I have Teasing Georgia and I love it. It does get very big. It's of of a rambler than a climber. It doesn't have much of a scent and tends to bloom in clusters and flushes.

I just planted Perdita earlier this year. I love it's creamy color blooms with a hint of peach. I can't tell yet how big it's going to be, but I like it. I haven't detected much of a scent.

I also have 2 Glamis Castles. I like them so far. I do have them in pots (I wanted them for pots) and they are doing great in the pots. A slight myrrh scent, but not too bad.

I just got Spirit of Freedom, a climber with very large, very fragrant blooms with lots of petals. Have also ordered Carding Mill, Harlow Carr and Sister Elizabeth. I also have Cottage Rose (or rather two), Abraham Darby, Teasing Georgia and Janet. I think the choices are very individual, whatever makes me feel excited and fulfills my idea of beauty. Janet is probably my least favorite but these roses are all still new to me and time will tell.

Ingrid

Glad that you started this thread because I'm also preparing for my next year's mail order list. It's a shame that we in Australia will be getting 2 new releases for 2008. They are: tea clipper and Darcey Brussel. None which I fancy.

I highly recommend Jude the Obscure. My goodness. He's just so INCREDIBLE. If I could only grow one rose - this would be it. I just love the bloom colour. Mine is a fast repeat. He's in his second flush, and has so many flowering buds. I'm not good with describing the scent. Kind of fruity with a dash of spicy tea scent to it. Not my favorite scent though. I prefer old rose scent instead.

All my other roses: A shropshire Lad, Falstaff are experiencing bud rotting. 2 reasons I came up with:
1) I noticed this scorpian like insect(don't know the exact name) on my roses.
2)bud rotting could be caused by a form of fungal disease. My Sharifa Asma had this problem early. I had to spray SA with a fungicide and an insecticide and had to pull off all its leaves off, and now, she's recovering very well.

Falstaff is having some mildew. Heritage is infested with thrips. This season got to be the worst for me.

I'm not sure whether I like my A shropshire Lad. Maybe its because the flowers never open up well. The color is light apricot which fades to a very light pink and then white. Next week when the temperature drops I'll be spraying it with a fungicide in the hope that buds will open up nicely.

Next year I'll be adding:
* Comtes des Champagne
* Gertrude jekyll (Hopefully I made the right choice)
* Love In

Love In (Orapistri) is a new release. It's a stripy yellow and red combination. Does anyone here grow this rose?

I adore Carding Mill [I am partial to apricots]. Other favorites are Lillian Austin and Cressida. I have ordered several of the newer ones......Darcey Bussell, Sister Elizabeth, Tea Clipper, Lady Emma Hamilton. Also adore Lucetta, it has a scent I love, Leander is pretty also and James Galway is shaping up nicely. There are so many pretty ones, and I am adding more every year.
Judith

In my PNW garden this is how these ones grow
A Shropshire Lad... upright repeat bloom slow worth the wait
Charles Darwin...medium bush, healthy, large flowers
Evelyn...beautiful flowers but not many repeat poor
Jude the Obscure...lovely flowers but poor repeat
Teasing George ... an attractive shaped bush, repeat slow but no disease
Grace...upright rich bloom colour, no disease
Tamora...a little work horse, lots of blooms
Eglantyne...i like it but mainly one flush and then a few
Glamis Castle...reviews correct my Fair Bianca is better
Good ones for me.
Spirit of Freedom does well for me it is an upright bush with very double blooms
Christopher Marlowe...one of the best for me but does grow like a drunken spider and nothing seems to sober him up.
Geoff Hamilton...upright with two main flushes
Happy Child...not many but always has a few very double blooms on it
Jubilee Celebration...does well with no disease
Lilac Rose...a nice mauve pink one
Sweet Juliet...makes a beautiful bush but not many flowers also needs some shade to keep the colour from fading. One of the few Austin which has had no disease whatsoever.
The Pilgrim is still one of his better ones.
William Shakespeare 200...it is a carmine red with good fragrance, I do find that the canes are brittle and if not staked to candelabra type cane ends will snap them off at the base.
Wisley...a new one for me but is doing well
IMO Austins can't be labeled as some really do better in a warmer climate and many others prefer a cold winter. Own root will not grow well for me and never make the bush size they should.

