The Canadian Nursery, Pickering Nurseries grows Many Austin Roses, including Sharifa Asma among others. Many of my roses come from Pickering and I also suplied them with budwood for three of the Griffith Buck varieties that they now offer. Prior to budding and selling the varieties I supplied the wood for, they wanted to know the origins of the mother plants, they took two years to observe the plants that they budded and I know for a fact that they sent the wood I gave them for virus indexing. If you want virus free Austin varieties, they are a very reputable supplier. Below is what they say to the frequently asked question: Q: There's a variety I want but I'm concerned about Rose Mosaic Virus? I've heard that Canadian roses are virus-free, can I be sure? A: "We are absolutely sure that we have no virused plants in our fields. The budwood we receive from our sources is Virus-indexed and therefore virus free. Aside from that, we cover many miles walking our field inspecting the plants for issues such as mislabeled/ stray plants and disease/ pest infestations. New varieties are heavily scrutinized. We want to make sure that the variety is a good one and to be sure that it is healthy and lives up to its description." Cheers, Rideau Rose Lad

Wow, thanks for all the feedback, that will definitely be a lot to digest! I guess I should add my short summary of the Austin's I've grown for anyone else researching DA's for this season: Ambridge Rose - Started off in a poor location but since I moved it to a pot it has blossomed. Short grower of 2-3 ft. Once I rid it of rust it has done quite well. Beautiful, large cupped flowers of pale pink cream centers. Petal edges are often scalloped. Medium myrhh scent. Fairly thornless, lovely foliage. Benjamin Britten - Very thorny, strong and upright plant. Color is a very intriguing blend of a saturated raspberry with a tint of orange. Amazing cent is fruity and strong, of apples to me. No disease. Tall growth of 5 - 6 ft. Lots or flowers, ok repeat. Brother Cadfael - Grown as climber, very stout and vigorous. 2-3 major flushes. Huge chalice cupped pink to dusty pink blooms. Completely thorn-free. Interestingly this year, the first flush was scented strongly of myrrh, the second flush had lost that scent and was purely tea. Flowers crisp in heat but fail to full open without plenty of sunshine. Jude the Obscure - Doing great now that I removed the ivy and roots around it, took a bit to get established after ridding it of rampant rust. Grown as a climber, around 6-7 ft in partial shade. Beautiful cupped blossoms with a delectable fruity scent. The very tangy scent is probably the favorite of all my Austins. Unfortunately it seems to start losing its petals as soon as it is plucked. Very few thorns. Ok repeat. Kathryn Morely - Fairly thorny, especially around the base canes. Lovely, delicate blossoms of pink fading to white. Repeats well and often. Mine is a bit straggly since it was planted in a relatively sunny/hot area. Grown as climber, must have hit 8-10 ft this summer. Very light, almost undetectable scent. Carding Mill - My current favorite. Very few thorns, no disease. Constant flush of blooms, huge blossoms, very strong myrrh scent. The color of the blooms is amazing, fading from orange to pink to cream. When the blossoms age they turn a pale apricot, but retain its petals all the way until the end. Lovely foliage. Growth of around 5-6 ft. I love how the petal edges are scalloped, and young flowers often remind my of water lilies. Sweet Juliet - Amazing scent when you can get it to bloom. Mine seems much more bent on throwing out canes and vast amounts of foliage after the first year of blooms. Also seems prone to powdery mildew and BS. Lovely multicolor blooms that are medium to small size. Bushy, growth that needs to be well trimmed. The Mary Rose - This is probably the best bloomer I've had, with the entire bush constantly covered in peony like pink blooms - also always my first Austin to bloom each yr. Each flush the plant which I've grown as a nice arching bush (canes arch beautifully) is completely covered in medium pink flowers that gradually fade to very pale pink. Scent to me is like soap from a boutique shop. Fairly thorny and prone to BS and mildew. Generous Gardener - Tiny own root plant, seems to be a pretty good bloomer. I know I'll love the blooms, now if I can just get the plant to grow. Charles Renne Macintosh - Own root, young and struggingly against mildew. Interesting color of flowers Graham Thomas - Own root, doing quite well. Few thorns and very nicely formed yellow flowers. Lovely tea scent. Golden Celebration - Fairly good repeat, lovely scent. Nice bushy growth. Abraham Darby - picked this one up at costco w/ Golden Celebration. Very vigorous growth, although the huge and heavy blooms are too much for he canes to support. Lovely color and strong fruity scent. The Ingenious Mr Fairchild - twiggy growth with a lot of blooms. Problem is that the spindly shoots are too weak to support the heavy blooms. The scent is an interesting mix of raspberry and others. Fairly thorny, vigorous growth. Can't help putting out its unique and lovely blossoms. No disease. Geoff Hamilton - Nice bushy growth, this one has some lovely flowers. A bright pink inside its compact petals fades quickly to quite. Lovely blooms. St Cecilia - The blooms were pretty nice and it was doing pretty well until it looks like it has succumbed to some sort of spider mite, or something. Blooms turn brown in the bud and the canes and leaves are sticky all over - haven't had the time to diagnose what has happened to it. Othello - Interesting almost pinkish red blooms. We were hoping for a dark red but this wasn't it. Vigorous growth, but holy crap.. the thorns. I had never seen such a thorny plant.. it was growing double rows of thorns rather like the teeth of a great white shark. The original canes had few thorns, but the new ones you could barely see the cane itself. Unfortunately the thorns and pinkish color caused us to give it away. Scepter'd Isle - Lovely petal formation, but the flowers don't seem to last, especially when cut. Currently throwing 10-14 ft tall canes with few flowers. We're waiting to reposition it at which point it'll probably be pruned back very heavily or turned into a climber. Not much scent to the blooms, although plant is disease free and almost thornless.

