Funny that you mentioned this because I was thinking of getting CD myself. CD looks great in photos. Susuan (Trivoli) had captured CD beautifully. I love the color variation - yellow, and that creamy look. Oh well, perhaps I should just stick to Jude the Obscure and Crown Princess Margareta instead.

Have you tried growing Jude the Obscure? I've heard many good things about this rose. Got mine recently, but just waiting for it to bloom.

Oh, I agree with you so much! One of the worst roses I ever spent too much money on. I gave it 3 years and it got worse every year. Everything you said was true for me.
So, ditto for Northern California, too. I'm sure those who love it have a good reason, but I sure didn't have a reason to keep it. Please, no hard feelings from CD lovers.
Kathy

No need to keep a rose that does not perform well in your climate and you don´t like. The only ones opinion that really matter is your own. Just get rid of it and grow something else that will do better for you ...like you do. I warmer climates it probably does better. Like michaelg always writes: location, location, location.

Jimmy You are going to love Jude the Obscure!!! What USDA zone compares to your climate. It does excellent in warmer dry climates and smells wonderfully fruity like Sauterne Wine.

jumbojimmy, they did look great when I bought them - all the flowers were yellow (I assume they were green-house raised). I've read posts and seen pictures that make you want to run out and buy one - sorry I wasn't on the forum then, I would have shipped mine to you! I've read about CD - seems to be known for being unstable - all roses I know of shift color with climate, but it would shift to a SICKLY kind of tan/cream color - was really ugly (as opposed to my lovely tea-stained cream French Lace blooms). Or it would bloom with yellow and ugly cream flowers at the same time. I'm sure it does great for some - hope a CD lover posts their remarks - and you can find one to try cheap some place.

It would probably do better if listed as a cream, tan or parchment color. Perhaps it's just expectations. I find for myself that i really like the healthy vigorous roses and that color or bloom form is just a bonus.

I don't like the color either. I like the fragrance. I think I'll probably sp it too...just not good to keep something that annoys you.
Linda

Hey I kinda like my Charles Darwin.

And I positively love my two new Charles Darwins, new this year in a new test bed. I too saw Susan Serra's photos of this rose and fell in love with it. I sent her an email and she told me it did not rebloom in her garden. So I did not order it.

However, this spring I found it on sale in a local nursery and bought two. They are in a bed with 18 other new roses. They are completely healthy while some of the others are defoliating. And, both plants have been blooming non-stop since I planted them. They are still throwing out buds and I will cut some more today though we've had a frost already. My only complaint is they have put so much energy into blooming, that they are not growing a whole lot yet.

I personally love the colour. The colour described by StoneGarden as a "wretched shade of parchment", I find reminds me of a sheeny antiqued lace, gorgeous. The new blooms I would describe as dijon mustard yellow. Add to that the beautiful very double cupped blooms and the gorgeous potent fragrance and he's a winner, one of Austin's very best. IMHO he has lived up to everthing promised by Susan's gorgeous photos.

Guess it just goes to show you. With roses, it is a matter of PERSONAL taste AND location, location, location.

Cheers, Rideau Rose Lad

I love my CD also. However, it does fade quite quickly from a soft yellow to a dusty cream. The color isn't 'striking',(I like Rideau Rose Lad's description of sheeny antique lace) but the form and substance of the rose is amazing! It has also been wonderfully hardy and disease free for me, which are two real strengths here in the North. When I want to show a visitor to my garden the differences in roses, I will often give them a bright red 5-petaled Robusta rose and a soft cream 200? petaled Charles Darwin, as they are so different.

It does seem to be pretty bs resistant.

Now I feel bad (: I wish I had got off my butt and joined this forum earlier, I could have mailed off my CDs to someone who would love them. Maybe part of the problem was my garden is not as airy as I wish, it's surrounded by a wood fence - also the neighbors HAD a tree that they recently took down - with my clay soil and the garden location it can get humid - so the fading CD blooms would look rotted more than anything. On the other hand Sharifa Asma, Eglantyne, and evidently Abraham Darby seem to be doing well, except for the ubiquitous black spot (and aphids - it's so warm I'm getting fresh outbreaks of the critters)

I just received David Austin's new handbook of roses. I WAS thinking of purchasing the CD rose! Thanks for the warning.
I am already babysitting my Mr. Lincolns. They do the same with shooting up really long branches and taking forever to bloom. When they bloom they are beauties! But one only wants so many of these slow to bloom and long shoot branch roses in the garden! I am leaning towards the Abraham Darby or the Princess Margarita. Any suggestions on the apricot to gold/orange David Austins? I am in So. Calif zone 8b.

