Kate, I only hope it will grow same as here in WA. I just got my William Morris to lean on the fence and I can warmly recommend it. It will grow tall, really tall!
- Tom

Hi Kate-welcome to the forum-this is your first step to a serious rose addiction. :)
I grow William Morris in a large(50cms)terracotta pot on our front landing.
He is quite happy and healthy and I adore his blooms and perfume.
I have a makeshift trellis behind him as he is a short climber with long canes.
I think he will give you much pleasure.

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best regards
sandie

I think you picture has really sold it to me Sandie - he is gorgeous!

Its funny how your picture and some others I have seen I have been quite apricot - whereas the one that I have seen is white with a blush middle. [Helpmefind has both sorts one their site in the photos.]

Kate

Hi Kate
WM is VERY changeable colourwise-sometimes pale pink and cream or pale apricot and cream and then anywhere in between
right up to the pictured colour.
Always beautiful at any tone or hue.
regards
sandie

Welcome to the Forum - I'm new too and was also wanting to have a William Morris in a pot on my back landing...but, now that I hear it can get really tall I will have to rethink this idea. I am curious as to how it handles these really hot Melbourne days..like this weekend, might be one of the hottest ever recorded I reckon.
Good luck with your WM rose - Abraham Darby, another David Austin rose - is so much like it - can be a small pillar rose so I've read. My colleague at work has one and it's utterly beautiful & so fragrant, even when the flowers fade and get petals get slack.
Janine

Janine, pleasure to see you again!
Considering how hot summers are, and how tall many English roses can grow, I believe some "smaller" English roses are ideal for pots.
Christopher Marlowe, Wildeve, Miss Alice, Noble Antony for example. Even William Shakespeare 2000 can be tamed for such a purpose.
- Tom

I finally got a WM from the Rosarie down in Mornington and it is on my front verandah - in the last fortnight it has just become thick with buds! Everything else is looking burnt and sad, but WM is going great guns.

Oh gawd, this IS good news and I thought my John Clare (DA) rose was only doing well because it is in the filtered afternoon sun/shade of a large shrub (a Virgilia). Maybe I should give them a bit more credit !
I noticed at the nursery in November in Melbourne that a lot of the DA's had faded almost to white - especially the yellow/apricot varieties--which seriously put me off "English" roses. (I bought the deep pink John Clare 18 months ago when I knew almost nothing about English roses.)

Janine, don't forget that many roses in nurseries don't get good attention at all; they just get basic care. They'll all look much healthier and better in your garden. Also, pigment fading is true for all gentle coloured roses under the sun; even tough pink rugosas changed their hue in my garden when compared to their first blooms months ago.
Rose pigment was not made to last. For your own test, try some colour print on paper, which was made to last: put it outside for 7 days and it will change its colours beyond recognition.
UV radiation is a silent killer that destroys our tissue and protective pigment and due to our geographic location, it's especially dangerous. No offences, ladies and gentlemen, but that's why we Aussies look older than people of same age up there in Europe or continental US.
- Tom

Thanks Tom - and the nursery people don't move pots around to the sunny spots when they get home from work either, just so their beloved roses get that extra bit of sunshine!!! (My husband thinks I'm mad; I'm always shifting pots around!) Re: sunshine: many years ago I made friends with a woman who had grown up in Perth, same age as myself, and her skin was easily 8-10 years older than my Melbourne skin (gawed, what a female thing to say, sorry). Yes, that sun's a killer alright. I now keep the sunscreen with my secateurs - my shoulders have been copping it lately. Janine

After all the encouragement, I got one and have been growing him for a few months. This is a pair of his blooms.

{{gwi:2112257}}

Any other DA recommendations?

Sincere congrats Kate!! WM looks absolutely wonderful.
Whatever you are doing is working.How exciting!
Great photo.
BTW the Peter F's are doing well. We have planted one and it has about 3-4 buds already and the other one we have left in the pot...trying to find a spot!This one is also going well.
When the blooms open I will post a photo!
How is Yolande dA going?Any buds yet?
cheers
Michelle

William Morris is just so happy here, he is starting to get a bit leggy, as he has odd spurts of growth but he is so floriferous that I can't bring myself to prune.

He is next to Emanuel [another DA] which is quite a neatly growing bushand which grew dense with new leaves, and I didn't think it would bloom. Then one day it decided to bloom, and it was just thick with gorgeous apricot flowers for about a month. I am quite happy with the DAs I have!

Yolande is growing away happily - no buds yet, but as she is the biggest thing in my yard except for the Apple tree, she looks very majestic even without buds![Furthermore, I can't believe how all it takes is to tell a plant that it is leaving me for shores unknown, to make it spark up production of growth ... It's so unfair I tell you!]

* Pegasus is just great! It grows tall too, but has denser foliage. It's very disease resistant, great fragrance. And yes, put it in semishade and it will grow like mad.
* Another great rose is Leander. it's not the most remontant one, like new varieties, but I like it because it's one of those landmark English roses, like Chianti and Constance Spry. I was just surprised how quickly it grows! In just 3 months that little bush of 60 cm is now over 2 m tall! Baby nuclear:-)
* Cymbeline has great scent (myrrh and fruit), and unique colour too. Grows very tall. Use it as a climber (if you can still find it -- it's rare today).
* Sweet Juliet has the most incredible lemon fragrance I've ever experienced. Grows tall too, 2m, and wide, and its scent .. hmmm, enchanting! I can't pull my nose out of those blooms!
* My Crown Princess Margareta grew extra 1m in just 4 months and I'm very happy with it. It's one of the bigger roses, has strong and wide growth and I warmly recommend it.
There are dozens of others too. They're all great, and all deserve their place in the garden. I suggest you -- go and see them and then deciide. Don't look in those catalogues -- I always change my mind when visitng rose nursery because there's always something else you'll see and learn ... and recognise.
Maybe some love at first sight?
;-)
- Tom

Great to hear all the feedback - thanks Tom especially for all the info on DA roses. I have bought myself an Abraham Darby (in a pot, now planted)and oh, my, the fragrance is heavenly!
Am a bit concerned about balling in the rain though. Anyone else had that problem with this one, or any other full petalled "English" roses of David Austin's?

Janine

hi tom,

i'm from perth too. i just cannot find crown princess margareta in nurseries around here. can you please tell me where you got it from?
and please show pics of your CPM if possible, because i have heard that it doesn't do very well in perth.

karima