Scepter is a good one lol!

Olivia Rose Austin is relatively new to my garden, but already has become one of my favorite roses. It produces plentiful, immaculately healthy foliage and blooms all the way to the ground. The flowers are delicately beautiful. To me, the fragrance is moderate. This comes pretty close to my ideal of what a rose should be.

She's beautiful, Mark! Thanks for sharing a whole bush shot of 'Olivia'. I think I might have to find a spot for her now!

An unfortunate update on my two Olivias planted next to one another from earlier in this thread - pulled them both out last year due to RRD. I may make another attempt with her. She's just so pretty with her blooms that belong on a wedding cake.

Yes, thank you for the bush shot! She's been a contender for a while now,but first I want to ID what's there. Austin pinks are so hard to ID. Arlene, I'm sorry to hear that. I cringe thinking about it which is why I try to propagate duplicates of my rarer ones. I think you should replace her.

What Mark said! Love this rose so much I have a 3rd one coming. It is my first established rose to bloom, just yesterday. It's actually disease resistant here in GA!

I have 2 and they are totally disease resistant here and great bloomers. Mine are grafted on Doc Huey.

Update: My Olivia Rose Austin has matured since I posted the first photo, and it is one of my favorite all-time roses. It has remained disease-free, in spite of the fact that I have never sprayed or used any chemicals on it. It blooms from top to ground with large, delicate-looking, old-fashioned rosettes. The first bloom flush is prolific, followed by good repeat bloom with fewer flowers at a time

. The only quality that hasn't quite met my expectations is fragrance. I would characterize the scent as light to medium. When in full bloom, this rose is spectacular.

Mark - that's really great to hear! :) It sounds like it's an amazing rose for so many people!

She is hands-down my healthiest rose. Goes through z5b winters with no damage, flowers nicely even in 4 1/2 hours of sun and no disease in my no spray garden. Beautiful shade of soft pink and lovely flower form. The only thing lacking is any noticeable scent. But it's a small trade-off for such a spectacular rose.

Sharon

Hi, Thank you, Carol for this thread. Thank uou, Kristine & other’s for your beautiful photos & comments about Olivia!

Olivia is a fabulous roses! . Love seeing all of your ideas about Olivia. I have a newbie Olivia Rose. She is alteady a favorite of mine. I love Kristine’s recent summer 2021 photo (on Summer Start thread) of her full blooming bush Olivia-she is very big-full of blooms-outstanding!!! Love her light pink color, her plump size & shape of bloom. She was next to another rose that had BS, but she stays healthy, no BS, & keeps on growing beautiful new leaves & blooms. She was planted in early June in morning sun up to 1:00pm and she is starting to become a round bush now., She’s doing very well in her spot but I know if she had morning & afternoon sun she’d be even bigger. I am going to buy another to put on the north side of my home with morning/some afternoon sun as I’d like a few pink bushy roses there. She’s now my favorite David Austin rose!

Kitty, you know that I am always singing Olivia's praises and now you know why. I wish that I had room for a whole hedge of her. The blooms last so much long than Desdamona of which I do have a hedge.

Anyway, I am so glad that you found a rose that you love so much.

This is my first year with Olivia (own-root from RU), and I have mixed feelings about her, as she grows in my climate. She doesn't look quite the same as the photos I see here.

The Pro's: vigorous growth, durable foliage, some beautiful blooms, good re-bloom, tolerates dry heat moderately well.

The Con's: flower color is variable, and the second flush was all dirty white formless blooms, looking like balls of pie dough on sticks. When the flowers fully open in the heat, they are not very attractive to my eye. Sometimes they flowers open a beautiful blush and then fade to dirty white as the flowers mature, sometimes they open dirty white, and sometimes the blush holds, even all at the same time. The plant holds on to the dead-heads and become brown wads, needing attentive dead-heading. The flowers are small, about 2". The flowers are susceptible to thrips - not as much as some, but enough to damage the buds as soon as the sepals fall. The flowers seem to last a long time for an Austin. Unfortunately, the flowers don't have that cupped form with pale outer petals and pink centers that I see in other people's photos. I wonder if that will change as the plant matures.

