I have Munstead Wood on order. I saw it in a friend's garden in England this summer and fell in love with the color, form, and fragrance. This is the first year it has been available here in the US.

Rosefolly

Beautiful pictures. Munstead Wood has been on my want list and those pictures of it look so perfect. I'm glad to hear it is fragrant too.

I have both of these roses and I agree with your comments. I love both of them. They do get blackspot, but they haven't defoliated. First year in my garden so that may change, but so far, so good.

Carol

Rosefolly, Pickering has offered both since last year. I am so pleased with MW that I have 2 more on order for the Spring.

Athenainwi, you will not regret your decision!

Carol, mine have been quite free of BS all season and I sure hope that continues. One of the reasons I enjoy Austins in my garden is due to their remarkable resilience to BS. I have slowly weeded out my BS offenders and most are either HT or Floribundas. Perdita and Pretty Jessica were the only two Austins that I SP as they pretty well defoliated.

I think that Austins are perfect for your climate. The one's I've seen in friends gardens who live in a cooler climate with less blackspot pressure are absolutely beautiful with bigger blooms and spotless foliage. They don't love my climate as much, but I keep trying a few since I think they are so beautiful. :-)

Carol

Countryrose, I placed an order with Pickering about a week ago. I've been waiting for Pickering to start taking orders ever since I came home from our trip.

R

I'm glad to see this post. I planted both in my garden this year and am not quite sure what to think about both of them.

'SUMMER SONG' does have luscious, tangerine blossoms, but after an initial spring flush, nothing since. It has a horrible case of BS right now, even with a regular spray program. Some of the health problems I attribute to the awful JB attack it endured...I have two of them...one from Palatine and one from Hortico. The one from Hortico has yet to bloom, so who knows what it may be, either.

'MUNSTEAD WOOD'...mine looks nothing like the pic above. I'm still not convinced Pickering sent the correct rose. Mine looks more like a mini in both bloom and rose size. I'm glad to have the above pic as a reference. When it blooms again, I'm going to send them a pic and have them figure what I really have. My blooms are more wine-mauve in color and more rosette in nature.
-terry

These are both terrific and unusual roses for color and scent.

As Terry noticed already, Summer Song, which has arguably the most unusual and lovely orange hue I've ever seen in a rose, is not the best of rebloomers, currently 3 flushes a year on my plant (grafted on multiflora, I think, by DA-UK) which is now in its third season with me (first year: one flush). While it's not very resilient to BS, it does fairly well in my no-spray garden, spotting, but not much defoliating. It's a tall, vaseshaped plant with glossy leaves. The scent is deliciously banana!

Munstead Wood on the other hand is already a terrific bloomer, quite vigorous, with petals of a thick velvety substance with a lovely shine to them. The color varies between a crimson purple of darker and lighter patches, and, in the cooler days of spring, an incredibly deep, black red, the blackest I've ever seen, and wonderfully many-petaled immensely large flowers. The damask scent takes a while develop when the flowers open, but is superb, once it's there. Health has been average so far, it eventually caught quite a bit of BS in my no-spray garden and lost some leaves, but we've had literally endless rain in July and August, and it's sitting next to the BS magnet The Dark Lady. Now it's rebounding quickly and keeps on blooming. One caution: it's an incredibly thorny rose, similar to Gertrude Jekyll, perhaps even more so. But it doesn't show any tendency toward lankiness or legginess, and has so far remained fairly short and manageable. Highly recommended.

Andrea

What joy! I ordered these two, among others, from Pickering for fall delivery, trusting to serendipity and DA's descriptions which probably have little bearing in Canada. The rose gods must be rewarding my recent labours to remove old DAs well past their sellby date. They were in less than ideal growing conditions in neighbours's constrained raised beds and and some may have been moved from my own garden, i.e. not "new" to begin with.

I ordered Summer Song from Palatine's and Munstead Wood from David Austin. I also have a plant from Hortico that is supposed to be Summer Song. They sent it out last fall. It was dormant. I potted it up and kept it in the house over winter under lights, and it started to grow. I thought I might have some flowers out of it by Christmas, but it didn't bloom in the house. I set it outside in its pot, and as of now, it still hasn't bloomed, but it has been rather long-caned, blackspot-prone, and leggy. I don't know what it is yet, but like Terry's, it came from the same source. I am not calling it anything until I see what it is. All my other surviving Austins I had potted at first have bloomed. What is with this one? Carding Mill looks great. Claire Austin looks pretty nice, not all that different in color from Moondance or Swan. Port Sunlight is little bigger than a mini, but that may change. Its color fades badly, but it smells good. Lichfield Angel did well. If Summer Song and Munstead Wood turn out to be busts here, I can always put out another Lady Emma Hamilton, The Prince, or LD Braithwaite. They do just fine.

Sorry to hear about Summer Song's disappointing performance, Bustopher. It certainly sounds like your underperforming plant is Summer Song - the canes are long, as you've noticed, it is not exactly BS proof, and the leaves are light green with a yellow tint (see also the OP's photos above) and glossy modern looking. Since this is not the strongest rebloomer, the special indoor treatment you gave it might have thrown it off its tracks. I'm sure it'll bloom next year. And it should gradually improve its performance over time.

I don't think you'll have any rebloom problems with Munstead Wood. But keep us posted.

Hope this helps,
Andrea

Andrea, I have not encountered any BS issues with either rose. Our Summer, if you can call it that, has been cool and damp so it certainly tested their BS resistance!

Both are very vigorous and healthy and have grown significantly for their first season.
Munstead Wood is around 3 feet and never without blooms.
Summer Song has grown into a nice 4' vase shaped bush with strong stems that hold their bloom upright. I honestly can't complain about lack of re bloom. Pickering's mother plant may indeed be an excellent specimen.
Now for the test of Winter!