Heuschkeliana is also an easy grower and bloomer. Some favorites of mine from that list, although they have not bloomed yet for me, are rigida 1424, aff. parasitica 'Lao 2', sp. Ban Nong Ngoy, and acuta 0079. They all grow fast and easily. I don't grow schneei, but paziae (close relative) is one of my favorites. I've done many trades and no one ever requests Lao 2, but I bet it's because they have no idea how pretty its growth habit is. ^_^ It's one of my favorites to gaze at. Mine grows its thick, heavily speckled, spade-shaped leaves in the most massive tight rosette before progressing up into a vine. I do not find pusilla or walliniana easy to grow, although they are not monsters either - just more particular. I used to think dasyantha easy, but we are always in a fight these days. I think it's best grown somewhere it dries out fast, because it used to love being right up against the glass of some extremely bright east windows. Megalantha does grow fast and easily, but I have always grown it in high humidity conditions, and I suspect it dislikes being meddled with, because whenever I do meddle with it, it drops leaves. If I just leave it strictly alone, though, it's one of my most aggressive plants. I'm really still in the process of understanding this one. Also, it looks pretty much just like paziae when not in bloom, except more delicate. Finally, I just got limoniaca in a trade, and it was totally my favorite of the bunch. Just from looking at its leaves, I suspect it will be easy to grow, but I just wanted to advise you that it's prettier in person than it looks in photographs. Good luck with your selections! Just get some fast bloomers to keep you company while you wait for the others to take their time. ^_~

Well, I couldn't wait till the weekend. I got out of work a few hours early, so I popped in to the garden center on the way home. I didn't see any Cuphea 'David', but I got 2 'Totally Tempted' Cuphea Llavea. They were red, and the tag said "attracts hummingbirds" so I bought 2 in and put them in a pot with a Heliotrope, which was purple and said attracts hummers as well. I also picked up 3 Crocosmias, 1 Lucifer, 1 Llittle Redhead and an Emberglow. I'll plant those this weekend instead. I also picked up 2 - 8oz mini saucer type feeders for $4 each. They werent top of the line, but they'll be great for suplimental, if my other gets full-up. Woo-Hoo!!!