Neither Here Nor There: the fragrance is light. It is a nice sweet fragrance, that is pretty consistently there, but certainly not strong or even moderate. I still enjoy sniffing it. The flower form is a bit rigid to my preference, possibly due to the small size, looking a bit like a pale blush to dirty white 'Sexy Rexy' but with far fewer flowers.

I've had her on and off the chopping block a number of times.

Thrips damage:

Looking like pie dough:

Looking like a blush 'Sexy Rexy'

Showing how flat the flowers are:

looking a bit like ’Summer Romance’ today.

Kristine, Thank you. She is our, Precious! Immortalized!”

Yes indeed ha

Ha

Kitty - those are incredible blooms!!! The last 2 shots are my faves!! Wow!!! You can REALLY grow this rose well!!

Is ORA about the size of Bolero in colder zones? Mine has been in her DA pot since early spring. Lots of company this spring and summer plus extreme heat - today is 106˚ - so I am waiting until it cools down to plant her. I hope she can gain some root growth before winter. I've planted as late as October with success, but wouldn't do that on a regular basis. I'd like to plant her in front of taller roses if she's a shortie.

Heehee, Flowers. You know how I feel about Olivia. She's about 6 feet tall, so don't plant her in front of anything. Your temps are hideous (you're in a colder zone?), and finally worse than ours. Been waiting for rain since May (except for a pathetic drizzle a couple of days ago), and today was supposed to be the day, but no rain. The weather people are so off. Diane

Flowers, DA website says Olivia is 3 1/2-4 1/2 ft height. She blooms well all over-very showy! I planted her in front of my bed & she was a bareroott planted in early June so she is only 2 1/2,ft now blioming well, though. She only gets morning sun so I don’t expect her to be very big. My roses in NY cold don’t necessarily grow tall & in front yard morning sun are usually about 3 ft. On side of home I am planting another Olivia who will get morning/afternoon sun & grow much bigger.

Your Olivia may have a cold winter or pruning may keep it shorter. However, with great soil/fertilizers I find in full sun they can really grow well-so it can be whatever height you nuture it to be.

Diane, I dont know what you do to grow such gigantic roses

You must have really green thumbs and fingers .

My Julia's are about 3 1/2 ft tall and Olivia is about the same

My Twilight Zone was about 3ft

I dont know what you do to get super sized roses.

Oh, and the weather men who keep promising rain are big fat fibbers.

The amount we got couldnt even penetrate the soil

I don't know the secret myself, and big isn't always best. I do like the big Julias. A lot of water helps even more than fertilizer, I think--and lots of sun. I'd say your thumbs are pretty green, judging from the beautiful roses your grow, not to mention lilies, delphs, and other good stuff. We got a little rain tonight, but I can't tell if it's just some spitting or real rain. We did have quite a bit of lightening, which is cool to see when it strikes the tops of surrounding hills and mountains. I should go out and run around for a bit to see how much rain has accumulated. I'm happy to see any, but discouraged the it's usually so puny. I'm putting my pants and shoes on and running outside. Diane

YAHOO! Things have changed. Lots of rain and it's still at it. We all sat on the deck a couple of hours ago (covered) and watched the lightening and rain. The air is so fresh and cool, too. No smoke. What a change this makes. I can hear the flowers singing. Diane

Kitty, thank you for the info on how Olivia is doing for you. Our zones are similar enough that she will probably do the same here. Our main difference is humidity - we are dry.

Kristine, it's a mystery to us all how Diane grows her super sized roses. There's no way Olivia will grow to 6' for me. I thought in colder zones she might stay at the low end of her range. I can place her better if she stays short.

We had an electrical storm when company was here. They said they'd never heard anything like it in their lives, then another one when more company was here a couple weeks later. They said the same thing. Both were unexpected and during the night. The ground barely got wet. Tomorrow is dipping from 106F to low 80s, and right back up again, if we can believe the weather report. Diane I hope you got some real rain and not just spit. We are promised rain next week, but I'll believe it when I see it. I know why you aren't thrilled with Olivia, but those pix are so pretty. I wish she could be just a little more vibrant for you. i know what you mean, though, because some of my pales are white this year.

Hallelujah! Rain! Happy for you, Diane.

