By all means, do plant them in your garden now. Make sure you water them in well. Since it is so warm there, I'd provide them with some afternoon shade for about a week. Place a lawn chair over them or buy some shade cloth and rig up some stakes to attach it to. Since it is so warm, keep an eye on the roses so they don't dry out during the next week or two--but don't drown them either. That can kill them as easily as too little water can. You have some beauties there. Good luck! Kate

I live in zone 10 and have had luck with my Austins grafted on Dr Huey. You can order them directly from David Ausitns roses online. They have excellent customer service there. I originally had two own roots from Heriloom roses and they never bloomed. Once in a blue moon. My Glamis Castle died and my St. Cecilia is just sitting there two years later with a few stems and no flowers. Still small as can be. I then ordered 4 bare root grafted roses from DA and they have all done well. But by far the best performer was my Huntington Rose (pictured). She was listed in the special zone 9-10 list on DA's website and she has out performed my other 3. The other three are doing well but not nearly as many blooms as Huntington. Because of this i went back and ordered 3 more roses specifically from their list of warm climate roses. They are Mary Rose, Abraham Darby (supposedly one of the best DAs out there) and Darcy Bussell. Their list can be found here http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp?PageId=2063 on the bottom half. I'd really like to try a david austin on Fort. roots. Just to see if it makes a big difference. I've heard dr huey does well in Florida too (second best) so I wonder if it makes a huge difference (i have a few teas that are on fort and they do pretty much the same as all my huey roses, no real difference that i can tell). I wish I had more space! I'd have a hundred roses and half of them would be Austins. Here is a link that might be useful: DA's for our climate

I think it really depends on many factors. I garden in Zone 5 WI. I have probably 70 Austins, not really sure at the moment.... I have a combination of both grafted (on Dr. Huey) and own root. I believe the majority are own root. I have never lost a rose to winter kill (knock on wood). I hope I didn't just jinx myself.... I make sure to really bury the grafted ones deep during planting. I also plant the own roots fairly deep. I do not use rose cones or anything of that nature. Mine usually are protected by snow or leaves. Some areas are protected from the wind by the house, garage etc....But others are right out in the open. I can get a lot of die back though on some of them. I just prune off all the dead canes in the Spring, fertilize well, and they all come back for me with no problems. As far as blackspot goes, mine stay pretty clean through most of Summer, but they can start blackspotting toward the end of Summer. We can get pretty high humidity here. I don't spray regularly. I think I sprayed twice last year. Some of them blackspot a lot more for me that others. Some of my favorites include PAK, LEH, LOS, and Boscobel. I also believe your soil will really affect how they perform. I am constantly feeding my soil with coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels, manure, alfalfa meal, and many other components.

The 6 top performers here are MW, Abe Darby, Lilian Austin, Teasing Georgia, Pat Austin, Lichfield Angel, and Olivia. Pat Austin may blow quickly like in 3 days when its hot BUT she is a total workhorse blooming so much that the little tree frogs that adore her, will just hop on into the next open bloom as the old ones fade out. So to me it doesn't really matter if they don't last cuz she's a blooming machine. Her leaves are flawless here. She was blooming her head off during the hurricane and while sitting in flood water. Need I say more? lol I have two Pats and may get more <3 Olivia is my newest well performing Austin. She is a big girl and blooms alot. Her flowers start out more cupped and gradually relax. She doesn't have much scent but is surprisingly nice. Stays green. Lichfield Angel is a power bloomer. Just keeps going. Foliage stays pretty green. The buds start out baby blush pink and open to creamy white with some blush on the reverse of outer petals. Sometimes the blooms are quartered but usually not but still very pretty. Teasing Georgia is also very large, basically a climber here. I have two. Foliage is nice and green even in the dog days of summer. Blooms in flushes. Lilian is just so under rated. Huge pink blooms and yellow centers. She blooms alot and is doing well in a big pot own root. Great foliage and not picky. Her blooms ladt and keep opening larger until they fall off in a week. Why Austin did away with her is beyond me. Munstead Wood has wafting fragrance but very thorny. I have him in the back by a garden bench but not right next to it lol. I can still smell it though. He blooms a lot. I dont always get that dark luscious red. During high heat he is magenta but still beautiful. Has some very tall canes. Abe is probably one of my favorite Austins ever. He blooms a ton and is so fragrant! He gets big. He is not totally black spot free here but not bad at all. He does better for me than Evelyn, by far, but to be fair, they are both grafted on DH. I am getting them both on fort. this spring so I will see how that goes. I wanna love Eveyln cuz she's so fragrant and beautiful but she is a mess with some black spot and doesn't bloom much. I have a few others that are new and look promising like William Shakespeare 2000..kinda soon to tell but he loves to bloom and is huge and quartered. ***OTHERS good but not best bloomer Lady of Shalott also has great foliage. She doesn't bloom as often as the others I've mentioned. When she blooms she's drop dead gorgeous. Like, amazing color changes of pinks, corals, oranges, and touches of copper. Not much scent though. She blooms in flushes. I had Sharifa Asma. It was own root and not really big. The flowers were fragrant and very beautiful. I don't remember them lasting a long time..maybe just average. I lost it in the hurricane due to brackish water flooding. I lost several Austins and SA was one of them. I plan to replace her grafted. In H. Irma flood water, I also lost Golden celebration, Princess Alexandra of Kent (I had two that were awesome bloomers one died and the other is recovering slowly). The Poet's Wife was doing good grafted before the hurricane and surprisingly up and died. Eveyln really took a hit. She wasnt the best here anyways but after flood water about bit it. She's barely hanging on. A Shropshire lad was huge own root. After the flood died down to a tiny stick. We will see if he lives. So those have NO salt water tolerance apparently lol. I could go on forever on my Austins. Sorry if this is long winded and TMI lol ~Sjn