It's been a few years since this thread started, but it is encouraging, nevertheless. My two Spirit of Freedom bushes are still in the trying to get established stage even after 2 and 3 years. A wonderful tonic recipe I whip up and a thick layer of compost has helped, but they seem to be telling me they're not happy - yet. I will continue trying to figure out what they want/need and hope for the best. I LOVE the form of this rose. A similar rose I am having better luck with is Cinderella Fairy Tale, a Kordes rose. I have 2 of those, as well, one of which over wintered like a champ, the other died to the ground, however, has made a valiant effort at returning to the fold. It wasn't the cold, as we had a mild winter, but the freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, all winter long did the dirty deed. These two roses are so perfectly formed they take my breath away, and are worth every effort to grow. I doubt my SOF will ever reach the height of Sarah's in my zone 5 garden, but I love this rose at any height. Sarah, are your 3 bushes still climbing higher? I would love to see an updated photo, if possible.

'Royal Purple' is much more common in the trade than 'Velvet Cloak' so that's a good bet. It could also just be a generic atropurpureum, but those tend to have rather variable coloring and do not hold their color in summer nearly as well as the named forms. My own smokebush is 'Velvet Cloak' and it gets hard pruned each spring back to about 30". The color is a deep rich burgundy with NO fading. And the leaves get very large with this process. At the end of the season it will have put on considerable growth and be 6-7' tall. It is planted right in front of a chartreuse leaved Robinia 'Frisia' and the combination is really quite stunning :-) The 'Royal Purple' at the nursery gets coppiced annually as well and it is also a great strong color with no fading. Disclaimer: PNW summer sun is nowhere near as strong as it can be elsewhere in the country. YMMV

Ingrid, I've seen your garden and it is special and unique to most gardens I've seen. I love your setting and your plant choices. The way you have put things together works well. It has a romance about it. I'll bet you have many beautiful sunsets where you are too. I understand how hard it can be reducing the number of roses, but sometimes we must. For me it is because of lack of space. I have had to eliminate many roses that did not work for me, many of them Austin's that we're not performing well. Fortunately there are some Austin's that do quite nicely in my garden. DA and old-garden roses are my favorites. It is not easy to minimize the rose garden, but you'll get there and be happy when your garden is at the right comfort level. Good Luck!

I am near you - about 3 hours from Galveston in east Texas. I love my Tess. I have her on a huge fan shaped trellis - she has very healthy foliage and lots of nice blooms. Two of my favorite Austins are Carding Mill and Abe Darby. Wollerton Old Hall, new for me last year, does get really big, don't find the blooms fragrant like Austin says, but they are pretty. Sophy's Rose is a really good one - healthy foliage, lots of big pretty deep pink blooms. Bishop's Castle is good. Lady of Shallot looks to be big. I have quite a few new ones that are healthy and growing - they will do better next year. Great big for me are James Galway and Scepter d'Isle - like them a lot. I have Lady Emma and Munstead Wood planted where they get full sun until 2pm - hope they like it there. I really like Ambridge Rose too. Love the blooms on Jude......mine is very small though. I am getting another Young Lycadis - my chickens were scratching in that bed and killed it. The color is a different, brighter looking pink that I really like. Englands Rose was new for me last year - it started off looking and blooming fantastically.....then it starting dawdling around. Am hoping it will get going again in the spring - it was really nice. I want to try Princess Alexandra of Kent - have heard good things about it. Do any of you all plan to try the new Austins? I want Boscobel, The Lark Ascending.......not sure about the others. caldonbeck, the photos are fabulous! Judith