Wow, I might need YL

Can it take some shade?

harmonyp...WOW!!! I bought YL in a container and I have not seen THAT kind of performance yet!! But, I do know this will be a good rose.

Can I ask WHAT you do when you plant these?? Compost? Fertilizer?? What DID you do to achieve this!!

For the life of me, I can't seem to get the kind and size of blooms I see on this forum!!!

HELP!!

Oh Dear....I just found a few LY at the nursery I am itching to return too (would theirs being in marked DA pots mean they came directly from DA?)

ilovemyroses - I think for me, horse manure is the magic. We have 17 horses, and endless quantities of manure with horses fed 50% alfalfa. But I must say, YL is performing way better than most this early. This one has 3/4 day sun, with late afternoon shade. Hmmm, actually against my normal procedure, I did sprinkle some 12-6-10 on even the bareroots this year. But really did it by mistake when I was fertilizing everything else - I was going to leave the bareroots without fertilizer but ended up sprinkling all of them.

Hi harmonyp,
I believe I read that you acquired YL, PA of K, and Twilight Zone this spring. We must like the same roses because I got those very ones, too. My first YL met a sad fate this past March when a gopher ate all his roots (our resident badger must have flown the coop). What a great rose he was while he lasted. YL sat all last summer in his nursery pot as I dithered about where to plant him. Finally in late August into the ground he went, and he continued blooming until frost. So I knew after YL met his demise, I needed another, and this second one is doing just as well, only in another more gopher free spot. PA of K is another story. This rose took off like gangbusters in her pot this spring--and then rose mosaic virus set in, something David Austin roses are known to carry. So I now have a beautiful rose, blooming like crazy in a nursery pot with leaves covered in mosaic virus. I can't bring myself to take her back to the nursery after waiting three years to get her (sigh). I guess my point is that beware DA roses. The only other rose I've had with RMV came from DA roses. It was seven years ago, and that rose, Evelyn, overcame the virus, and is extremely robust, but I'm leery of David Austin's roses now. What a shame because they are such lovely plants. Oh...my Twilight Zone is doing just fine, and will be blooming soon. It was planted bare root in March. Good luck with YL--it's a beauty. Diane

Oh Diane, I am so sorry to hear of your experience. You should absolutely contact DA roses and let them know. Regardless of whether or not you return any. I have a feeling that in my heat, I see less RMV than what is actually represented in my garden. So, hoping for the best here. I know I have a few scattered here and there that show signs in spring, then lose them in summer.

And isn't TZ the bomb?!

harmony your rose is beautiful!

Young Lycidas is one of the best Austins I have ever planted...and they're pretty much all good, so he has lots of competition. What has been my experience with what I thought were "duds" is that they simply take a lot longer to establish than my impatient nature likes. I was counting up the abbey collection the other day, and we have 40 Austin varieties. I can't think of a dud in this climate - but we don't have much black spot pressure, so I don't have the challenge many other gardeners have with that. If I had to name the best 5, Young Lycidas would be right up there.

You can't leave with a leading line like that without naming the other 4!

what harmony said...exactly.

harmony, I am armed with cow poop now! Probably not as good as yours (your horse's, that is...)but I bought BLACK COW and am going to see what happens. My soil is good, lots of compost, but not what yours seems to be. I may do the fertilize you mentioned, but I'll try this first. I must say, I am quite impressed with your roses! and your horses!!

Young Lycidas is indeed a superstar. I had the sweetest smile this mid-morning. The 1st fully opened bloom was the object of my admiration.

To tell you the truth, I was a wee bit disappointed after placing an order directly with David Austin Roses & waiting for the next season. It felt like 9 months. When Jan. 2013 rolled around, I received a leafless bare root. Lol, it looked nothing like the catalog I had perused.

I had been spoiled by previous The Antique Rose Emporium shipments. - *****

My Young Lycidas is now maybe 3 feet high with several buds ready to pop!

