Danny, I have looked up some photos of my WS2000 to show you his growth habit and how fast he has developed (at least in my garden!). He looks like one of the more vigourous Austins for us and should get bigger with age. We use horse manure and our own compost to amend the planting hole and alfalfa tea twice in the season for a boost (no chemical fertilizers). As for colour, he is challenging to photograph but the blue-purply blooms in the second picture are fairly representative, although he can look more dark red in the sun. I think this is a spectacular rose and certainly one of my top favourites. WS2000 - his first spring in my garden 5 weeks later: In late July, strong cane growth and notice the masses of buds at the ends of each cane: Sadly in September a freak windstorm caused poor William to lose many canes. They were heavy with blooms and broke near the base. Here's what was left after the carnage: And finally, WS2000 as he looked yesterday, in his second year in the ground. To give you an idea of size, the tree stump is 3 feet high and William is now approx. 3+ feet high and 5 feet wide: Hope your own-roots do well for you. I have noticed that our cutting-grown plants soon outshine their parent but need a couple of seasons to get established. MayBee

Hi Posyplanter: I didn't see your post until now. You are right about own-root better in the long run. Here's a quote: "Own-root tend to live longer due to not having a bud or graft union that calluses and hardens over time leaving little space on which new shoots can emerge." I bought Heirloom Rose for $4 grafted at Walmart. Half of the rootball died, so it's one branch sticking far to the left, very lop-sided. It's a total wimp compared to my other own-roots. Heirloom nursery said the same, "Roses that are on their own roots will naturally send up shoots from the soil. Over time, this creates a much shapelier bush than a grafted rose. Add to this increased vigor and bloom, longer life expectancy, and the elimination of rootstock suckers: own-root roses clearly provide more value over time." First year William Shakespeare 2000 was wimpy, 4 blooms, planted late summer. Second year it's very cute and compact in morning sun - with at least 10 blooms per flush. It's small like a mini-rose, but loaded. I saw pictures of Grafted WS 2000 with long octopus canes both in HMF and in forums, and I'm glad I have mine as own-root. My 14 own-root Austins are all healthy, zero diseases here, which includes Golden Cel., which I posted its pic. taken this Oct. in the thread, "Austin or Alba for partial shade."

>Are you certain it was sawflies? The larva eat leaves instead of canes, and the damage appears as skeletonized leaves instead of chew marks on canes. Mature sawflies are very tiny wasps, and I don't believe wasps attack rose foliage. Hi Laura, Sort of certain??? :) That was a best guess based on the medium-sized green larvae I saw everywhere and that were causing much rose damage here in 2009. This was damage that someone who is an expert at the Beales' forum (an employee at the Beales' nursery) suggested looked like sawfly damage. My own guess was also based on looking up sawflies in some rose books. I don't think that I'd read anywhere that sawfly larvae won't attack canes, so that's the way I've been thinking of it for some time now. Last year we had a ton of chew marks on canes, as well as a ton of blackened stems, which I thought I'd read was canker caused by the sawflies laying eggs in the canes, either through openings they create by chewing into the canes or by taking advantage of the exposed cut ends of canes. This happened in an area where the rabbits has no access, so it was some insect that was causing the problem. I don't think I've seen any of those chewed cane areas or blackened stems this year. I'm not going to research all that again now, but if you're certain that sawfly larvae can't do any cane chewing, it's a puzzle that for sure I saw the very same kind of larva insect, whatever it's correct name, chewing on a cane--in the active act of cutting into a cane on one rose plant where it left the entire top of the cane hanging down toward the ground, hanging on by the barest of threads. I remember seeing it as it did that work, and then intending to go into the house to get some stuff to use on the rose... and got busy right away with something once back in the house. By the time I got back out with my gardening stuff, the rose's cane had already been severed! I suppose the damage could have been caused by some other kind of green larva that looks just like the sawfly larvae that were covering the rose the Beales' expert commented on? (He saw the damage, not the actual larvae. After his comment, I looked closer and saw the same kind of green larvae, and also enlarged digital photos to see them all over the rose.) I am certain that these larvae--whatever the proper name that identifies them--do cut into rose stems, though I don't have a good way of knowing that the larvae I've observed are actually the same insect that can be identified easily as sawflies when they reach adult maturity. I have also seen the flying mature sawflies (I'm certain of that, because I recognized the pictures posted online and in books), but mostly I have seen a green insect larvae--seen them climbing on canes everywhere and all over the undersides of leaves too. We do also have caterpillers, but they are much larger than the green larvae I'm referring to, and they have noticeable feet. If the larva that cuts stems off/eats leaves also has some feet, they are nothing very noticeable, because I never noticed any. We had a problem with caterpillers and grasshoppers this year, but last year it was sawflies and Japanese beetles. I consulted a good many rose and gardening books here last year in researching the problem, and what I kept reading seemed to confirm that sawfly diagnosis of what it was, so I'm really surprised now to find that all that is wrong. What would you guess the green cane/leaf eating larvae here are? If you're right, whatever those larvae were, that might explain the lack of a worry this year with those same kinds of larvae. That is, perhaps spraying the yard with the nematodes that can handle many chewing insects--but are ineffective against sawflies--helped this year with what was otherwise a huge problem last year? Thanks for your information, Laura! Best wishes, Mary P.S. I forgot to say, last year we had a problem with plain eaten leaves and with skeletonized eaten leaves, both. This year it's just plainly eaten leaves, which the caterpillers are plenty good at producing. I may have seen some skeletonized leaves this year, but offhand, can't recall any.

Thank you for all of your comments an d for looking at thenew kid on my block. I am obviously tickled by the growth in this year since I planted him. He seems happy on the fence. Pat, they don't require any more work from me that iris...in fact, less. Thanks CTC. It was an inexpensive fence that I painted and installed myself, and it is doing just what I wanted it to do. Thanks Julia. He has a beautiful, large bloom. I hope he fills out well, Linda. Thank you Christine and Rita. Rita, you know that garden is my baby, and I am constantly twitching it...just like someone else I know. Thanks Cindy. You see my matching obelisk is now in the rose garden. I am having so much fun with the roses. kay