ditto to Erics sentiment....even though I just got started this year, Austins (not Knockouts ;) [however, I'm not knocking Knockouts]) are what has gotten me interested in roses, and from there, I'm getting really interested in OGRs.
Michelle

Tom Carruth once told us that much is owed David Austin and Ralph Moore -- for making people aware that there
are other sorts of roses than HTs, and other bloom forms than the Exhibition HT form.
A lot of people have progressed from the Austins, to Old Roses that are really suited to their climates.

So though I grow few Austins now (and will likely grow fewer as drought deepens) I'm still grateful to him for that.

Jeri

"Enough pink fluffy ones, thank you. More variety of colors and better disease resistance (you have a lot of fans and fan-wannabes in the eastern half of the US, but not all of us want to spray)."

I'd have to say that I'd want his roses to have better disease resistance too.

Thank you for conceiving a unique idea which I believe has led the way toward more naturally beautiful and charming roses, and has had a tremendous influence in how the average person perceives roses. And thank you especially for Abraham Darby.

Ingrid

Yesterday evening as we walked through the garden I was thinking how much I would like to thank him for his wonderful creations. These are roses that love my garden and really add beauty to it.

Thank you for creating roses that are beautiful as PLANTS and that are fragrant, as well as having beautiful flowers.

Melissa

Thank you for creating so many wonderful, fragrant roses, but now can we please get some lavender and purple roses?

A purple David Austin is like winning the World Series. What else is there to live for?

I would tell him several things including thanks for the many beautiful varieties that he has come up with, but could he come up with some lavender/purples, some really bright reds, colors that do not bleach out badly, and better disease resistance? I would also suggest trying them in my blast furnace summer climate that is awful for blackspot (the disease resistance thing).

Oodles and oodles of gratitude. For the Queen, Id'e ask why David Austin hasn't been knighted yet for his amazingly beautiful contribution's.

Jimmy

"I love you!"

{{gwi:224143}}

I agree with Diane and Alicia.
I would ask him to use his Texas nursery, and work on disease resistance -- especially black spot resistance.

Sammy

Dear Mr. Austin,

Your roses are a gift to the world whose time had come--for me, too, they opened the door to a rose world other than HTs. You have made an enduring contribution to the historic body of roses worth growing.

Thank you most of all for yellow roses with OGR form. For Golden Celebration, Molineux, and beloved Charlotte.

Thank you for Tamora, a delicate beauty who is really quite a remarkable survivor in our climate.

Thank you for Pat Austin, the only rose that ever spontaneously triggered a piece of music in my head.

Thank you for gorgeous, velvety Tradescant, the rosy equivalent of expensive dark chocolate.

Thank you for my latest acquisition, Mrs. Doreen Pike, the shape (I hope) of Rugosas to come.

If you are looking for new directions, Mr. Austin, consider giving your new breeding a shot of extra winter hardiness for those of us here in the frozen north who worry about our English roses over the winter but grow them anyway out of pure love!

THANK YOU!

"Milk and sugar in your tea, dear?"

ditto on the disease resistance.

I'm the broken record - disease resistance. And Sammy had a good idea about putting your Texas nursery to work. I will be more specific and suggest China and Tea derivatives. We in the steamy South would love to drool over YOUR roses in OUR no-spray gardens - rather than just in catalogs. And I do commend you on their beauty. They even make my DH gush. Sorry to say I haven't had much opportunity to smell them.

Sherry

Well, I sent an email to DA roses to see if this thread could work it's way to him. :-) Wouldn't that be fun?

I would say thank you to David Austin for bringing back the beautiful, classical garden roses of old.

I would also love to know how many beautiful roses they create every year that never make it into commerce. It breaks my heart a little bit to think about what ends up in their compost heap. :-)

Cheers,
Michelle

"I'm very pleased to meet you." :)

A lavender, fragrant, disease resistant Austin and a World Series ring for Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and cranky Charlie Manuel... Throw in a lobster roll (or a cheesesteak "wid") and there would not be much else for me to ask for!

