Your Evelyns are so luscious! Mine doesn't do all that great here. She is such a diva here. I gave her, her very own 10 ft long fence and espaliered her on it. This was after moving her around various parts of the yard to see where SHE liked it best. She still doesn't bloom all that much. I really wonder if I just got a dud because everyone else's seem so beautiful even in Florida lol. I think I will get a Evelyn or two grafted onto fortuniana and see if that helps her out. I really want an Evelyn that performs nicely!

I can't imagine Evelyn being superceded by The Lady Gardener lol. Is the LG even fragrant? I dont have that one.

Evelyn is definately out of "patent", has been for years. I have been fortunate enough to visit Mr Austins nursery three times. Evelyn was still in the garden 18mths ago, there was a chance that it would be removed to make way for "new" varieties, this comes from a friend at the nursery, so one can assume it was time for Evelyn to go, Mr Austin or his associate breeder "Carl" have produced lots of "look alike" roses since Evelyn. The "general" public want "new" roses every year, the serious gardener wants favourites, sometimes they have memories associated with them, possibly there first rose, maybe grows well for them.

As for the "patent" they last for 20 years unless they are extended. So if you look at this from the business side, DA Roses no longer recieves royalties from his work, which is a costly business, Kordes and Meilands do the same, as do other breeders.

As for 'The Lady Gardener" I saw this whilst it was still under trial and also in the exhibition garden at the nursery. It is not 'Evelyn' it is in my opinion, it is an extention of Evelyn being pink and the color pallete of gardeners is always changing, so maybe "apricot" tones are in. As for 'The Lady Gardener" being sold here in Austalia we will have to wait a couple more years because of our quarantine laws, If we do get it will be on the larger size because of our climate.

Evelyn is occasionally pink, but she is an apricot/peach rose basically, so I don't get your reasoning on that. I understand about royalties and patents and income. Diane

Evelyn is apricot/peach, and occasionally pink...

'Evelyn' is very popular in the USA among rose enthusiasts. I just counted some 20 US nurseries at HMF which sell 'Evelyn'. Even discounting for those which might not still have it, 'Evelyn' is not going to become extinct in North America anytime soon. What I noticed is that 'Evelyn' seems not to like rain very much, but grows very well in the dryer parts of the USA.

Hi Diane, Evelyn is 'pink', she may change color slightly due to cilmatic influences, in England she is pink, in my Australian garden she is pink, sometimes the soils pH may alter that. When Mr Austin released her she was nominated as pink. But as I say cilmatic condtions could change her with what is whithin her parentage.

If Diane says Evelyn is apricot/peach in her locale I think we should accept that David. I wonder if PAoKent is also pink, even though she turns coral?

Lovely photos Diane, strange how they've discontinued it here, although as I say it's still available from other suppliers. My local one here still has it but out of stock until November. I think they must have had a rush on. This rose was highlighted on a t.v. gardening programme a year or so ago by a well known gardening celebrity in her own garden...

I've never thought of 'Evelyn' as pink, so that comes as a surprise to me too David. Most places describe it as apricot or apricot blend, or peachy/pink... in the David Austin rose book it says ''a glowing mixture of apricot and yellow with just a hint of pink''... but it would appear from research that it changes colour with the weather, being a descendant of 'Gloire de Dijon'... like they do...

I have 'The Lady Gardener' here, whilst it forms a shapely shrub with good foliage, and the blooms are similar to what I see on 'Evelyn', I wouldn't have it down as one of my favourites so far, but it's not in the best location to do it justice. Time may tell..

My PAoK has never turned Coral but sometimes a little warmer pink than others. I am in a hot humid locale so it may be different. Evelyn is often peachy here.

Mcnastarnara, I just had an aha moment when you said, "Evelyn might not like rain very much.." maybe thats why she is a diva for me lol. Abe Darby is similar in coloring and does love my climate thus performs very well here. They are both beautiful.

I've been giving her tons of water so far, which worked great with my other Austins. Do you think that she doesn't like being rained on versus dry climate with lots of water? My other Austins seem to like quite a bit more water than average.