Please add your zone/locale to your posting name. But clicking on your name, I do see you're in zone 9, so my experiences won't be as relevant, esp. whether or not any of the above roses climb, which most Austin's don't here in the north.

I wouldn't say Brother Cadfael is "too pink". It is a medium pink with lots of gradations to pale pink within the folds of petals. It is a beautiful rose, my absolute favorite DA. The flowers are big, it repeats all summer for me and well into fall, and its scent is very very good. A plus for me is that it's very hardy. I don't know what you mean by "too pink", but a DA I would call too pink is John Clare, kind of bordering fuschia. Don't know how that one slipped by DA's usually tasteful palate.

I like Charles Darwin very much, very good scent. In my very sunny garden it rarely appears yellow, more creamy.

CPMargareta is very nice, nice apricot, blooms like crazy.

I have 2 Evelyns because I like the scent so much. Beautiful flowers, repeats but not as quick as some other DAs.

Jude the Obscure has the most incredible scent and I grow this rose for that reason. Also a more creamy color than yellow in my garden. Not as quick to repeat or as floriferous, but every flower worth it when you smell it.

Perdita not as apricot as I had hoped. Low grower for me.

Teasing Georgia nice yellow, great scent. Grows very sprawly for me, have heard it climbs farther south.

Sharifa and Generous Gardener both workhorses of the garden, nice fragrance, dependable rebloom.

Of your backup list, I just planted Grace last spring and it has been a dud, I'll be asking for a replacement. I did like what flowers I saw though. The only other ones I have are Tamora, which is a blooming machine, flush after flush literally covered with flowers, strong myrh scent (some people hate myrh--I don't hate it but prefer other rose scents), and Eglantyne, which I think of as another dependable workhorse.

Good luck and let us know your final choices!

Hi Londonblue,
I'm in zone 9b, and here's my experience with Roses you're asking for. I give a rating for each one.

A Shropshire Lad : 4 beautiful flowers, but very very short lived (1 day!!). Only occazional repeat flowering
Benjamin Britten: 7 very interesting, bright colour, and fabulous scent.
Brother Cadfael 8 - gorgeous huge blooms,delightful Bourbon-like scent, good repeat. Flowers fry in summer heat.
Charles Darwin
Crown Princess Margareta 7 - big, healthy bush, beautiful shade of orange-apricot
Evelyn 8 - get huge! Amazing big flowers, and delicious scent. Can get BS or PM, but is still one of the very best
Jude the Obscure: 9 well shaped bush. Exquisite scent, gorgeous colour, but NOT thornless...
Mortimer Sackler: 8 an excellent garden plant
Perdita: 5 - I'm not been lucky with this one...
Sharifa Asma: 8 their flowers have a translucent quality, a wonderful perfume and are produced freely on a compact bush
Teasing Georgia: 10 - Maybe the best yellow Austin's Rose, in my opinion. She flowers abundantle and freely all the season long. Smells Tea, and get big. Mine is about 1,7 m high and 2,5 m large, pegged down and hardly pruned.
Generous Gardener: 8 a Rose to know better. Mine is still young, but seems to be very good. Rampant growth, like the Georgia above. Transparent flowers, heavily scented, hold well the heat.

