Thank you, Jim and Cottagegarden for reviving this thread. I really appreciate the company of kind, and positive visitors to this forum. Like Cottagegarden, I bought 2 soil-test kits from local stores: Lowe and HomeDepot. They are totally useless and gave false result. Then I paid $20 for EarthCo. (professional soil-testing company) and my soil test came back high pH at 7.7, and deficient in everything, plus barely adequate in calcium ... I was so sure that my soil has plenty of calcium !! I'm next to a limestone quarry. For years I disagree with my neighbor on calcium. He insisted that his tomato in pots are lacking in calcium (blossom end-rot) ... He's right, after seeing how mixing gypsum (calcium sulfate) into the soil made 1st-year band-size La Reine went beserk with buds: due to winter-kill, it's only 8 inch. tall, but with 10 buds !! But the plant is stunt & brown leaves, and the blooms are small. I forgot to give it sulfate of potash (it should be twice more potassium than calcium). Yes to mixing gypsum into planting hole, but no more than 10% (I spent hours researching on the right % to mix in). I broke that rule many times, and end up with stunt plants & leaves showing potassium deficiency. Too much calcium drives down potassium. If you have a large garden, soil can vary: some part can be alkaline if watered frequently with high pH tap water. Most tap water are alkaline, I already tested a few with fish-tank litmus paper, even mineral bottled water has pH over 8. Some part of a garden can be acidic (if get rain water only, pH at 5.6). My soil test recommend mixing sulfur into clay. BAD ADVICE !! That was expensive and killed tons of earthworms. I like gypsum better, less caustic & cheaper ($4 for 25 lb. at Menards). Gypsum is great in breaking up compacted clay, provides calcium, plus de-salt soil. I moved 4 roses this spring: The ones that didn't get gypsum in the planting hole were slower to recuperate. The one that got gypsum in the planting hole, was VERY FAST in pumping out buds. See Duchess de Rohan below, 2 weeks after moving, with lots of buds. I moved that one since it was in too much shade, zero blooms. After moving to more sun, it exploded in buds. A note on moving roses. Roses which are grafted on Dr. Huey is less forgiving in moving. Dr. Huey is a long stick, and it's easy to break the tiny roots at the end. I moved knock-outs grafted on Dr. Huey twice before. Both time they lost all their leaves, and took at least 3 months to get back to normal. With own-root, it's so much easier to move: The roots are cluster: wide & shallow, rather than a long & deep stick like Dr. Huey. I moved at least 10 own-roots for the past 4 years: They recuperate quickly, lose zero leaves, IF THE ORIGINAL SOIL IS LOOSE & FLUFFY, then moving is zero stress. If the original soil is compact, digging them up caused many roots to be broken.

Becky, Thank you for posting. the two-toned rose is 'Double Delight' not strong color because it was a rainy day and other are Evelyn, Jude the Obscure, Othello, Golden Celebration and unknow white Climbing rose also unknow hybrid tea roses.

Diane, Abe is one of my best re bloomers. I am sure he will be awesome for you because the roses in your yard are way more gorgeous than mine lol! Abe and Pat Austin are crazy bloomers. Pat (I have 2 bushes) has flowers on her just about every day of the year. They blow quickly in a vase but she is so worth it because they are beautiful on the bush just the way they are. I didn't even care that much for orange roses before seeing Daisy's pics of Pat Austin and falling in love with her lol. I am so glad she does well in the deep south. Evelyn is truly beautiful and sweet smelling but she just doesn't bloom for me the way Abe does. I even gave Evelyn a prime spot and her own fence to be espaliered on but Abe is outperforming her thus far. I originally wanted Evelyn more than Abe lol. I love them both though. I am getting a couple Ascot this spring. I love the photos you show of that one. SoFL , That Lichfield Angel bloom opened further and flattened out to almost 7 inches across. Just crazy! Its such a great bloomer. Some of the blooms are quartered once in a while. Green tree frogs love to hide in the LA rose blossoms because little gnats are so attracted to its blooms. Where did you buy your Evelyn on fortuniana? Was the shipping expensive? would love to have an Evelyn that was 10 feet and a great bloomer. I have a feeling she might rather be in the ground on fort here than in a pot on Doc Huey lol. I would probably get about 4 of them! I am trying to get my Austins on fortuniana now. I really am getting tired of how much I have to water potted roses lol. I would rather just run a drip system on a timer. I can just imagine how well Pat Austin and Abe would perform on fort in the ground. Other super great bloomers here (that are Austins) are: Princess Alexandria of Kent, Munstead Wood, Lilian Austin (in a pot-own root), Teasing Georgia, Lady of Shalott. Olivia might be really good too but I just got her this year but she is really shaping up to be a big girl and good bloomer. I don't have Spirit of Freedom but have been wondering how it would do. Thank you for the report on this beauty. I got Shropshire Lad and have had it over a year. Hardly blooms at all but is super green and healthy and I never spray anything lol. Kinda depressed it never blooms. Maybe it just needs more time. I have been thinking of getting the Wedgewood Austin climber. Anyone have experience with that one? Does it repeat well? How large will it get?

I have a loamy clay here in zone 6. I have tried a number of Austins and I loved them, but I usually ended up with some kind of foliage issue. It's been awhile, so I don't remember what. I keep trying different roses that are thought to be good in a no spray garden and last spring I planted - Savannah and Beverly and Pope John Paul. Savannah is a Kordes - my first. It was enjoyable in it's first season. Pretty foliage and I liked the color and texture of the blooms. It didn't grow too much or produce many flowers, but I didn't expect a lot in it's first year starting off bare root from Palatine. But by the end of the season, it was suddenly showing some problem with one of the canes. Not insects, but disease. I left it alone and just hoped for the best this spring. This spring, it had some leaf buds on it, but they deteriorated as soon as they opened and while the other roses were pushing out more buds and then opening leaves, Savannah did nothing and looked worse. So I decided to cut all the canes back to the ground. And I thought that was the end of it really, but to my surprise, it sprouted new canes - about 3 of them. Right now it's about 6-8" tall and has leafed out and looks okay. Not a great start for a rose though. Beverly is another Kordes and last year it did fine and produced more flowers than Savannah and looked healthy. This year it has filled out with leaves. I usually have roses starting to open by June 1st, so, we'll see how it does this year. The foliage looked clean all season last year and so far this year too. Maybe by the end of this season I'll be able to make a better comparison.