I highly recommend. The color is TDF as our vocabulary has
come to - mauvegirl8

This post was edited by mauvegirl8 on Fri, Apr 26, 13 at 14:38

I just recently had the second gorgeous bloom of this new rose (bought from Austin a few months ago) open. The fragrance is truly incredible. However, today I noticed a grayish film on the upper branches which can be rubbed off with my fingers. I have a feeling this is not good news.

Agree with you on the fragrance of Young Lycidas, Ingrid. I love the strong old rose perfume, the color, the size of the flowers on him. Sorry to hear about the hint of mildew. Mine was clear for the first year, but shows a slight touch of powdery mildew this spring: nothing major, only a few leaves now and then, and the good news is YL just keeps blooming valiantly and the mildew clears up quickly with a few blessed sunny days.

And don't get nervous when the blooms start getting so heavy that they seriously nod. They started out that way early spring, but are already getting stronger now...

correction: Ingrid: a grayish film which can be rubbed off with my fingers...

I thought it was powdery mildew after reading your post (I guess I'm too anxious about powdery mildew). I'm sorry for that frightful thought. Just now I went outside and found the very same thing, exactly as you said: there's a dull gray haze which rubbed off to reveal a glossy-smooth, greenish-red steam. Its grayish film has a fine--very fine--powdery feel between my thumb and finger, like the sooty-gray haze on a blueberry. So good news--not pd.

Oops---I mean greenish-red stem not steam, and not pd, but pm for powdery mildew, and the sooty-gray haze on blueberry--I mean to say the protective "bloom." Don't know how my mind is working today....

How big does YL get and is it a good cut flower?

Too early for me to say re: size. I have two, one 2 years, 1 1 year, both are nice size so far - about 3'x3'. But I can say, as a cut flower, A++. +

I bought 3 YL bare root from DA spring 2012.
The good-large fragrant blooms; lasted well when cut (about as long as Golden celebration for me, which is not as good as William Shakespeare 2000, but not as bad as something like Jude the Obscure. Incidentally, i think GC would be a great companion to YL.)
The bad-big spring flush, but no real repeat bloom (like my experience with young Gertrude Jekyll) and despite being in good sun(west exposure) with good air circulation the foliage didn't look healthy and had problems with powdery mildew and black spot (I don't spray and we have a lot of disease pressures here.) I'm giving it another two years hoping things will improve because I was impressed by the size of those first blooms and I can still picture the bouquet I cut from that first big flush...
Also agree on receiving roses from DA with RMV-so frustrating-bought another trio of gertrude jekyll-now that is the best fragrance!-and planted together. All flushed nicely-then one shows a terrible case of thick yellow RMV striping on the leaves. Tossed it, but have to assume the other two are infected as well and will show those tell tale markings in future seasons...

Young Lycidas is doing great in my climate. Morning and filtered sunlight seem to be better for most of my Austins. Golden Celebration is beloved by most rosarians here but it could not take the full-day sun in my gardens. Christopher Marlowe doesn't much like it either but hasn't played dead every year. Molineux thrives in heat, thank goodness. Noble Antony is still living, amazingly enough. For those of you who remember, my NA's greatest claim to fame is it's refusal to die. If this rose is supposed to be 14" tall, with toothpick-like canes and six blooms per year, brown canes most of the year, then it's at peak performance, lol. I put my new shrubs in tomato cages until they prove whether the canes will be strong enough to support growth, buds and bloom. YL needed the cage this first year moreso than other Austins I've put in.

Is YL a good cut flower?---yes, he is. A nosegay of YL will last a solid 5 days for me--without my changing the water. My only compliant is the wire-thin stem trying to hold up a baseball size bloom so packed with petals that it's nearly impossible to make arrangements... maybe I need to get better vases?

And yes, he is a generous repeater--for me, in SoCa. zone 10 (b?). I don't prune him, only dead head, and after each flush I feed him a diet of compose and shirmp shells mixed in with fish skin.

oops--forget to add that the compost and shirmp shells and fish skin feed is once a month; for liquid feed, not used religiously, I give YL diluted worm tea.