What Do You Think About this David Austin Statement?

8 years ago

Our local Ace hardware is a gem. Fully stocked with higher-than-average product lines, and always trained, knowledgable personnel in every dept.

I don't know about other Ace's around the country, but our Ace only carries David Austin roses. I'm not a very talented rose grower - still a neophyte, but growing and learning. I started with a couple of David Austins in 2011, but 1. The deer like them the best, and 2. they were harder to keep looking nice, healthy and thriving than others. I moved on to other roses. After reading from time to time on here about them (and spending time in England observing their very different weather), I decided that my climate is part of the problem - hot, humid summers, lots of blackspot, disease and bugs. I began to think that they are a bit more "needy" than other roses.

So - last Saturday I stopped by the roses at Ace just to make sure I wasn't missing any changes. I happened to talk to the woman who runs the gardening section. She was chatty... She gave a lot of info about where DAs are grown in this country for nursery sales, how they do it, yadee, yadee. One thing she said in all that was that certain DAs are particularly grown for(?), suitable(?) recommended for(?) our area - Mid Atlantic, (central Maryland) - and it's climate. Implication being that those are the ones they sell, and do well here.

Do you think that is true.....? That certain DAs are specifically grown for my area, and thus I will have less problems with those choices than maybe the ones I started with (which I can't even remember now). Some of the ones they carry are Graham Thomas, Teasing Georgia (which someone had bought all 8 of), and I decided to buy a Charlotte, b/c I need a couple of yellow roses.

Long story! Thanks for reading.

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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)

8 years ago

For almost all of the second half of the 20th century, the assumption was that anyone remotely serious about roses in the eastern half of the country was going to spray fungicides. While it is fading out, there are still a lot of people who automatically make that assumption. Responsible and knowledgable people here always want to know where people are before recommending roses so they can judge the blackspot pressure, and whether or not somebody is willing to spray. A rose can be a wonderful plant with a regular spray program, and a miserable wretch without it. Unfortunately, almost all Austins fall into the second group in your area. If nurseries only sold roses that could thrive without chemicals, practically the whole industry would collapse. Do I think they are trying to stick to roses that can handle the general climate with spraying? Sure. It's not that big a hardship. However, if you are trying to grow roses without spraying, it's not useful information.

Now this is assuming they are dealing with Star or somebody else who knows something. The 'official' Austin lists for difficult sites are notoriously strange. The usual assumption is that they are trying to extrapolate from UK conditions to US with the predictable outcome. It has been suggested though, that the real process involves a quantity of Guinness and a dartboard.

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Comments (7)

Buford_NE_GA_7A
8 years ago
8 Teasing Georgias! Yikes. Maybe he needs a barrier for an annoying neighbor.

Not to doubt the person at Ace Hardware, but they might just be telling you what the DA salesman told them. And maybe those are the best selling roses. Most roses would perform differently in different climates, but I think most DAs are pretty much the same. Maybe she meant that the weather in your area is comparable to the UK where they were bred (but they are actually grown in Texas for US sales).
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Some while ago I came across a horticultural journal article about the original Earthkind study (they did not use the term Earthkind in the article, but it was pretty clear that that's what it was). I just looked at it again, and see that they used drip irrigation in the first two years and no supplemental water after that. They used both own root and grafted cultivars in the study, but not a direct comparison of own root and grafted for the same cultivars. Overall, the own root roses did better. I remembered that in addition to no pesticides that they did not fertilize; I had not recalled that they did not amend the soil, although they did mulch with organic material ( interesting, since the Earthkind people recommend amending the soil, perhaps that was another study). One reason (previously auto-corrected to Ionesco, I hope not relevant to the topic at hand) I liked reading the study was learning which roses had been studied and had not made the grade. Back to the trial apparently currently running, many of the plants had tags on them from the David Austin people, so I suspect they are grafted. I didn't see any Chamblee's tags, but I know that they have provided roses for past studies. These were big plants for plants that had to have been planted this spring. As with the previous study, they have 4 ( sometimes I only saw 3) plants for a cultivar. Somewhere I had read that they are testing in people's gardens these days, so maybe there are more plants elsewhere. I'm not familiar with all the David Austin roses but I saw many familiar names. Here is a link that might be useful: Performance of Garden Roses in North-central Texas under Minimal Input Conditions
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nikthegreek
8 years ago
Overgeneralizations usually lead nowhere. Although my climate is nothing like yours, it is nothing like England either. Some of the newer Austins are some of my healthiest roses. DA have been breeding roses since the 60s and generalizing about hundreds of roses is not helpful at all. Most breeders nowdays take disease resistance seriously in their breeding program and that applies to DA too. Having said that no breeder can breed for a climate and location much different than where he is breeding. My recommendation is to go for DAs introduced in the last 15 years if you are very worried about health issues and read in here and in HMF about the particular rose before commiting to it. Same applies to any rose really.
User
8 years ago
...hot humid climate and England don't really go together... I can't imagine it's anything like Maryland... it'll be hot, rainy and humid tomorrow for some of us here.... next week, I shall probably have the heating back on for a day or two..... things blow through... I don't think we get the bugs either that I read about so often... apart from aphids...a caterpillar here and there... not much else bothers my roses to be honest...
KarenPA_6b
8 years ago
I have started growing roses for about 3 years. I was introduced to Austin roses two years ago. I must say the DA roses do really well for me, better than the hybrid teas. They bloom more and pests don't seem to be as interested in them as the hybrid teas. I think that you should give DA roses a try. If they do well in my area (SE PA), they should do well for you too.
dublinbay z6 (KS)
8 years ago
Many of DAs newer roses are much more bs resistant than the old "favorites." After checking around carefully with others on this forum, I say you should order two or three of the newer ones and try them out. It is possible that the newer ones might, in some cases, work fairly well for you.

Here are a couple of my newer and best (bs-resistant) DAs.

Lady of Shalott

Queen of Sweden

Munstead Wood (dark red) and behind it (to the left), Wedgewood Climber (pink/pastel).

Those DAs are quite bs-resistant in my region 6--some of the "tougher" DAs I've tried to grow in the past. Can't guarantee what they will do in your area--but one or two might be worth a try.

Good luck.

Kate
jjpeace (zone 5b Canada)
8 years ago
I agree it depends on the climate. Up here where I live (Canada), the Austins available here does pretty well. It won't get monstrous (like our neighbours down south) and it is quite manageable on its own. The Austins I have grown does get bs later in the season, same as my other non-Austins but they are more shrubby which I like. In general, there is a rose for most growing zones. What may do well in may area may not in yours and vice versa. That is why forums like this one exist so we can find out what does well in similar zones.

Re: Teasing Georgia. I would definitely mass plant this one if I have the space. It is very fragrant in my garden. I can smell the tea fragrance before the buds even open. Since I live in a cold zone, I don't have to worry about it being a monster.

What Do You Think About this David Austin Statement?

mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)

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Buford_NE_GA_7A

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