Mike, we don't get ANY fall bloom. Oh, that would be nice. The rose season begins here with Rosa xanthina. Then, Harison's Yellow and Therese Bugnet. After that, the main rose flush, albas, centifolias and damask. The War of the Roses seems to occur about the Fourth of July. In July, Dr. Van Fleet and American Pillar bloom a little on whatever growth made it through the winter. Zephirine Drouhin starts to bloom then, too, and was going to bloom in September, but the buds froze. Quatre Saison loses its canes down to a foot but re-grows quickly and blooms all summer. This got me thinking that maybe I could find some repeat bloomers that would re-grow and bloom on new wood, extending the rose season out to the end of the summer. So far, red roses are not in the future, it seems like. Gruss an Teplitz and Alfred Colomb are toast this spring, but alive, I think. My science experiments with Bourbons and hybrid perpetuals are mixed. They seem to need balmy ocean breezes or shade. I need to get around to doing some winter protection. Lavender Lass, all of my albas are doing well. Chloris, Alba maxima, Alba semi-plena, and Konigen von Danemark all get about five feet here. Madame Plantier is about as tall but wide. It throws out long, loopy canes that dangle on the ground. It should have been planted in an obelisk or something.

i.m.h.o.,"Gertude Jekyll" appears healthy enough to be grown with organic type sprays only, where powdery mildew is the primary fungal threat and where blackspot is only a mild to mildly-moderate problem, as it is grown in Berkeleys' Public Rose garden in California, where several plants grow up the sides of the tennis court fence, to more than 7 feet tall, and appear quite healthy. Berkeley is in a cool microclimate, and has summer drought, so b.spot can't spread much,then. G.J. is one of the few Austin roses that has Old Garden Rose ancestry on both pollen and seed sides, being bred from seed: Wife of Bath which has Gallica (Belle Isis) as a parent. X Pollen parent, "Comte de Chambord" a Portland rose. There are plenty of pink H.P.s that are as fragrant as G.J. to my nose. Luxrosa

IMHO David Austin has made a grave mistake by not promoting RADIO TIMES more to his U.S. customers. I get the impression from his writings that this cultivar isn't as good a performer in the UK. Pity, because here across the pond it is one of the few Austins that can be kept as a medium sized shrub (with pruning). Repeat is reliable and the disease resistance is on par with the rest of his collection. The color is a rich pink, a bit warmer in tone than GJ. While the fragrance is not quite as strong as GJ, it is still "strong" and will please any parfume junky. I consider RADIO TIMES and SHARIFA ASMA to be the best pink Austins available for the American rose gardener. The only vendor I know that sells it is HEIRLOOM ROSES (heirloomroses.com). Please note that what they sell are "bands"; i.e. rooted cuttings. I can't stress this enough. The plants are tiny. On the plus side they are guaranteed to be virus free. I've always had success with them but put this disclaimer in simply because I don't want you to be shocked when you open the box.

If you want to look at the Upton Grey gardens as a sort of living museum, the "unnatural" and "time-warp" comments are irrelevant. Many aspects of life as lived a hundred years ago would seem that way today: fashion, social conventions, etc. GJ herself would have been an anomaly, an independent thinker, and unmarried, though she did have the support of her well-off family. As a private garden for even the most enthusiastic gardener of moderate means, it's totally impractical. Could you imagine doing the tennis lawn maintenance she describes annually? In that sense, the time warp comment is apt. GJ was designing gardens at a time when household servants and gardeners were still affordable. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) it was around WWI that social changes in Britain made it impossible to find household help cheaply. I'm struck by the author's commitment to see the project through and admire her courage. She made a lot of mistakes (some of them over and over, inexplicably, like the pond debacle and the repeated planting of cannas too early) but you've got to give her a lot of credit for putting herself out there and risking embarrassment before the stream of gardening bigwigs who came to see her efforts in the early years. I personally don't think I could live with the restrictions she puts on herself regarding plant materials. Her strict adherence to the original plan and plant selections are the only way to give garden visitors a look at an authentic GJ garden, but I'm sure the designer would be using modern improved varieties if she were alive today. Especially with the thugs and disease prone roses. Yuck. Jo