I have found the English Roses to be a disappointment as cut flowers. It isn't just the short vase life, a lot of them have weak stems too that can't hold the large blooms upright for flower arranging. I'm moving away from them because of these faults. There are a few exceptions. Of the David Austin roses that I've grown FAIR BIANCA (white) and EVELYN (apricot pink) did the best as cut flowers, but good luck finding them in commerce. The hybrid tea ROUGE ROYALE (red) looks like an Austin rose but does extremely well as a cut flower. I can get blooms that last a week in a vase. GOLDEN CELEBRATION (yellow) is great if you live in an area not plagued by black spot. To condition the vase water add a pinch of sugar and one or two drops of bleach. Don't forget to recut the stems under water in the sink and then immediately plunk the roses into the vase. If air gets into the stem then it will form a bubble, travel up the stem, and collapse the bloom. Not a big deal if you only want one or two days of vase life, but I grow roses as much for cut flowers as garden specimens.

I wish they could show ALL the entries. I'd love to sort through all the great Austin pics.

Wait until spring to do any pruning because cutting them back now will trigger new succulent growth that could be damaged during freezes this winter. That said you may want to just let Abraham Darby be the short climber it wants to be by letting the long canes arch over (if you have the room) or tie them to a short trellis, although some people keep cutting it back to make it into a tall bush. Jude may throw out a long cane occasionally which you can cut back in the spring or summer. It is more likely to be happy as a bush than Abraham Darby. These are two of my favorite Austin roses, by the way. It may be that you have flower beetles rather than Japanese beetles. Both are a pain to have in the garden, but flower beetles are less of a pain I think. They are easier to control by hand picking and spraying the ground with beneficial nematodes in spring and summer to kill the grubs from which they hatch. After treatment with beneficial nematodes a couple of times I didn't have flower beetles (Euphoria sepulcralis, Fabricius) for years, but they turned up again last year so I treated again. You can google them to see what each beetle looks like. Here is the flower beetle on Prairie Sunrise last summer: Applying insecticides won't do much good for beetles, but unfortunately they will kill honey bees and other beneficial insects. You can buy beneficial nematodes at plant nurseries or on line. They will stay in the soil and do their jobs of killing a lot of unwanted insects that live in the soil like grubs, fleas and ants as long as the soil doesn't dry out. Here is a link that might be useful: How to Use Beneficial Nematodes

I am not very familiar with rose diseases. I am very new to growing roses. I have one knock out rose bush and 2 pink drifts. Could it be possible that since I planted the rose right next to the compost bin that it is receiving too much fertilization or getting burned from the deep litter waste that I collect from the chicken coop and incorporate into the compost? Also, at the very beginning of the growing season I noticed one of my peonies on the far side of the compost bin had some type of virus. I used an organic fungicide on it, "Garden Safe Fungicide 3" and within 2 weeks the peony had greatly improved. I had also used it on the rose Bush since it says it is safe for roses too, but no improvement. Maybe it could be the same virus? I know i am grasping at straws here, but just really want to save this bush.