David Austins In A Container

10 years ago

Hello, I've been bitten by the "rose bug", David Austins in particular and have been planting roses earlier this year.

I now have no more room to plant any more in the ground but i really want to get the following DAs:

- Abraham Derby
- Buff Beauty
- Crown Princess Margareta
- Evelyn
- Golden Celebration
- Princess Alexandra
- The Alnwick Rose
- William Shakespeare

Would these be suitable for large containers? Or do they need to be in the ground for them to really prosper.

Any help would be appreciated. i am a novice gardener..still learning and this forum has already helped me a lot.

Featured Answer

DrMuffinz

10 years ago

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd chime in - All my roses are grown in containers.

I grow Abraham Darby and Lady Emma Hamilton in large pots and they are doing wonderfully. Abraham Darby has grown quite a but and puts out sprawling canes, LEH has stayed rather bushy. I also started Pegasus late last year and it put out blooms well into the fall - not sure how it's done making it through the winter (I didn't expect it to make it, so I didn't put much effort into over-wintering it, and it seems to have some through anyway).

I also grow Belle's Story in a small pot and can't seem to kill it no matter what happens. I also have Christopher Marlow doing well in a smallish (3 gallon pot) and it has done fairly well. I don't have a lot of room, so I've mostly started with smaller roses and will likely have to up container sizes for the small ones next year. I'm hoping we'll have some more room then.

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Comments (14)

dublinbay z6 (KS)
10 years ago
Buff Beauty (which is NOT a David Austin rose) is a rather big sprawling bush/climber with big tough long canes--and sharp prickles. Mine in the ground gets about 7-8 feet wide and 5 ft tall. That said, BB is a beauty and I wouldn't be without her--at the back of the lot next to the alley fence (although I mostly let her sprawl and take up a lot of space back there).

William Shakespeare 2000 (there was an earlier version of W.Shakespeare, so it's best to add the 2000 for the current one--it is an Austin) doesn't strike me as a good candidate for a pot. It is stiff and tends to extend a bit awkwardly to the sides--5-6 ft wide. Mine gets about 4 ft tall. If you like that shade of red-purple, maybe think of Munstead Wood--one of my very favorite roses. It stays more in the 3 ft range and, to me anyway, would work better in a pot. It is a wonderful rose.

The other roses you list I know only by reputation, so you'll have to wait for others to comment on them.

Good luck.

Kate
racin_rose
10 years ago
Lady Emma Hamilton does well in a pot and is gorgeous with my favorite fragrance. I would think the Alnwick would also do well, but it grows very upright. Pretty rose, it's on my short list.
David Austin's site lists his roses most suited to containers. I have a couple more in pots but will have to roit prune them next year if they're to stay.
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I grew roses in pots for years in zone 4/5 (I still do down here). I overwintered them back in WI in my unheated attached garage. Late in the fall I would cut the roses back to about a foot or so and remove all the foliage. Then I'd water them real well. Once the pots are drained I'd slip each pot into a 55 gallon black plastic garbage bag. You can find these at Farm and Fleet type stores. Fold the open end over - do not tie them shut so air can get inside. Prop the bagged roses up off the cold cement floor on wooden boards. The plastic bags will help keep the potting mix moist all winter. My hubby and I used to come down here for 3 months during the winter and nobody was watering them in my absence! In the spring take the roses outside and out of the bags. You should see pale yellow shoots forming. This is a good sign cuz you will know the roses have survived the winter! Remove these spindly shoots because they are fragile and break easily. Water the pots well and place them in full sun. (You can bring them back into the garage overnight if a real cold night is forecast.) Once you see new normal colored growth you can begin to fertilize and spray if needed/wanted.
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We are in different zones, and have different Austins but we have hard clay in common! I too love Austins, and have them both in pots and the ground. In the ground they are alot less maintenance once you get them planted. Sure it takes me a whole morning to plant one. I dig a hole 24x24 removing all the soil then with a wheel barrow I mix 1 part red clay, 1 part topsoil and 1 part peat moss then back in the hole it goes. Roses do love clay soil, it just needs to be amended to make them able to move thier roots around easier. But once the work is done, they are so much easier to care for then potted. I have two Austins in pots, Benjamin Britten, and Mary Magdalene. The Austin catalog recommends which Austins are good for pots so you may want to take a peek in the catalog to check on your selections. Benjamin, in a 22" plastic pot is doing alot better than Mary, who has stayed small and is in an 18 inch pot. But who knows it may just be Mary is slower than Benjamin as its only been a full year. Potted are more maint as I need to keep them moist in my summer heat. Last year I lugged them in the garage in the winter as our weather was unseasonably cold, which you will likely need to do in your zone. In summary, I have a couple potted just because I wanted to put them in locations where they needed to be in a pot. Most of my Austins are in the ground and doing great. I'm with Mad_Gallica here, learn to deal with your soil, and I think you will be happier in the long run.
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amberroses
10 years ago
I have an own root Alnwick in a medium sized pot, smaller than it should be, and it is doing great.
nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
10 years ago
Evelyn and Golden Celebration get very large, especially, GC for me. GC is about seven feet tall and six feet wide. Evelyn is somewhat smaller for me (in too much shade), but has stiff canes than can shoot out in an ungainly way--but the blooms are worth putting up with it. I just don't think of her as pot "material". Princess Alexandra of Kent is just over a year old in my garden, and is well on her way to being a big girl, so again she might be iffy for a pot. I would recommend Munstead Wood as Kate did, and Tamora as a sub for Evelyn in a pot. Diane
jerijen
10 years ago
In our garden, Evelyn grew 15-ft. canes, and only wanted to bloom at the top. The blooms were lovely, but if I were to try it again, I would grow it own-root, and pray that it would be smaller. It is in no way suited to a container.

