Hi :)

These are my own personal observations:

Glamis Castle- I wouldn't waste my time with it. Terribly Blackspot prone. Unless you intend on a very strict spray routine, I would not choose that rose.

Falstaff- no experience with this

Golden Celebrations- a must have. Pretty clean foliage, pretty color, and smell is yummy

Abraham Darby- to me this rose is ho-hum. so/so. I don't think I would be without it, but it does blackspot, and here it isn't very pretty. But I have seen some great pictures on the forum that others have of this rose in their gardens.

Crown Princess Marg.- no experience with this rose

Christopher Marlowe- I love this flower. I love the bright vibrant colors, and the scent. It needs to be deadheaded regularly.

Jubilee Celebration- no experience with this rose

Hope I helped some. I am sure others will chime in too :)

marleah

I love the bloom on Jubilee Celebration, but mine has been a wimpy plant--not vigorous at all. I'm hoping that it will take off next year (which will be its third year).

Instead of Falstaff, I would plant William Shakespeare 2000--a great rose.

Are you in California? If so, you need to check on the sizes in your region. I'm not in your zone, but my impression is that some David Austins can grow quite large there. Some of your choices may grow much larger than you are expecting.

Kate

I'm glad to see Golden Celebration on your list. I really like mine, the fragrance is consistently present and it is prime.

Randy

My experience is:

Glamis castles. It's a PM mess and a thorny beast now is gone.

Fallstafs did not do it for me so now I have WS 2000. So far I like it. Mannerly plant and lots of bloom. It does better in afternoon shade.

Golden celebrations This one is a really good one. It gets big 5x4. It can climb.

Abraham Darbies. This plant is long time gone. 2 blooms at the end of 10 feet cane is not my cup of tea. Hard pruned it sulked. One of the worst roses I ever tried.

A really good one is snowgoose if you have space for a big climber. Constant blooms and never a hint of disease.
Another favorite of mine is the mayflower. Blooms in flushese and is a mannerly bush.

I hope this can help.
Good luck

I must be lucky in that Abraham Darby is wonderful for me, no disease and beautiful blooms with new growth constantly forming. I keep it pruned as a 4-5 foot bush and have done nothing other than mulch and water. It only gets 3-4 hours of morning sun at most. Butterfly bushes, salvias, lavenders and small purple crape myrtles look very nice with my roses. I also have Teasing Georgia which so far doesn't bloom as much as AD but is very pretty and healthy.

I would think that Chinas, teas and noisettes would also do very well for you and they include some glorious, carefree and fragrant roses.

Best of luck with your decision making.

Ingrid

I live near Oakland, California and grow a dozen Austin roses.
These are my favorites:
"Mary Rose" has an extended bloom season in California and blooms in March, where H.T.s have their first flush in May. Soft light green leaves makes "Mary Rose" a pretty plant. Healthy.
"Mayflower" very healthy, and easy to grow.
"Tamora" pretty bloom, upright growth habit, but well clad with foliage.
"Othello" for number of flushes per year, when deadheaded.
"William Shaksespeare 2000" for fragrance.

I can't reccomend "Abbraham Darby" we grow it as a climber and it is a very stingy bloomer, and gets every foliage disease.

I also, advocate Tea roses, for gardens in California.

Tea rosebushes have a gracile growth habit ( I borrowed that term from anthropology) and have beautiful leaves in abundance, their blooms have an "exquisite delicacy" as one writer put it. I prefer Tea roses, in general, to Austins because Tea roses are much more prolific bloomers, and bloom for more months out of the year.
A.R.E. sells Tea roses in gallons, which I reccomend over bands for this class, as Tea roses are slow to build in size. Greg Lowery of Vintage Gardens nursery says that Tea is THE rose class for California.

Luxrosa

just curious, why only austins?

I agree, you must have at least one true tea rose.

Randy

Hi, Wantogarden.

My comment is that you live in the perfect climate to grow Teas, Chinas and Noisettes, all roses derived from Asian species that are genetically suited to your climate - - heat-loving, sun-tolerant, evergreen. Instead, you are planting an entire palate of roses bred for the northern reaches of the Pacific Northwest, cool, rainy, with a short growing season - - that's my take on the majority of Austin roses.

I garden in Zone 16, and I have found that few Austins that perform well. Many did not rebloom well in my 8 month growing season and suffered from rust.

Sorry to be so blunt, but those are my comments. Abe Darby is gone (rust and stingy rebloom. The blooms that did appear are wonderful, of course). Golden Celebration blackspots. There isn't supposed to be any blackspot in California. I have no experience with the others. Instead, I grow many Teas. For lots of petals, I grow Belinda's Dream, although it balls in the early spring - it also reblooms about every 5 weeks.

Teas are not perfect for every garden. They are big plants, and if you are working with an existing 4 foot bed, most will be too large.

wanttogarden, I'm in zone 9, hot and humid south. I've found that Austins do the absolute worst for me. Abe Darby is probably the healthiest. The rest are real wimps that probably won't be here next year blackspot, skinny nekkid canes, small blooms. Teas, chinas, and noisettes, for roses that do really well in my zone, these are the ones.

2 Glamis castles. In my climate 1 GC is plenty full. If you get BS in your area prepare to spray.

2 Fallstafs. planted in a mass William Shakespeare 2000 I like better. Falstaff is a climber here.

4 Golden celebrations, scattered around I love love love this, but be warned it gets huge.

2 Abraham Darbies. Planted in a mass Gets big for me. A favorite, great rebloom, gorgeous, fragrant, but Rust is a problem.

2 Crown Princess Margaretes, to be planted on sides of a arbor. don't have

4 Christopher marlowes. Planted in a mass Stayed small for 3 years, now sprouting 6' canes.

1 Jubilee Celebration Absolutely wonderful, wonderful, wonderful little rose. One isn't enough. I started with one, and it's up to 7 now.

Keep in mind that in California, the Austins get much bigger than they do in the cool, grey UK. There are a few Austins that are good here planted in 3's but where most of them are concerned, 1 plant is the size of what 3 plants would be in the UK.

You are getting a lot of advice to plant teas, chinas, and noisettes. They have many sincere fans in California. I myself live near San Jose, and I'm not such a big fan. Most chinas have little or no scent. Since scent is such an important criterion for me, that is a heavy strike against chinas. Teas have scent, but not one my nose can detect very well. Besides, they are martyrs to powdery mildew here. Noisettes are a mixed bag and I do grow and like a few, but I got over an early infatuation with noisettes long ago.

Having said this, go ahead and experiment with teas, chinas and noisettes if they intrigue you. Many California rose growers love them.

If on the other hand you want to try Austin roses, go for it! I have not had any experience with the particular ones you list, but William Shakespeare 2000, Prospero, Charles Rennie Macintosh, and Sharifa Asma are beautiful and healthy in my garden. Brother Cadfael also does pretty well. I do a dormant winter spray (Bordeaux formula) in midwinter, and most years that is pretty much it.

The advice about Austin roses getting bigger than described in the catalog when grown here in California is accurate, so do take that into consideration when planning.

Best of luck with your garden, no matter what you decide.

Rosefolly

You should have some teas- probably the one which would satisfy your soul if you love Austins is Devoniensis, wonderful fragrance and beautiful blooms on red stems. I do grow Austins in zone 9, no spray, Redoute, Golden Celebration, Evelyn,/glamis Castle, Eglantyne,Sharifa Asma, and only Sharifa is weakly. Glamis needs lots of room and extra pruning care.Hybrid musks and polyanthas are the most pain free for me.
la