I posted these details on a recent Austin thread: I am in the mid-Peninsula a block from the Bay. Summer highs rarely get into the 70s (F) and we get light frost for a few days in winter. Powdery mildew is a menace and anthracnose and cercospora trouble the roses that are prone to "spotting". Rust has been a problem on some of my roses the last two years. My garden is no-spray. Belle Story - grafted. 10+ years. Spring and fall flushes with smattering of blooms in between. Good health but is prone to cercospora spots in summer. It has earned its place in my small suburban garden because of its enchanting and breath-taking blooms. Great fragrance, as well. Molineux - I have 2. Grafted (10+ years) and own root (4th year) and . Always in bloom. Good health. My workhorses. the grafted rose is 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. The own-root is 5 X 4 (it was bought as a band and was very slow in growth the first 2 years). Geoff Hamilton - own root; 5th year. Gorgeous blooms. A once-bloomer for me. I have seen it grown grafted in a warmer summer area where it has 3 big flushes. Will be gone from my garden if the drought in California persists. Crown Princess Margareta - Mine is own root in its 4th year. Good spring flush and then all she wants to do is throw out long thin thorny canes; I have almost no rebloom from her the rest of the year. I am tired of constantly hacking her back in attempts to control her. A few miles inland, a CPM, grafed and grown as a shrub, is almost constantly in bloom. CPM will be gone from my garden after this spring. Mary Rose - own root; 4th year. So far, she is staying small. Great fragrance, good rebloom and a healthy plant. A favorite. Abraham Darby - own root, 4th year. I am trying to grow it as a small climber. It is generous of bloom and has decent health. The blooms leave something to be desired (mine don't always look like the pics on HMF) and rust has shown up on it this past year. I would replace it with a better rose but for its fragrance... Young Lycidas - grafted, 4th year. Good repeat and blooms are very fragrant. Color is lovely - magenta-purple with a silvery sheen. Foliage is, well, weird. Crinkley and appears diseased but is not. Needs staking as the canes are pencil-thin and can't hold the heavy blooms. Strawberry Hill - grafted; 3rd year. Fragrant blooms in shades of pink, peach and lilac depending on the weather. Rivals Molineux in generosity of bloom. Nasty, wicked thorns. Ackward when I grew it as a shrub - pencil thin canes with huge trusses of blooms face down in the mud; I now grow it as a small climber and it's a constant chore to keep tying back and controlling the canes. Unfortunately, prone to mildew and rust in my garden. (I hadn't seen rust in my garden before). I am hoping it becomes more disease resistant with age as its foliage when not mildewed or looking like cheetos is absolutely lovely. The Wedgwood Rose - Grafted; 3rd year. This rose has me completely baffled. I get 4 flushes but each flush has only 3-4 blooms. The size of blooms have ranged from the size of a quarter to 4 inches. Disease-free. The following were added to my garden March of last year, so they are still new. I am adding my observations on health and bloom this past year. All are grafted. Princess Anne - lovely shade of magenta-pink. Much admired by visitors. I can't detect a fragrance but most others say it is strong and very pleasant. Good-looking shrub. Canes are covered in thorns but they are not vicious. Stopped blooming after October. Wollerton Old Hall - lovely blooms. Great fragrance. Bloomed well into December. Is my favorite of the new four. Not low-thorn, as noted in David Austin's catalog. Lady Emma Hamilton - would grow it for the fragrance alone. Repeat seems to be very good. She has been troubled by cercospora or anthracnose. It is particularly bad this spring. Princess Alexandra of Kent - big blooms with a color range of pink and coral. Fragrance is iffy but, when there, it is pleasant. Has been constantly in bloom and is blooming now. Unfortunately, prone to powdery mildew. It's in an east facing bed and I will be moving it to a south-facing one to see if I can keep the PM in check. Also, the blooms have a tendency to ball so I am hoping the south side will help in that regard as well. (I try not to get roses with a high petal could but I guess I wasn't paying attention when I ordered this one.) Mine is already 7 feet wide and 5 feet tall. And, I have 2 - both placed in the front of the garden bed. Sigh. My favorites - Wollerton Old Hall, Princess Anne, Belle Story, Mary Rose Workhorses (for continuity of bloom) - Molineux, Strawberry Hill Top in fragrance - Lady Emma Hamilton, Abraham Darby, Young Lycidas, Wollerton Old Hall (disclaimer: some people have intensely disliked its scent) Jo

I have seen some Abraham Darby Roses getting rust! But most often they do really well ... In some gardens I have had to remove Abraham Darby since it got rust that spread to other roses. In a group planting of 7 only one of them got rust, the others were clean. I think sometimes it is the location ... othertime it is that particualr plant that is susceptible. Like Jeri said my Othello always gets rust, but I watches it when I see the orange spots and remove the infected leaves and spray. Then they are clean - other Austins that have been removed for getting rust are William Morris and Sophys rose. Except for Othello I do not tolerate roses that gets rust in garden. Sweet juliet has been remarkably resistent to disease here but it is hard to say if it will do well for you... in your area. Always listen to local experience!

This rose sounds like it would benefit greatly from a change in location. Increased sunlight, ventilation, etc. Although all my Darby's are zone 5 hardy, they are in prime real estate. I think it is a toss up between moving it to a large pot and letting it settle in before the frost OR babying it in it's current location. The ability for a rose to tolerate winter depends greatly on the health of the plant. I have overwintered many tender limping along roses and i must say they fare better in the garage. If you can leave the root ball intact when moving it, dig as far out as practical, disturb feeder roots as little as possible, then I feel the gargage may be the best bet for next spring.

As Jim says, look to economic explanations. The mass market producers in the US until quite recently were interested only in producing and promoting modern bush roses and climbers. Very small companies, motivated by love as much as anything, took up the role of propagating old roses, shrubs, and little known varieties. It takes less room and less skilled labor to produce roses from cuttings. If it's an old wives' tale that grafted roses are short-lived, it's also false that roses generally do better grafted. Modern bush roses, perhaps so, and some other varieties, but many roses grow strongly on their own roots.