Nor is Golden Celebration. In our garden, it is also about 7-ft tall, and wider.

As noted above, Buff Beauty is not an Austin rose, but a 1939 Hybrid Musk, Int. in the UK by Ann Bentall. It's a huge plant, and very floriferous, and would not be happy in a pot.

Here, you see it in the Sacramento City Cemetery, where it is disciplined by use of low rebar arches.

Jeri
nanadollZ7 SWIdaho
10 years ago
Oh that is so gorgeous. I wish I had the room to try something like that. Diane
Terry Crawford
10 years ago
' CPM' is a beast and not suitable for a pot.

I grew 'Munstead Wood' until it fell victim to RRV and had to remove it this Spring. It was grafted on multiflora rootstock, and had big, heavy canes, massive blooms, and was one big huge shrub....so heavy the shrub would want to heave out of the ground. It was a very thorny plant...reminded me of Gertrude Jekyll but very heavily scented. I just could not imagine growing this one in a pot either.
monarda_gw
10 years ago
English rose grower John Scarman's book "Gardening with Old Roses" (1999), has pictures of two Buff Beauty roses growing in (very) large containers, so anything is possible. He claimed it was a good rose to grow in pots. Scarman was growing them in England and has his own, controversial to some, way of pruning. I don't know whether his methods would be transferrable to this country, whether or how the pots would need to be protected in winter, etc. I also doubt it would save all that much space, but again, nothing ventured nothing gained. Scarman is now based in Germany. I am attaching a link. There is a little British union jack on the top left that should give you the English language version.

Here is a link that might be useful: John Scarman's website
jerijen
10 years ago
I think that would work fine in Germany, and probably in parts of England.

I would not expect it to succeed in milder climates.

But it's one of those things where, if you truly want to do it, go ahead and do it. You won't be satisfied until you do, and who knows, your microclimate might allow it. If not, at least you KNOW.

Jeri
Annalyssa
10 years ago
Wow, that is ONE Buff Beauty plant?
That is... big.
And beautiful.
I love how BB looks next to lavender and other silvery-light purple things.
Sigh! So many roses, so little time...
jerijen
10 years ago
Well, it demonstrates what a BIG rose BB is. Big and beautiful. I have a little one down in the garden which I hope one day will look that impressive.

Things grow more slowly, here.

Jeri
mzstitch
10 years ago
I agree with others Evelyn just doesn't have a good growth habit for a potted plant. Jerijen mine is own root, and still has that same groth habit of putting all its energy into certain cains that just take off way longer the rest of the plant. Beautiful blooms though, so I'm keeping her, but if I had known I would have chosen something else for my garden.
Not on your list but I have Benjamin Britton in a pot and the plant has a lovely form for a pot.
Adam Harbeck
10 years ago
Pretty jessica, munstead wood and glamis castle all did well in pots for me. Benjamin Btitten also did well in a big pot.

David Austins In A Container

DrMuffinz

Comments (14)

dublinbay z6 (KS)

racin_rose

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