I also had Summer Song on order from Hortico so I wonder what the final story will be on that one. If you want to import roses from Europe, you will probably need an import permit and a quarantine area. The deal is that Canada can import from at least some European suppliers without the import restrictions. That is probably why it is easier to get some European roses more easily from Canada. Whatever the truth is, I am sure that I will have to wait to see what happens with my order. I have Benjamin Britten. It makes a big octopus shrub. It does bloom reasonably well. The flowers for me are small, only about 3 inches in diameter at their largest. The color when it first opens is almost a vermillion red color, but it fades to a deep almost watermelon pink. It does have some fragrance, but it is quite disease-prone in my yard, along with all the others. If you want this one, give it room. It can get anywhere from 6 to 10 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide. I will say that for the most part, it does not have much problem being hardy. It also seems to bloom better if you prune it hard in the spring. I whack mine off to between 2 and 3 feet in the spring just to keep it in line.

When I saw this post I knew I had to go out and take some pictures so you could see what the rose looked like. Boy I would hate to wait for the new introductions...I want to try almost all of them to see what they look like and how they perform and not least smell the different fragrances. Yes I did post pictures of Claire Austin and Munstead Wood since I drove to Albrighton when I was in England/Wales in may and got a potted plant of each. Claire Austin are doing good, but sure did not like the cold rainy summer we have had this year (many flowers just rotted). It seems to be a vigorous rose, like Heritage but is more compact in growth habit. It has had good disease resistance and a strong sweet honey like rose fragrance: Munstead Wood looks almost like the Austin Rose Tradescant, but the flowers are not so dark. It is however a bit more vigorous and have a more upright growth habit. It has many buds right now but the flowers do not look so good since it has been raining almost 4-5 days every week. Disease resitance has been excellent. The fragrance is very nice .. similar to William Shakespeare 2000: I am going to get 3 more of each plant since I plant Austins in groups of 3 to form a really impressive bush. I posted some pictures of both Summer Song And Lady Emma Hamilton yesterday in the Antique roses gallery. Lady Emma Hamilton is a strange roses since the leaves and buds(sepals) are so dark!!! almost blackish green and brown: I was also surprised that it was not darker, I had expected a more warm apricot colour, but mine have the almost the same colour as Jude The Obcure, but are pale pink on the outer petals. Fragrance is similiar to Jude the Obscure, but it is not as strong: Hope that gave you a tasters test and something to look forward to when they become more available in USA/ Australia. I have planted Summer Song in a new border along with lady Emma Hamilton, Pat Austin, And golden Celebration. with various hot coloured perennials, bulbs and annuals.

I have all of the Austin oranges - Pat Austin, Lady Emma Hamilton, Summer Song, Lady of Shalott, and also Carding Mill. My Pat Austin has shown rose rosette disease, but is responding favorably to aspirin treatments at the moment. I'm hoping for the best on this. It does bloom nicely, but the flowers do not take our summer heat. The bush gets quite tall. It does have a good color, but, again, the flowers fry easily. Lady Emma Hamilton does not get to be a tall bush. It is more spreading. It does not bloom in large amounts of flowers at any given time, but it has a fairly steady supply of nicely fragrant flowers. It is the most consistent performer of the oranges that I have. Summer Song was quite pretty in the spring. For summer all three bushes of it that I have didn't do much of anything. I noticed that a couple of them were munched on probably by deer. Something ate the leaves off of them as well as part of the stems, and I have seen deer in the yard at various points. The first year I had these plants they did reasonably well. This past summer, year two, they didn't care for the excessive heat and just sulked. They did, however, throw long canes. The orange color does fade badly in the heat. They did not bloom much at all in the fall either. I think it was more because of the weather. Lady of Shalott was pretty its first year. It seemed to be going along okay growing and flowering most of the way through the growing season. It pretty well stopped by the end of September, but it had a couple of flowers late. I think this bush will get fairly large. Flower size has been on the small size. Perhaps it will improve some next year. Carding Mill does reasonably well, but the flowers have been on the small side. It can get to be about 5-6 feet tall here. Its growth habit is fairly cylindrical and doesn't spread much. The apricot color bleaches out to a pink in the heat. Otherwise, overall it has been reasonably consistent here. I have no major complaints about this one. I hope this helps a bit.

Paul, thanks for posting those pictures. I'm still waiting for my Liberty to produce wider margins. Yours looks magnificent. I just planted a Rainbow's End but it doesn't appear too happy. Your comments are very helpful. I'm really happy to see a picture of your October Sky. I have some open pollinated seedlings in the vacinity of Frosted Dimples and Salute that look very similar. Hope you post more pictures as they mature. I'm intrigued by the deep blue hostas to the right of Fragrant Blue. They're not Blue Mouse Ears, are they? Hope you're feeling better, Josephine. A summer cold is no fun.