I live in zone 10 and have had luck with my Austins grafted on Dr Huey. You can order them directly from David Ausitns roses online. They have excellent customer service there. I originally had two own roots from Heriloom roses and they never bloomed. Once in a blue moon. My Glamis Castle died and my St. Cecilia is just sitting there two years later with a few stems and no flowers. Still small as can be. I then ordered 4 bare root grafted roses from DA and they have all done well. But by far the best performer was my Huntington Rose (pictured). She was listed in the special zone 9-10 list on DA's website and she has out performed my other 3. The other three are doing well but not nearly as many blooms as Huntington. Because of this i went back and ordered 3 more roses specifically from their list of warm climate roses. They are Mary Rose, Abraham Darby (supposedly one of the best DAs out there) and Darcy Bussell. Their list can be found here http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp?PageId=2063 on the bottom half. I'd really like to try a david austin on Fort. roots. Just to see if it makes a big difference. I've heard dr huey does well in Florida too (second best) so I wonder if it makes a huge difference (i have a few teas that are on fort and they do pretty much the same as all my huey roses, no real difference that i can tell). I wish I had more space! I'd have a hundred roses and half of them would be Austins. Here is a link that might be useful: DA's for our climate

"Propagation: Rosa Damascena is propagated through one year old stem cuttings. It can also be propagated through the divisions of old plant, lateral sprouts with roots and seeds. Stem cuttings are collected at the time of pruning in mid October to end of December; 20 cm long, 0.75-1.50 cm thick cuttings are planted in nursery; 2/3 of the stem length is inserted into soil. IB A @ 200-250 ppm is given to induce rooting. These cuttings are ready after one year for transplanting into main field." http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2478/V10133-010-0032-4 ---------------------------------------------- " The cultivars and ecotype of Rosa damascena Mill. have been grown by using cutting or two old-suckers for many years" "Stem cuttings are collected at the time of pruning in mid October to end of December; 20 cm long, 0.75-1.50 cm thick cuttings are planted in nursery; 2/3 of the stem length is inserted into soil. IB A @ 200-250 ppm is given to induce rooting. These cuttings are ready after one year for transplanting into main field." "Rooted stem cuttings are taken out from nursery and put in the pits." "The best time of transplanting of rooted cuttings in the field is mid of November to mid January. " http://www.plantsrescue.com/tag/damask-rose/

I think it really depends on many factors. I garden in Zone 5 WI. I have probably 70 Austins, not really sure at the moment.... I have a combination of both grafted (on Dr. Huey) and own root. I believe the majority are own root. I have never lost a rose to winter kill (knock on wood). I hope I didn't just jinx myself.... I make sure to really bury the grafted ones deep during planting. I also plant the own roots fairly deep. I do not use rose cones or anything of that nature. Mine usually are protected by snow or leaves. Some areas are protected from the wind by the house, garage etc....But others are right out in the open. I can get a lot of die back though on some of them. I just prune off all the dead canes in the Spring, fertilize well, and they all come back for me with no problems. As far as blackspot goes, mine stay pretty clean through most of Summer, but they can start blackspotting toward the end of Summer. We can get pretty high humidity here. I don't spray regularly. I think I sprayed twice last year. Some of them blackspot a lot more for me that others. Some of my favorites include PAK, LEH, LOS, and Boscobel. I also believe your soil will really affect how they perform. I am constantly feeding my soil with coffee grounds, egg shells, banana peels, manure, alfalfa meal, and many other components.

All the plants have buds and Munstead Wood is the first to bloom-- 9 flowers have opened and 9 more developing. I gave them water and nothing else for weeks, then as they started getting bigger, sprinklings of bloodmeal and half-doses of fish emulsion. At some point I tried giving them a bit of diluted potassium with indeterminate results. (Maybe because I got muriate of potash instead of the potassium chloride, sulfide or whatever it is that's supposed to be better?) Once I gave them water left over from cooking beans (no salt) and they seemed to like it fine. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the whole plants yet, but they do seem like they are taking off. Though Munstead Wood, Lady of Shallot, and Jude the Obscure are growing with big open spaces between canes-- I don't know if these are the reported David Austin octopus arms, or pest damage to terminal shoots that would otherwise fill out the center of the bush, or particular growth habit in Houston, TX weather, or if it's just something it'll grow out of after a year and some pruning. The other, younger two plants that I've messed with the least, Lady Emma Hamilton and Brother Cadfael, have much more attractive foliage and look more bushy/shrubby. LEH has sixteen buds already and is nicely rounded, while BC, who has been growing tall thick canes and took the longest to leaf out and bud, looks more like a sturdy column shape. They are all at least two to three and a half feet off the soil level. So far the scent on MW is very sweet, like berry candy and rosewater (rather than dried rose petals), and seems stronger after a fish emulsion feeding. Can't wait for the others! Thanks to everyone for being present on this forum. I've been going through a lot of posts and learning a bunch!