Beautiful rose Sherry! If it stays that healthy, I might just consider getting this one. Just love the color!

Lilian, however, is a sort of a siren song. Thorns that can impale through goatskin gloves. So lovely, yet so painful to weed underneath.

Yours seems to have a whole lot more petals than many Lilian Austins (see photos linked below) and the petals on my LA (and most others that I've seen) are really big, to the extent of being wavy along the edges. It might be culture, but I'd suggest that your rose might not be LA.

Here is a link that might be useful: other pictures

I live in a very different part of the country (inland SoCal) with relatively low humidity and hot dry summers. However I thought I'd show off my LA. :-) I first fell in love with her at Descanso Gardens, 160 acres of botanical gardens and displays. She was in partial shade and her sweet spicy scent captured my attention --- she had me at first scent!

So I found her on-line and have had her now for at least 6 years or more. She's in front of a low retaining wall in all-day sun (think: hot, reflective, un-protected sun) in rich amended clay. I tend to forget to give her the same attention I give the HTs -- the same water, food, etc -- partly because she just seems healthier.

Anyway this is a pic I took this month after giving her a thorough (and very late) dead-heading of last year's blooms. This is her mature size, about 3 feet tall and about 5 feet wide.

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... and this is a close-up of her taken last month...
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... and today, in all her ruffly goodness...
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Ooooh, very pretty Sherry and my favorite color(s). Yes, of course I want Lilian in my Florida garden.

Right after I get the pot ghetto roses in the ground before it gets any hotter. 90 today and no rain in the 10 day forecast and no rain in the 10 days previous.
The roses already in the ground don't seem to mind, it's me that minds getting hot and sweaty digging.

She's on my list though.

Denise

I'm in love with Lilian here in the North as well. She is hardy and, as many of you have found, quite disease resistant. I made the mistake of planting her in the back of the border - she didn't get as tall as I thought she would. She's wider than she is tall (something I'm trying hard not to be :-)... I'd recommend that she be placed closer to the middle or front of a border. Her colors are wonderful - not at all jarring, just beautiful.

Ann, she's definitely thorny!!

How cool that so many of us in such divergent places grow her and she stays healthy. I'm glad she's not tall. Her width will make her overhang the path a good bit, but I can live with that.

Denise, tomorrow through Friday it's supposed to be 96 here. Ouch! 30%-40% chance of rain over the weekend. We'll see. Sometimes the Weather Channel lies.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Boy, did I severely underestimate Lilian's mature size! In their fourth year, they have long, long arms that I think would take well to pegging...if I can get up the nerve to approach those thorny branches. This is one gal who demands her fair share of real estate plus her neighbor's and will unashamedly drape those gorgeous thorny arms over and through less-timid roses.

I put in 3 bands from RVR four years and they really adore our humid central Illinois summers and harsh winters; they are very cane-hardy and are the first to bloom. I was noticing this week that their blooms are visibly darker pink than the cooler salmon pink...but again, NOTHING has been normal about the weather this year. We've had tons of rain and cold, which probably has affected their coloration. It's even going to be in the upper 40s on Thursday nite (sigh).
-terry