I find a lot of things happen by year five. It took at least 5 years for Thereses' to rebloom (not a lot)... and about 7 years to get a ripe hip ... only 1 out of 5 or 6 examples I have of that rose - and it was hybridized here - awesome rose though. It also took that long to get a repeat from soupert et notting and Mrs Baker. If this rose actually repeats I betting it will be a long time for it to happen to mine because of the short season I assume but the easy setting of hips is real. Henry more on yours ... I take it as you say, never sets hips and is huge ... that is interesting but then I have not seen many examples (labeled other than mine) and they are still young ... but mind you one has at least a 4 to 5 foot cane - however the easy setting of hips is real. As to source ... I would not state mine as 100% reliable ... they labeled "Austrian Copper" as rosa "rugosa" austrian copper and it ended up being "I assume" R. foetida ... the yellow single.

Marie, what an array of blooms. A spectacular show. You must be so pleased with their performance. I will not even start to list my favorites or which ones I would love to have, as I would need to make quite a substantial order to match these. One of my all time favorites is " Diamond Ring " for it's bloom & leaves (unbelieveable). Rick

I'm in Sonoma, my temperatures are probably similar to San Jose, but not as hot as Napa or Gilroy. In general, compared to other roses, David Austin's roses are water hogs in our climate; especially when the flowers are opening. In hot summer temps the flowers will shrivel and melt if not given enough water. They also require steady water after the flowers are done to coax the next buds to develop or the flower size will shrink in half. You will notice a difference when the roots get deep enough to reach the underground water table. For heavy flower production, they also like to be fed, a lot. Once your plants get about knee height or taller any rose fertilizer will do until you find your favorite brand, but small first year bands or gallons from heirloom will get fertilizer burn if you're not careful. If you must feed small plants, go organic with fish emulsion or use liquid fertilizer with NPK in the single digits (follow the orchid growers' mantra: feed weakly weekly). Because I have gophers, I generally pot bands up to #1 gallons and then #5 gallons their first year before putting them in the ground in wire baskets. After your Austins get established and grow enormous, look into summer pruning to get more flowers.

She was one of my mother-in-law's favorite authors. I usually read the books when MIL was finished, since they were easy reads. I read Where are the Children? before I had kids, but I had two little ones (a boy and a girl) when the movie was released. After reading the book, I wouldn't watch the movie.