*)

Benjamin Britten
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I also love Benjamin. Here the the flowers are a lot bigger then 3" and very prolific! THe flowers do sunburn but still look lovely from a distance and I like the color changes as they age except for the sunburn. THe bush wants to be quite tall and probably wide too. I did not give it enough space in my English rose garden. I keep pruning it so the roses will be down where I can see them. Perhaps that is what it likes? Very vigorous!

Notice that the people who like Benjamin B are all outside of your climate.

Kaye,

When you say that you prune after each flush, I'm not sure what that means. My roses are all 1-4 years old, so I don't have any really mature specimens yet. So, I haven't gotten to a point where I feel confident about pruning after a flush. I've been letting mine gain some size and get established. I do shape them up, however.

So, when you prune after each flush, does this mean you take all canes down to about 18" (similar to what people do with hybrid teas, I think), or do you just deadhead?

Any help would be appreciated.

Sidebar: I have planted one BB on the bank to my bass pond, and the rose was growing tall but is now kind of arching over...i'm sure it will be producing loads of buds on all the new laterals. This is an experiment.

Robert

Michelle, thanks for the very beautiful pictures. It's amazing how polarized people are about this rose. Maybe is does do better in cooler or wetter climates as Amanda suggests. Although not sure how cool Virginia is. Robert, you stated bb blooms a lot for you to which I promptly replied: "Does he bloom a lot for you?" My brain was apparently not in gear...

Hi, I'm sorry to tell you that at the Huntington in Pasadena, Falstaff did not look good at all, and summer is not even here yet. If you get a chance, check out William Shakespeare 2000. They have it framing a bench and it is amazing, and might be able to climb since it was at least five and a half feet tall, and a prolific bloomer. The blooms looked dark reddish pink, not red, just FYI.

Huttnem, I'll enter this, I started growing Benjamin Britten last spring for the express reason of growing him as a climber on the fence in full sun. I started him off in a large container as Ashdowne suggested. The rose started off ok in it and as the summer progressed, 4 months of 100's, the rose didn't like it and didn't thrive, nor did it grow. I even had it on a different fence where it had shade in the worst part of the afternoon sun.

I planted it at first opportunity in the fall trying to save it, in Nov when temps finally fell to the 70's and as any plant does first planted it sulked. It revived somewhat in Dec but by Feb had seemed to have total die back to a cane. I watered it extensively and watched it surprisingly leaf out and it's growing again, but have no idea how well it'll do once the heat and hotter days hit again. It bloomed well, put out half dozen blooms last month, but I have mixed emotions that it'll do well with what I've been reading about it over the winter and early spring.

I'll give it this year to see how well it'll do. I really need a climber in this spot it's in, if it can't grow, I'll have to replace it. I do have another climber close to it, but it's a mini climber and it's only a 6' and very young also. I did notice that this is one rose that likes a lot of water on hot days and I come through and give it along with the other climbers an extra squirt of water.

So, I'm really no help at all, but that's my experience and this rose is a year old this spring and it's about a square foot big. I'd heard Austins were slow, but I have new bare root ones that are responding faster, but again last year was just so hot, so fast.
Leslie

Oh Michelle those pictures are wonderful. Very nice.

I can share my very limited experience with this rose. Purchased from Heirloom last summer I have it planted in half day sun against our house in the back yard. I have it planted with a clematis at the base of a kind of tripod to in theory grow up and through it. It did not bloom last year but overwintered here very nicely and had been growing well so far this spring. I'm excited to see how it will do this year.

Hope this helps.

Kate

Robert, letting them grow and shaping them for the first 2-3 years is what I've done. Now, I take them down to (not 18" ever) but about 3-4' in spring. After they bloom, they will be back up to over 6-8'. I have them in the back of the border where my first plan was to train as climbers but have found in my garden, they are more useful and produce more blooms when pruned back to about 4' after each flush. I know some grow Graham Thomas as a climber but I treat mine the same as BB because of the similarity in the growth habits of both. Hope that clarifies some.

Like Malibu-Rose wrote I did a post about Benjamin Britten on my blog (see link).

BB is a beautiful rose - I am however not sure it will like too much heat and sun - since the flowers fade much even here this far north in Europe, it even fries in hot sunny weather (90F is about as hot as it gets here). Like other Austins it seems to take rests in between flushes, where it spends more time growing than producing flowers. I agree that it is healthy, but I saw it get rust, when it grew next a rose that was infected - so if rust is an issue where you live I would consider that.

Falstaff has beautiful flowers too - but it is not very productive with flowers either. It is a bit prone to mildew here. It can be grown as stiff upright, low climber here, but the flowers are smaller and not so perfect shaped in the second flush here -(We only get 2 flushes every season here - since the growing season is so short).

I love both roses. They are unique and beautiful. As some write they do not bloom continously as some modern roses - and I only grow them in my cutting garden, because their growth habit does not suit my small garden.

For a warm and sunny climate I think there are better roses - William Shakespare 2000 is like some mentioned one of the the best Austins. I do not know if it can be trained as climber though?? But tiny Austins like Tradescant (1 foot here) can become huge (6-7 feet trained again a split rail fence -as I have seen in Sacramento and Santa Barbara).
William Shakespeare blooms alot most places I have seen it in USA.

So I hope the original poster will find another rose - I am sure some living in CA can come up with some good alternatives.

Here is a link that might be useful: Benjamin Britten

Miele, Leslie, Katefisher and everyone else who wrote - thank you all so much for sharing your experiences. It's been very helpful. I hope those of you who are growing bb have good luck and that he grows up to be the great rose he apparently has the potential to be.

Cupshaped- thank you for your beautiful blog. The pictures were lovely (made me wish very badly I could grow bb but I decided not to in the hot, sunny location I originally planned on siting him.) Your story about your elderly neighbor was very touching. My mom (92) lives with me and I treasure every day I have with her. We love sharing our rose garden, especially in springtime.