Hi cdecker - well, I hate to think I discouraged anyone from rose - maybe CD would do better in nice dry California VS steamy MD. I think you would get a better response if you re-post with a good title - I haven't been on the forum that long but there seem to be a lot people with knowledge about Austens - including newer ones. For sure just based on others' posts I want to try Tamora (compact apricot that evidently blooms non-stop) and Molineux? sp. is another one that people seem to like. So far I have fallen in TOTALLY in love with my new peach pink great-smelling Abe Darby, BUT I've read it can also get "long arching canes" (suspect it might shoot out 6 or 8 -foot canes in my zone) - at the moment it's only 2 feet high tho.....

I planted Charles Darwin here in Thailand about half year ago and I remember it very good reblooming since I planted them in first month and do continue good reblooming even in very hot summer here but not strong scent as I think just medium cool lemon scent. Charles Darwin is doing very well in my climate but quite light yellow color.

Any suggestions on the apricot to gold/orange David Austins? I am in So. Calif zone 8b.

'Molineux' is a great place to start. Outstanding rebloom.
Upright growth habit.

'Golden Celebration' if you have the room--it gets rather large. Big, grand, very fragrant golden yellow flowers.

'Jude the Obscure', wonderful fragrance, but you may need to be very patient to get good rebloom from it.

'English Garden', more of a buff color, but a small grower, good for tight spots, with very good rebloom.

Dearest stone _garden, if you want to get rid of your Charles Darwin, Can I have it? I collect yellow rose. I live in North Carolina, USA. if so, I really appreciate you. By the way, I CAN send you the shipping cost. Not a problem.

Jude the Obscure is the rose I was looking for all over. I want to have this rose so bad, but there is none is USA. they have in England and they will NOT ship to USA. If any one in USA know where they sell it, please let me know. that would be very much appreciate, indeed. God bless.

https://www.heirloomroses.com/jude-the-obscurer.html

Heirloomrose has Jude, expensive though

I did get rid of my CD a long time ago due to chalky color but bought another one last year, thinking I might like it better now. Hasn't bloomed yet. Looks healthy. A lot of the pics on hmf are gorgeous.

Thanks to both of you. Heirloom? no thanks. I had bad experiences with them. and the price for the rose $60. that is rediculous. I am not buy a gold. I just buy a rose. so I will pass. But thanks you hun.

I'm 99% sure Jude is offered at DA site this year. It may be sold out now. Edit; I just checked and it is sold out, but it was $32.

I looked a few hours ago on the DA site (just do a search for Jude), and Jude is sold out, but I think you can get notification of when it is back in stock by signing up. OK, Susan, you beat me to it. Diane

The PR rep for DA said they were going to be growing more of the older varieties, but in smaller amounts, instead of totally retiring them...so I found a number of lesser know DA's by either using their search or "shop all roses" tab. They seemed to stock them in mid Dec as they changed pricing.

Yep, I bought CD because of the lemony color. But they didn't give me that. Big disappointed.

I love CD and think it is a wonderful and exquisitely fragrant rose. Yes, the colors can be variable depending on weather and season, but I find this trait charming. Lots of other roses are also variable across any number of traits. I am at a loss trying to understand why Charles Darwin is always singled out?

@PDXRobertZ8 Wow, your Charles Darwin pics are stunning! My local nursery had some leftover Austins on clearance for $12 each (thank you @librarian_gardner_8b_pnw for the heads-up!) and I bought one of each kind they had left: Charlotte, Vanessa Bell, The Poet's Wife and Charles Darwin. I almost didn't buy the Charles Darwin because I had read about how the blooms fade to an odd color but I figured for $12 I could afford to take a chance on him. If mine looks anything like yours I will be thrilled. I am such a sucker for those petal-packed deeply cupped blooms! I think the faded color looks quite beautiful in your arrangement, thanks for sharing your photos.