Flowers, I hope you get rain and mellow temps soon. It's 69F here right now. Can you believe that? And it's still raining. Our bodies don't know what to think--put on the parka or run around in shorts. Thanks about Olivia. But you are right--the pale color just washes out when you look at her at farther away than a distance of six feet. Of course, the heat had been drying up her blooms like all the roses. We get major lightening and thunder at times out here, and it's something to see above the hills with all the open sky above. It's like the biggest fireworks show in the world. I'm glad your family got to see the show, too. I hope your last bunch was fun and did all the cooking! Diane

Diane , Beautiful Olivia photos! I am so excited about your RAIN-WOOHOO! Totally fab! YAY!

Kristine, I will keep praying for you & Diane and Carol and Flowers-MORE RAIN! Put out the fires & smoke!!!

I think I know why Diane’s roses grow so tall! -mild winters & tons of sun in summer. My roses in sunny southern CA grew SO GIANT TALL! I used to cut off the canes in CA in major prunning when dead heading weekly as I didnt like the huge canes.

My roses grow tall here in NY when we have heat waves.” And my roses are shorter in morning sun spots or less sun.

BTW, I have solved the ”short rose bush problem that most New Yorkers have,” with less sun in NY, also. I just buy lots of hardy glossy leaved rose CLIMBERS!!! Ha, ha! They are all along my new fence areas bordering back ysrd. plenty of tall roses here! HA! LOL!

Flowers, Enjoy your new Olivia! She is a total winner! Healthy, vibrant, pretty plump pink all our summer!

Carol, Do you still have Olivia?

Mine is first year own roots. Very small.plant but big beautiful blooms.

Lynne, Beautiful Olivia photo!

Today’s Vase photo of Olivia & Rose of Sharon added to my previous posts of Olivia…scroll upward …

Mine does very well with little to no winter-kill or disease. We had a lot of rain though and all the buds turned to mush. I had a nice early summer flush but those fried in high temps and lack of rain in June! Plus rose midge added to the mix but she's still putting out a lot of new healthy leaves. She's definitely one of the best performers in my shady garden ( 5 hours of mid morning sun). When the weather cooperates!

Beautiful, Lynne. That's what I'm hoping for. A small plant with big blooms.

Kitty, your prayers were answered. Sort of. I went out to water this afternoon, and the driveway had puddles, but I knew the garden would still be dry. The only way we know it rains is if the streets are wet. We never actually see or hear it raining. I was used to downpours in CA. Downpours are rare here. It's never enough to take the place of watering. I gave the roses a good soak because temps are shooting back up in a day or two. My kids deadheaded and cleaned up the burnt canes for me, so some are setting buds. If the temps will just stay under 105˚, I might have a good flush before fall. I'm especially anxious to get Olivia in the ground. She might have time to bloom before it snows.

Flowers, Wonderful! Plant Olivia asap and she will have blooms soon!

Flowers, could you post some of your lovely hydrangea photos on the summer thread? We are particularly interested in Vanilla Strawberry, but I'd like to see all of them. Also, we'd love to see some of your clematis photos, which are outstanding. Thanks. Diane

Diane and Lynne and Kitty, your Olivias are so beautiful. i wonder if mine will ever look like that?

Nose, mine has looked awful during the long two month heat "wave" we've had. The plant is fine, but I haven't had a nice looking bloom in two months, just a lot of small baked ones. I think you and I live in the wrong climate for Olivia. I don't particularly like this rose, so I should quit complaining and move Rouge Royale into her spot. Since you grow beautiful roses, I don't know what you could do for your Olivia that would make her better. What are her main problems? Diane

Diane, I’m probably being too critical of my Olivia. This being her first year, She might just need more time to strut her stuff. But I haven’t heard many people saying that she needs time. The second flush flowers were very small, pasty white, formless and scentless. There have not been many flowers. It holds onto its deadheads. More recent blooms have been better but still very susceptible to thrips, burn in the sun, very small and are very flat. To give her her due, the recent flowers during this cooler weather (only in the low 90’s!) are better colored, nicely fragrant, the plant vigorous, rebloom looks like it will be good. This weekend in Santa Fe, I drove by a planting of what looked like Olivia that was fabulous. But that is in a very different, cooler climate.