Back up list:

Huntington Rose: N/A I've this Rose since past spring, from cutting, and it's too young to give a rate. But in DA Gardens in England, it was a stunner! Flowers seems to be short-lived. Large, arching growth
Queen of Sweden : 8 really good, like 'The Alnwick Rose'(10) which is similar. Well scented flowers, richly petalled, often imbricated. Continuous rebloomer.
Tamora: 9 Can get BS AND PM, but few Austin's are so valuable in the garden. Wonderful scent and colour on a compact, everblooming plant
Sweet Juliet: 7 grows here in a big, vertical fountai-shaped bush, average 2,5 m high. Smells like citrus peel!
Darcey Bussell N/A: seen at DA Nurseries, not seems to be nothing new. Dull flower, colour and foliage.
Eglantyne: 8 flowers of great beauty and fragrance.
Gentle Hermione 8 (maybe more, still young...) like a bigger, huge flowered and more double version of Sharifa Asma.
Glamis Castle: 9 a little, charming everblooming rose. Compact, tiny growth, but vigorous. Delicate flowers in ivory cream, fading white. Myrrh scented. VERY thorny! Good for pots, stays small. One of the very best white English Roses.

Ciao!
Maurizio

I really like Mortimer Sackler, truly delightful. Lovely blooms and fragrance. The appearance of the shrub reminds me of a Noisette.

Eglantyne has been a winner in my cold zone garden, but not sure how it would do in your zone...

Morrisnoor, how's the fragrance of Gentle Hermione? Does it have a strong scent? I'm thinking of adding this rose to the garden next year.

Hi Krista, Gentle Hermione has a rich, pleasant fragrance, very strong. She smells for my nose of Old Roses & fruits.

Maurizio

I know why you love the Austins but for a big bonnie climber with cup shaped roses that blooms all year in our climate and can be pruned to a large 8 by 8' bush or grown as a 20 foot climber and smell positively bodaceous--you need Mme. Alfred Carriere, the divine noisette.
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Jude the Obscure scented of rose and grapefruit is a major favorite.
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This is another wonderfully scented tea that blooms all season and climbs big and beautifully. Devoniensis.
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Glamis Castle blooms well all season for me with proper pruning as shown in David Stone's video
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Golden Celebration is pleasant in smell and a cup shaped charmer.
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Nothing as pretty as Belle Storey, climbs to 9 feet, smells like face powder,spice and sandalwood and violets.
Just a few of my favorites. Don't forget Yves Piaget of the Romantica group, many of those fine roses are = to DA in scent, and rebloom.
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or the Harkness roses with their wonderful lemon scents, Cameo Perfume is a big favorite.
la

londonblue, interesting that your Brother Cadfael is "completely thorn-free". The ones I saw at Chamblees had thorns. None of their Austin roses even approached thornlessness, except for Heritage.

Randy

Randy, I agree with you, Brother Cadfael definitely has thorns. Few, sparse, but big prickles, like 'Bloomfield Abundance'...

My Brother Cadfaels are not thornless, but nearly falling under the description of "thornless" for a rose, similiar to Heritage. Maybe some specimens revert to thorny.

finally placed my order of:
alnwick rose, jude the obscure, generous gardener, perdita, sharifa asma, crown princess margarita, mortimer sackler, lady emma hamilton, and the queen of sweden

dropped glamis castle at the last minute and decided to go with jude instead of benjamin britten. love the scent for both, but they're both firmly in the ground at my parents place so i wanted to get one for myself.

I took a look at Brother Cadfael this weekend and yes he does have a few large thorns, but I remember why I thought he was thornless. The thorns are so soft when they first grow that I just broke them off with my fingers and pretty much made mine thornless =)

Also for me Cadfael and Jude are virtually thorn free, as I can work with both (both trained to be climbers) without any gloves and not worry. Where as I would not touch Benjamin Britten or Kathryn Morely without nice tough gloves. And Mary Rose is as prickly as a cactus. Fairchild is not too nice w/ those thorns either.

But the worst ever had to have been Othello. I had never seen a rose sprout double thorns, they were sort of growing thru each other and right on top of each other, literally reminding me a great white shark which sports double rows of teeth.