Hi Nastarana: I once ordered Happy Child but took it out of my buy-list. Lots of people complained about it being wimpy, either own-root or grafted.

Heirloom on their website stated that their roses are virus-free. I never buy from them, so I don't know.

In the category of Austins I will NEVER purchase again, is anything own-root. They just don't grow.

Well before other US producers began responding to the problem, Heirloom established a strict policy not to propagate from stock plants known to be virused. However, you can't be 100% sure a plant is virus-free without repeated testing.

Thank you, everyone for the responses.

My own root Austins, Mary Rose, Lordly Oberon, St. Cecilia, and Proud Titania are not growing so far.

I understand that Sharifa Asma is among the roses, like Cl. Sunflare, which are not available in the USA unvirused.

I am seriously thinking that if I do order, it will be New Dawn and John Cabot which I think might be vigorous enugh to survive mid summer shipping across the country.

All my own-root Austins (10 or 12, I guess) have grown well enough, except maybe Pretty Jessica, which took several years to get established, but is now OK. I have Prospero both grafted and own root. Both are small, but they grow and bloom equally well. A former poster in my neck of the woods, Rich E., has a big garden full of own-root Austins from Heirloom that were almost all lusty shrubs when last I visited.

I trust everything mad_gallica writes, but maybe she is a bit north of the optimum territory for growing typical Austin roses.

I bought mine from Heirloom last year and I love it. Of course zone 9 isn't close to zone 5, but here this rose is wonderful. No disease at all throughout the year, and this was a bad year for foliar problems compared to past years. One of my friends in Arkansas (zone 7 I think) also grows HC and thinks highly of it. So far in my garden it appears to stay small, like some of my polyanthas. Here is Happy Child this morning.

Would I get it again? You bet, in a heartbeat.

Melissa

I am starting to love Happy Child's blooms. Mine has a few 3ft tall canes and seem to always have a few blooms. It isn't as bad as I feared and looks very nice with some red coleus, sage and asters nearby. It also stands in front of a 4ft tall Red Intuition and beside a Polonaise. They all look nice and happy together. I don't expect it to ever be much taller.

I forgot to mention that my HC is own root from Roses Unlimimted.

New Dawn will be OK own root. So long as the climate is warm enough to grow it at all. I can grow it, and people around me can grow it. They can't grow it ten miles north, and Jim can't grow it. However, it should be hardier than Viking Queen.

John Cabot as an own root grows very, v e r y s l o w l y. It took about ten years to get a big flush from it, and a few more to get any repeat. I often wonder if one of the problems people have getting repeat from the big Explorers is that they take so long to really get going, and people lose patience.

Yes, the issue is that I'm too cold for the normal Austins to do well. But I'm not the only one in this climate.

The hotter zones seem to have fewer problems growing Happy Child. In my Zone 6, HC bombed THREE TIMES! I adore the bloom, but I couldn't get the plant itself to do much. Weak and wimpy, could barely recover from a cold winter, very late and weak coming up in the spring, never grew over a foot tall--and I'm talking about 3 different tries. (Don't remember whom I ordered from.)

It did seem quite good on rebloom, but I think I remember that it had a few BS problems periodically.

I finally gave up on it--and still feel really sad about it--cuz I loved that bloom.

Kate

Thank you, dublinbay, for confirming what I had suspected.

I am likely going to pass on the Heirloom sale this time. I found out last year that roses which endure a cross country trip in hot weather arrive in extremely weak condition. Nor is my season long enough to give time for recovery. Warm weather might persist into Nov., or possibly only to late Sept. The two I had from Heirloom in spring were quite small and have only within the last month begun to resemble healthy rosebushes.