Diane - WOWZA Olivia!!! Yay REAL RAIN!!!! :) :)

Kristine - same here...rain...just the heavens spitting at us.

Kitty - no, I don't have Olivia anymore.

Lynne - GASP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nose - wishing you cooler weather and rain. :)

My Precious , it has been 101 for weeks

and her color has stayed true.

This is from this morning

Now excepting all Olivia duds. Send them my wzy. I think that they like it here

Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luscious!!!

Kristine, Gorgeous Precious Olivia photos!

Diane, I wonder, since Olivia is supposed to be small, if you couldn't move her to the shade where you wouldn't ordinarily plant a rose, like under a tree and see if her color isn't any better. The shade might also keep her smaller. You would have her spot for RR, and you wouldn't really have lost anything whether she lives or dies.

The VS Hydrangeas are just blossoming. They're white and chartreuse right now. When I have a progression of the color change, I will post pics. I thought they would be the first to go in this heat. My big leafs are totally cooked, but these paniculatas are fine. I will probably have to move the Blue Enchantresses to total shade. The Endless Summer Originals are doing ok. My grandson cut them back to the lowest node because they fried, but they're coming back beautifully as long as I keep them floating in an over watered bed. I wish we knew if this year is typical of what to expect from now on, or if it is an anomaly.

I'm still planting and feeding. I don't want a bunch of baby roses to keep over winter in the garage. Only about half of the rose garden got fed before the heat started, so I waited, but it's been steadily hot, so I'm giving them a light feeding before it's too late this year.

Kristine, it always surprises me how much you love Olivia because I think of you as the hot color girl. Do your more softly colored roses have their own area or do you intersperse them among the stronger colors? I never think far enough ahead to plan, so my vibrant and soft colors are all just mixed together. I've briefly considered moving some to make it look more planned, but that thought was very brief.

Flowers, Olivia is already near a tree. I don't have any other spot to put her, unless I dig out an Evelyn in the front, and digging up two big roses, one 17 years old, and then switiching spots....or something. I don't even have the energy to think about it. Could you post some photos from the past of your hydrangeas on the summer thread? How about showing a progression that way, plus as the new photos are taken, just keep on posting. We would love it. And some of those wonderful clematis photos of yours, we'd love to see. I especially like the photo where a clematis was twining around Rosarium Uetersen. More please. Those photos are outstanding, and I know the forum people posting on the summer thread would love seeing them. Diane

Diane, you are too kind! I don't have any photos after early June this year. But, I will have hydrangea photos soon. Clems, not so much. Most are brown and crunchy.

I think I already knew there was no place for Olivia to move to, but I hate to see her leave the premises, as big and healthy as she is. However, I totally agree that we need to grow roses we love and get rid of the ones we don't. I did a ruthless clearing out of marginal roses that I wasn't crazy about or that were not living up to the hype a few years ago, and it really felt good. Kind of like cleaning out closets and drawers.

Flowers, Could you post your hydrangea & clematis ohotos from previous years on ”Summer’s Start,” thread? Id love to see them. I just bought 2 more hydrangeas-that makes 16 hydrangeas for me. I ordered a vanilla strawberry hydrangea tree shipping next eeek, too. Id love to see your hydrangeas? I have ine shady side if home to have the shade hydrangeas. panicle hydrangeas ate on other parts of the property.

Flowers you are right, I do love those hot colors but probably 80% of my roses are white, cream or pastel.

And I have a bunch of red.

I would love more of the hot colors but alas , I am seriously our of space.

Kristine - I love the bright WOWZA "MY EYES!!! MY EYES!!! colors. :) :) Yet, the colors I am most drawn to here on the forum are the lighter, softer colors. I find it surprising. :)

Markay - I love how your cute dog is eyeing your Olivia!! I agree with him/her that it's lovely!!

Carol, I like both. I love Bolero and lovely pastels but a real wiwza color makes me smile.

I keep seeing Moonstone and absolutely drool when I see it.

Right now a favorite is Jolie Veranda.

It gets to stay on the deck so I can look out at it all day.

Kristine - now that's a true beauty!!! It would make me so happy to see that in my yard!!