Hi Marlorena - I sure hope Evelyn is not going anywhere! At least in the US there would be a DA boycott if that occurred. I mean, she doesn't seem to have the greatest rebloom and isn't the most healthy (but far from the worst) but it's going to take quite the rose to convince anyone that it's been superseded. I have TLG coming soon (3 weeks - woohoo!) but I expect her to be "different", not supersede her. I hope you can get a hold of one.

Diane - I never tire seeing your Evelyns!

Sultry - I have wondered how she would perform on fort. Own root she was already pretty wild but wonder if she'd bloom more.

Evelyn had a bit richer apricot tones in spring and smaller, paler blooms the rest of the season but not the pink tones AD had.

I can't comment on the blooming yet because mine are new. But they are big, fluffy things exploding out of their pots, way bigger than the other roses bought at the same time. She certainly seems vigorous enough to me, at least the bush!

lavenderlace, I think Evelyn might be a desert rose like SDLM. She was wonderful for me in CA. In NY, she does grow back but is clearly not happy. She needs water to make those huge blooms, but wants it at root level only.

Can't be bothered with DA business practices any more. Can't be bothered much with their new breeding either. And no, to my knowledge, Kordes don't do the same at least as aggresively as DA do. You can buy 50+ year old Kordes creations directly from them in Germany and I don't think they blackmail their retailers into not offering their 'superseded' varieties.

Believe me, The Lady Gardener is no Evelyn. Not even close.

Mcnastarana, root level water is exactly what she's getting, thanks! SDLM gets the same and really puts out a lot of blooms. She has scent, but so far, it's not the wonderful scent that I've heard about. Or maybe it's my nose liking different things?

If Evelyn smells anything like Jude the Obscure, I'm going to be thrilled!

I'm so glad I got one a few months ago! She's growing just fine so far. Lisa

All my roses get the same amount of water (I thought, anyway), so no Austins get preferential treatment in that area. But I do think Evelyn likes it hot and dry as far as weather goes. In one bed, I falsely assumed the growth of a couple of trees was causing the shading out of three of my Evelyn plants, not to mention the trees' root competition. These Evelyns were not blooming after they had produced a wonderful spring flush. They seemed to be going almost semi dormant as the summer wore on. This continued for several years, getting slightly worse every year until last August when I discovered that the drip emitters on those Evelyn roses weren't working at all, and even the small sprinklers for the perennials weren't functioning properly. This is not good if you live in a desert. Talk about negligence on my part and false assumptions about what was wrong with Evelyn. I immediately started using a hose and sprinkler on these roses, and within two weeks the Evelyns were sending out monster canes, followed by blooming at warp speed. The three huge blooms being held by me (the arm) in the photo above were a product of just some water for Evelyn. I'm not even sure the tree shade had much to do with the situation. Sorry for the long story, but I've never had this happen before. I'm still feeling guilty. Anyway, I do think Evelyn likes her water at root level, but what a vigorous rose. And tough, too. Diane

The new Tantau catalog I have shows many 50+ year old roses for sale, the oldest being Gloria Dei (Peace) 1945, and not even a Tantau rose. But then Austin sells New Dawn, so being off patent is a meaningless excuse for dropping a rose. Diane

That emitter issue is so important, Diane. I had to crawl around and check mine often because they could plug, or give out, or whatever, erratically. It is very annoying. Thanks for the reminder. With the sprinkler system, at least one could have seen it working. OTOH, there are less weeds between "good plants" where there are no emitters.

We have a complicated system of tiny sprinklers that run to perennials and other plants in addition to the individual emitters (they are part of the drip system). What little was dribbling out of the little sprinklers kept the Evelyns alive, and me thinking the problem was trees. I check the system constantly but somehow overlooked those three roses. Never again. Diane

For me, Evelyn here in the N. California Bay area isn't quite pink but more of a peachy blush. Beautiful and smells heavenly though. I have mine planted against the wall in a SW facing location and find that the blooms often fry in the hot sun or spoil if it rains :( But they are so beautiful (when I can get them!).