I would say thank you for understanding that the "old rose" bloom form is a thing of beauty, as are plants that look like real shrubs, unlike modern hybrid teas (although I love the early introduction hybrid teas). And I'd express gratitude for his hard work in ensuring that fragrance is an important part of his mix. I'd also give a special thanks for him creating 'Heritage' just for me.

Randy

I am so grateful that someone created a rose that is "garden worthy". I just do not like the habit of the HTs. And of course the fragrance is so important. Now about disease resistance.....This would take much longer than my alloted time.

Barbara

P. S. Yes, let us not forget that David Austin is not the only one who has brought back the OGRs and other garden worthy roses. I look at my Golden Wings and think what a beautiful plant, not rose, but plant. Then, of course, there was Graham Thomas and there is Mike Lowe. Thank you to all!

Thank you.

I too would say a big THANK YOU!!!

David Austin has put scent back into old looking roses, I am totally in love with that many petalled, cupped shape. But to buy your nose into something that smells good enough to eat....pure heaven!

Deb

In a "polite" situation I'd congratulate Mr Austin for his extraordinary body of work, which is a truly impressive achievement. I hope he is blessed with a long, healthy and productive life, and that his best work is yet to come.

I'd also thank him for helping change public perceptions of what a "rose" should look like, and for getting many people interested in OGRs as well as his English roses.

Were we on more intimate terms, I'd take him to task for not disclosing the parentage of many of his creations. This practice is very disturbing to me, and while not unprecedented, is to my mind a serious and appalling breech of proper rose hybridizing etiquette. I'd urge him to reverse this practice and make known all past lineages so the history of future roses do not have "gaps" resulting from Mr Austin's nondisclosures. There is simply no excuse for his behavior on this point and from my point of view it is unforgivably bad form.

Depending on how that conversation went, we might have a long talk about his nursery's practice of grafting roses onto Dr Huey, and the non-availability of roses from "David Austin Roses" on their own-roots, which I consider very unfortunate and is a strong factor in limiting the number of his roses I grow.

Left unsaid would be my respect for his accomplishments as a business-person. This seems like a very difficult business to succeed in financially (no matter how talented one might be) and his success has been impressive and well earned.

So I guess if we spent anytime together, Mr Austin would get a mixed earful. But I'm not much good at being a sycophant. And his work is to important to be removed from history by obscuring the crosses, and too important to be grafted onto inferior rootstock.

Bill (who is not counting on being invited to tea)

Thank you for giving me lush blooms. They make my heart sing!

I love how English roses grow taller than most other hybrid tea roses in my cold climate. Most of my tender roses that overwinter WELL here are Austins.

Thank you for making my world a better place.

Carol

Thank you thank you thank you so very much for making it possible for me, here in Maine, to grow a rose garden!

Bill (Cartwright) said it nicely.

I am not so nice. I would add that Mr. Austin not only has hidden the crosses he used unlike most other hybridizers but is stuck in a mold of the same, same, same rose look. There are so many beautiful roses with flowers of all shapes not only the quartered look.

And most people who grow roses for awhile soon get sick of the floppy messes that the tradtional HT's become and soon turn to others or choose HT's that remain nice to look at at all stages.

Being an old curmudgeon I can't stand the adulation given to Mr. Austin as if he invented roses. My idol, Wilhelm Kordes through his long life created roses of all types including a new "species", at least one that grew true from seed, the Kordesii: hardy, healthy, vigorous and repeat flowering. He and his son created A long list of remarkable roses that are little known here. This is a man that should be honored!

I, too, would congratulate him for creating a bridge between moderns and OGR roses and for expanding the public's perception of what a rose should look like.

I would then thank him for Tamora:

{{gwi:212144}}

Through your roses, I came to Old Garden Roses. I thank you for that.

Thank-you.

{{gwi:278729}}

"Well done, old chap! And thank you for what you have done for roses.

I do understand that your head of state is the Queen, but could you possibly oblige by giving us more roses that do not bow their heads?

I love the intense fragrances you have given us through your roses. Will you continue long enough in your rose hybridising ventures to come up with more exciting colours? I have seen enough of pinks after have a dozen. Give us some murky, brooding colours, maybe even stripes.

