They grow wonderfully here in 8a near Dallas!

I bought a Mayflower after reading that it was hardy in east Texas. It has thrived, but the flowers are less spectacular than some of the other David Austins. I may try another one this spring.

Roselee, I've been thinking of Jude the Obscure ever since I read that its scent is awesome. How do you like it?

Lin

Lin, I absolutely love it. Wonderful scent and color, beautiful cupped form, healthy and floriferous.

WOW! That is awesome! Think I'll add it to my list....

Thanks for sharing, Roselee.

Lin

Thank you all for all the information.
Wow Reselee, its so beautiful and when you say its fragrant and floriferous I want to add it to my list. I saw a picture of Queen of Sweden and liked that too for its upright growth and lovely shade. I think I am going to get some DA's next spring.
All those roses that grow in your yard makes me want to pay a visit :) Thanks again for sharing.

Below is a link to Queen of Sweden on HelpMeFind.

I've found it's helpful to seach the Antique Rose Forum for 'favorite Austin roses' or the name of any rose you are interested in to see how the rose performs for those who are growing it.

BTW, I've been working hard on revamping my garden to accomadate recent rose purchases. I lost a lot of my favorites in the drought of '08 when my knee was bad and I couldn't get outside to water them enough after fertilizing. I didn't realize some of them were dying as the process was so slow over the summer. Got a new knee in Aug of '08 :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Queen of Sweden on HelpMeFind

Austin roses do great here in Austin TX too. They require more water than my other roses, but they reward you with bountiful, beautiful and fragrant blooms.

I have over 60 plus Austins throughout my garden, and I completely agree that Jude the Obscure is a must-have Austin rose. My current favorite is Young Lycidas. The bloom size, color, and fragrance are outstanding!

As suggested above, you should do a search in the Antique Roses Forum. There are plenty of pictures and suggestions, and if I recall correctly, there are quite a few Texans who happily grow Austins.

I would love to hear which Austins you end up purchasing, so please update this thread when you do.

Audrey

Audrey, some of the photos on HelpMeFind show Young Lycidas as having a lavender or light purple phase. Do you find that color often in the flowers of your plant?

Here is a link that might be useful: Young Lycidas on HMF

Hi Roselee,

Good to hear from you again...

I have four Young Lycidas in my garden, two in morning sun only and the other two in all day sun. All four roses stay consistent with their coloring, even in our hot summer months. The dark purple/magenta coloring actually gets deeper in my opinion as the blooms age, but never a light purple or lavender coloring.

I looked at the HMF link and the photos are not similar in coloring to my plants grown here in Texas. The colors on HMF depict a more deep pink to cerise coloring, like Maggie, while my actual plant is dark purple to deep magenta, more like Reine des Violettes.

In regards to the HMF photos, I wonder if this phenomenon may be an effect of camera lighting or region specific growing conditionsâ¦..I donâÂÂt know, but I would recommend YL in a heart beat to anyone wishing to add Austins to their gardenâ¦

Take care,

Audrey

Audrey, Thank you for your post. Please do post some pictures of your garden, I can well imagine how beautiful it must be. I will definetly update this thread when I purchase some DA's.

I go to the Antique Rose forum too, I feel most visitors to the TX forum have similar growing/weather conditions and I think after some point it just gets comfortable hearing back from experienced members like Roselee, Kathy and others..

Thank you all once again.

Audrey, your Young Lycidas flower colors sound similar to what I had in Austin's Prospero (it didn't survive a move) and hope to see in The Prince when I get it. Thanks for the description.

And yes, sometimes red is a hard color to photograph.

We would really like to see pictures of your roses.

Yes, I promise to post more pictures once my garden is deem worthy.

I can't compete with Roselee's garden and other long time gardeners that post here, so I'm a little hesitant to show my work in progress.

But I will take more pics and post them for you all soon...I promise :-)

These are some of my Austins from Spring 2010. More pics to come...

The Alnwick Rose
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Golden Celebration
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Crocus Rose

Darcey Bussell
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Gertrude Jekyll
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Huntington Rose

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And lastly Queen of Sweden
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I will take more photos this coming Spring, so stay tuned.

Hope you find something you'd like to add to your garden.

Take care,

Audrey

Stunningly Beautiful !!! Thank you so much Audrey. I liked the Golden Celbration a lot and I loved Queen of Sweden right from the time I set my eyes on it...

Wow -- thank you for the beautiful photos! All of the roses look great, but I especially like how you can see the sheen on the petals of Darcey Bussell. A lot of cameras don't 'do' red well. Your camera certainly seems to do wonderfully well in that department.

We'll be looking to more next spring. I'd like to see full bush photos to observe the growing habits of some of the newer Austin's that you grow.

Hello Audrey, Just wanted to say your roses are beautiful!! I grow DA english roses too. I noticed yours don't seem to have trouble with blackspot. Any tips on that would be greatly appreciated. I have a real problem with it. Thanks

I want to smell them!! I wish we had a way to do that thru the 'puter! I love my DA roses. Nearly impossible to kill.

Hi Ramona!

So sorry for the late response. Just saw this post today. I've been really busy in the garden, readying it for the big spring flush. Can't wait to share pictures of my updated garden with you all.

Most of my Austins do not have any disease problem whatsoever except for Golden Celebration and Jude the Obscure, which do get heavy blackspot when they are exposed to wet, damp conditions. I've remedied that with weekly sprays of compost tea or alfalfa meal tea. I also add copious amounts of compost directly over my existing wood mulch each season to aid in soil microbial activity.

I would love to hear other forum members' secrets to a healthy garden too. Maybe I should start a new thread.

Take care,

Audrey

I love Austins, and a select few of them are my absolute favorite roses in the garden, but some of them are absolute dogs here in Texas. If you narrow down a list of what you like, please post and I'll comment on which ones I've had.

My secret to a healthy rose garden is plenty of tea roses and china roses. Both classes are antiques that LOVE Texas conditions and bloom their hearts out till we get nights down to 27 degrees.
The Austins are a risk- none are really healthy, but some are so fragrant that it's worth it. (Jude the Obscure, Mary Magdaline, Scepter d Isle, Tamora). And like I said, others are just awful, though I'm sure they are beautiful in areas with cooler night time temps. I'm too lazy and have too many gardens to spray anything so there are lots of roses that have gotten the boot from my yard over the years!

I also have Tess of the D'urbervilles, which is a dark pink climbing rose, and its doing quite well in a partially sunny/partially shady spot. Its not completely disease resistant but with a little maintenance it stays healthy. I can try to post pictures, but I'm not very good at that. If you go to DA website, they do have recommendations for hot/dry and hot/humid locations. I just planted some Graham Thomas to grow up over an arch, but as they are bare root roses, its too early to tell how they do. I love DA roses so its good to hear of other people having success with them. I really want to find a place to try the Tamora roses too.