Marlorena, you can still order Evelyn from "Rosarium Lottum" € 9,95

Thank you Hans for letting me know about this. Lottum are quite cheap even with postage...

Evelyn's color can be all over the place for me. As nanadoll says mostly apricot, but ranges from crayola orange to yellow to carnation pink. I'm still undecided on whether or not I like her, but I haven't seen anything that suggests that I will like The Lady Gardener more.

How true noseometer!

Eeee. An angiogram. I decided to continue with the old hose and sprinkler (turned on low, so only the base of the plants is watered) to water the Evelyns and other plants that were being cheated of water. I do check constantly on the emitters and little sprinklers, but somehow missed these. I still don't know why. I "designed" an expanded watering system which my poor son in law implemented. We have been working on it ever since, and that was at least seven years ago. Luckily I have a slave, or I would be doing the awful tasks that noseo has to do. People who have plenty of natural rainfall don't know how much work gardening in a desert is--it adds immeasurably to your work load. Diane

Those are beautiful Evelyn photos, noseo. Of course, you love her. Diane

Marlorena - I could be wrong but I'm afraid Bathsheba will also be replacing Abraham Darby. Over time on the DA website it is interesting to see some varieties with fewer pictures or less detailed description than they once had and more recently, disease resistance rating downgraded and then they are no longer sold.

Nothing like exaggerating the faults of the poor rose, including a lousy photo, so that when sales drop off for the victim, DA can use poor sales as an excuse for dropping the innocent rose. Are you reading this Mr Austin? We're on to you! Come on to this Forum and face your angry customers. Diane

I rather think we're at the mercy of a diabolical marketing team.

I particularly abhor David Austin's practice of selling the same rose variety as a bush on one page and as a climber on another page. Printing different name tags as such, and confusing newbies as to the actual difference between a bush form and climbing sport (or vice versa). DA's climbing doppelgängers are nothing more than artificially pruned fakes from a bush rose.

Marlorena is correct, get your Evelyn's now while you can. American DA licensed growers & distributors have already been warned to stop selling Evelyn once present stock has been depleted.

I'm sure there are plenty of us who would be willing to share cuttings.

By itself the notion of a rose being 'superseded' by a newer hybrid is very annoying to me. Firstly I consider it an insult to the plant as a living thing which is treated like an object out of an assembly line and secondly it is a false notion anyway since we all know no rose can be superseded by another one in the same way as version 1 of a mechanical object or piece of software can be superseded by version 2 as, regardless of any planned hybridization and rigorous selection, all rose hybrids up to now are the results of nature taking its chances with man having only limited control of his 'creation'. Can you imagine a dog breed being 'superseded' by a newer improved one?

No doubt we would be willing to share, but at my age, I don't have the time to wait on cuttings and bands (nor do I have space for that sort of thing). I need a rose that has some size on it right out of the starting gate, and will look good immediately.... I can't imagine why DA would discontinue an enormously popular rose like Abraham Darby, either. Just look at the almost 300 votes it has garnered on HMF. I've decided I must have an Abe, so I'll be getting a five gallon plant from Edwards in town. As far as Bathsheba goes, she looks like a clone of Crown Princess Margareta if you check Google images of the two roses. HMF doesn't have any photos of Bathsheba, so far, and it seems to be available only in Britain. Diane

The reason why DA would want to discontinue and try to make obsolete ANY rose is that they don't make much royalty and trademark money out of it anymore.

Abraham Darby, Evelyn , and Crown Princess Margreta have all been cancelled by DA UK. I have The Lady Gardener and am not particularly impressed with it so far. Very healthy but few blooms and not particularly distinctive in either color or fragrance, but it's only a year old so will have to see next summer. In constrast, the pink rose Olivia bloomed like a fiend its first year. It is also next to Claire Austin, which pretty much has a bud for me from Spring into December now that I found the spot. I found an Evelyn sort of unexpectedly because it so unavailable generally and am eagerly awaiting its first blooms this spring. Bathsheba actually looks sort of interesing but the website shows it as sort of orangey but when you see it elsewhere, it looks much paler.