@Meg-zone8aOR oh what a screaming good deal!

Yes, my CD has never looked like the pictures on the DA website. To me it is definitely an antique/old-rose looking bloom the shades from ivory to mustard to gold to bright yellow...sometimes even pink! I can see what some don't like the ivory color, but it's not ugly. Just not bright yellow. Mine is very well behaved and has little to no disease.

To me, the pictures on the DA website of Charlotte and Charles Darwin look almost identical. I'm curious what your experience is like when they bloom.

What a great deal Meg! I look forward to seeing how they do for you . Robert, your CD is gorgeous!

I'll try to remember to post pics when they bloom, I'm glad to hear that Charles Darwin is healthy for you, I know many of the Austins have a reputation for blackspot in the PNW. Last year was the first time I've planted roses (always loved them but didn't have space before to grow them) so mine are all babies and I am just hoping I don't kill them. 🤞 😬

Robert, I quite like the antique appearence of your Charles Darwin.

Meg, looks like we have some weather coming.

And we grow in a pretty perfect location so you should have wonderful roses.

We must be fairly close to each other. I'm in Medford.

@Kristine LeGault 8a pnw I'm about three hours north of you in the Willamette National Forest (about a 50 minute drive East from Eugene). It is snowing here right now. Are you getting snow in Medford?

Hey, you two, it's snowing here, too. Yesterday, I was working outside and today, the snow comes down. Ah, February. I got my Garden Gate magazine today, and Spring! was plastered across the front of it. More like January. Kristine, did you send us the snow? Diane

Where are you located Diane?

Meg, I'm east of the Cascades in southwest Idaho, in the Boise hills, zone 7. Hot and dry summers. Our weather is pretty different from Medford and the Williamette Valley, one of my favorite places in the world. Diane

My Charles Darwin from some years ago was a reluctant grower, although planted too close to other roses, and it was always a tiny bush. However, the few blooms I can remember from it were actually rather beautiful, and I don't think it ever had the odd colors mentioned here, although it did fade to a lighter pink, as seen in the second photo.

Oh Ingrid, that's beautiful, I particularly love it with the peachy-pink tinge 😍

Wow Ingrid! Your Charles is absolutely glorious!

Diane and Meg, we barely got a dusting of snow so far. Poor Azalea has her snow boots ready to go and unless we get lots more snow they will sit unused. Don't tell her that said this but I hope that we don't. As long as the mountains are getting plenty that is good for me.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Azalea got her first box of chocolates, she will never expect .less Lol I guess that we should be more careful what we start because she never forgets anything .

I hope that you all know how much you are loved.

Kristine, we got a lot more than a dusing, and it's too bad we're not neighbors, because Azalea could get outside for some serious snow fun. It snowed off and on all night. Not very Valentine-ish. I promise not to say anything to her for a small payment in chocolate--ha. But I got lots of chocolate, too, for Valentine's, so I'm happy. And I won't have to work outside, either. But every day the chores are put off, I have to make up for later, I keep reminding myself. So all of you enjoy your day--and then get back to work. Diane

This is my go to pic when we have lots of snow. Looks like someone got abandoned in an igloo. Kristine, show Azalea this.

We got a couple inches but it’s a very icy snow-not good for playing

If I remember right you shouldn't have to drive too far from Medford to find some nice snow to play in, aren't you fairly close to Mt. Ashland @Kristine LeGault 8a pnw? Of course driving to (and in) it is a whole lot different than having it right outside your front door. I did not enjoy my drive into work today one bit!

Wow, Meg, you got much more than we did in ttown!

Meg, you got lots more than we did, too, and ours is melting. The mountains look good and covered, and that's what's important. Beautiful pics. Sadly, it's time to put on my boots and feed the birds. I hate boots. Diane

Meg, yes we are surrounded by several places with lots of snow but the roads getting there were pretty bad. Towns not far from us got lots of snow. There are dozens of micro climates here which keeps it interesting.

Ingrid, wow fantastic looking C Darwin. I hope mine grows and blooms like that here in 10b.

Diane, Happy Chocolate Day!

Meg, the snow looks beautiful and fun. I miss it sometimes. Your pictures make me homesick a little.

It’s not as cold here as it was the last two nights. It’s 68 degrees right now.