This plant is too young to express an opinion on. First blooms are often untypical on a young plant. Give it some time. It needs planting in the ground to show its potential. That and judicious structure forming pruning when it gains some strength. Can't help you about the smell, maybe the cat did spray on it.

Possibly mislabeled, but it's way too early to tell.

Teeny immature plant! Poor thang! At this stage, I would pop off any and all further buds, and

This makes me sad. When we purchased this view home that was overgrown and neglected for many years, we began vine and shrub removal so we could view the views. We uncovered a full grown lemon tree, it was that bad. It was winter. Roses were dormant. Who knew? Abraham Darby got kicked to the curb. The previous owner told me at a later date. Bummer. I'm sure your rose will improve with age. Give it some time.

When we grew it, it produced blooms SO large that I had to weight the bottoms of vases with glass marbles, to keep them from tipping over.

Brightstart123,

Abe Darby is a beautiful rose, albeit a bit high maintenance for me--which means blackspot/ fungus treatments pretty much all growing season, which I think is fairly typical for this rose.

The leaves on yours look healthy, so maybe you are expecting too much from a very young rose? Typically it takes a few years for roses, especially own root roses to get going. So be patient. In the meantime, get those guys in the ground in good amended soil with a proper fertilizer. At the very least, get them in proper pots with good soil and appropriate fertilizer, tho I don't see AD belong a good container rose.

Not sure of your experience with roses, so please forgive me if I over step my bounds here..but the conventional wisdom, or saying, I suppose is:

1st year-sleep

2nd year -creep

3rd year - leap

I find that especially true with own root Austin roses. It's certainly not a hobby that I find particularly immediately gratifying--more of a long term thing.

-Adrianne

I agree with Adrianne. I find that austins takes time. Usually the first year is quite forgettable. They really start to show their stuff after three years. After that you will be wowed by them.

Abe is worth the wait. You won't get those huge flowers from a teeny plant like that. After a few years, the big canes come on and then you will get that citrusy/fruity rose perfume Abe is famous for. And just like Jude, the fragrance varies depending on time of year and weather. Abe will not flower with too little water however. I had the same thing happen with many small own root DA roses. You don't get the quality that the rose is famous for until it's gotten comfortable and grown into it's mature size.

Thanks everyone. Yes I have heard they are slow to start but I was just surprised as many of the other Austins I've started in pots have done so well, with good healthy growth and several beautiful flowers as expected. Also the potted ADs I've seen at the rose nursery (where this one came from) are the same size but have the usual huge gorgeous flowers. They are generally pretty well looked after and have nice specialist rose potting mixes and fertilisers, AD's spot in the ground is in preparation at the moment. Obviously I'll give him more time and a good spot in the garden, I was just wondering if this might be typical behaviour for this rose. Looking at the new growth this morning, he looks a touch iron deficient after the heavy rain we have had, so I will try to fix that up too, and remove the remaining buds.

. . . heavy rain . . . <SIGH>

Yes, big sigh! With more on the way unfortunately. Always when everything is just starting to look really nice!

No -- You misunderstand. :-)

I would KILL for a day -- or three -- of "heavy rain."

Oh, sorry :)

It's pretty uncommon here in central Sydney to have such heavy rain and hail, the pics below are from last week. I would happily send some your way if I could!

It's probably reasonable that my Jude is balling so badly, given the weather! Is there anything I can do? Get out there with the hair dryer?! Just kidding. Sort of :)

Did you start your roses from cuttings or were they purchased? I ask because most roses sold in Australia are grafted, whereas in the US they're often own root - mind you, I'm not sure whether that still applies to Austins now - anyway, if they are it could account for the different growth rates.

Comtesse :¬)

Just saw your photos - cross-posted - gee, that was some crazy autumn weather you had last week. Those cars!!! Hope you and your family kept safe from the floods.

Jeri, I'm sure even you people in rain starved SoCal would have second thoughts about welcoming this hail storm at this time of the year (spring for you and me).

Some of my roses are purchased and some are from cuttings - AD was purchased (with great enthusiasm!) He's grafted so yes, that could be a factor. I let the pictured bud open and was happy that at least the fragrance of that flower was much more pleasing :)

Maybe the tomcat moved to the next neighbourhood.

My young plant has bloomed

An infant can't run a marathon; a small, young rose can't produce the flower that a large, established plant can. Patience, grasshopper.

I could hear the iron door clanging shut behind me as I was kicked out of the paradise formerly known as southern California. Sigh....

I had to dig up my AD, and it's still in a pot. It has put out two puny blooms, but the color is very nice.

No. I probably wouldn't enjoy a bad hailstorm -- but even tho our climate continues to change, I'm hoping we won't be gifted with THAT. For that matter, since no moisuture seems to be making it south of Pt. Conception, there's not much to make hail WITH.

I would take the hail if if meant snow for the Sierra Nevada or to fill up some dry lakes. I would sacrifice every one of my spring roses in order to be able to water the plants later on. We are removing roses because there will not be enough to go around. Remember that 'which rose is your favorite game' ? Well it's happening here where only the favorites are going to get any water. These are desperate days. My hope is that a big tree planting effort gets underway to try to get more co2 out of the air. I don't wish more extreme weather for anyone.