And one final request. Can you please give us a true Climber, which is a continuous bloomer, loaded with fragrance, armor plated against black spot and mildew and grows like New Dawn?"

"I love your roses - so please DON'T Retire yet."

AND

"How come there's only 1 or 2 new releases for Australian people, compare to other countries like Japan, America, they have plenty of new releases. It's not fair!"

I'll second Jumbojimmy on both his quotes and add

"Please, please, please release Princess Michael of Kent in Oz. I don't think we have had a great pink here for a number of years and she looks magnificent."

"Thank you David Austin for creating the most beautiful group of roses that I've ever had the pleasure of growing in my Mid-Atlantic American rose garden. Now how about hybridizing some remontant moss roses? You could call them Irish Mosses."

(psssst Molineaux, have you looked at Paul Barden's 'Mel Hulse'? It's reputed to be a fragrant reblooming moss that is smaller in stature. It's next on my list.)

My Golden Celebration Rose is brand new - only 5 months old - and I'm about to see it's 5th bloom already! Thank you so much!

Say to him? hmmm. I'd probably give him a hug if he didn't mind.

; )

I'd say: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for beautifying my yard, and for getting me hooked on roses. The first time I saw your catalog I needed to be outfitted with a bib." Then I would hug him, whether he'd like it or not.

---
Wendy

Thank you for sticking with the hybridizing even though it must have been particularly vexing having to compete with hybrid teas for so many years. I first learned of David Austin roses from small mail-order nurseries some 10 years ago. I ordered my first one from Canada because no local nursery or garden center carried them. When I became a program chair for a rose society I spent months looking for a qualified individual who could claim to both grow and exhibit multiple Austin varieties successfully for a minimum of three years. This person would wind up being Robert Martin, Jr, the PSW District Director at the time, who collaborated with other rosarians in presenting a beautiful program that he has since given more than 20 times in 4 years. Within that time, local nurseries started stocking David Austin roses and public rose gardens are growing them. So, Mr Austin don't slow the momentum as your roses do absolutely wonderful even in the low desert of Arizona.

Thank you for Pat, Eglantyne and Pretty Jessica! I'm hoping for a few more compact beauties.

Ok man, we need to sit down and talk some serious stuff ... your good, your close but still too far and therefore missing zone 3 ... yes I know there no money in making roses can hardy for zone 3 but you owe it to the rose world ... I'll gladly test them for free in zone 3. Combine St Swithun with a Martin Frobisher and see what you can get me, or back cross Mistress Quickly with Martin again. Or give Cordelia another try with a rugosa - maybe Theresa ... I don't have the time to try it.

I would say thank you for the cottage rose that makes me smile even though I haven't been very good to it. (Well not me but the propaine delivery driver who ran it over the 1st time and my youngest son the 2nd time learning to drive and the mail lady the 3rd time who also ran it over and the 4th time my DH mowed with the weed wacker.) It forgives me and continues to bloom and cheer me.

Could you please make more cold zone varities for us, I would even take the pink.

Karyn

Please please please: A)better disease resistance, especially (in the west) against RUST and B)stronger stemmed for vases.

These two changes would remove the last reason I have to grow hybrid teas. It's damned sad that so many of the rose blooms can only be enjoyed on the rose, and do so poorly as cut roses.

All right David?

To morrow and in 4 days I am going over to David Austins nursery and fields to photo roses.
I do not think I will meet DA, because he now is very seldom out of the house - he want to be alone.
But if I meet him, I will say: " I hope you will create more single roses and more rugosas. They are the best out of all your roses"
Dag (Norway)

I would join the rest, and thank him for Abraham Darby...

I think I am going to name the next blowzy pink quartered rose I breed 'Cranky Jim'!

/me laughs.

Paul, I would buy that rose! :)

Elaine

I admit to having fun tweaking the popular. Cranky absolutely!

I'm enjoying my range of rose looks and the profusion of once bloomers. Can hardly wait for Baltimore Belle to bloom. It is covered with several hundred flower buds. 10x10'! Oh and fragrant. Standing under it or just near the fragrance envelops!