I need to pay more attention, noseometer. I do have some great looking leaves here, both green and autumn shaded. I also have naked plants. I also have some old foliage afflicted plants that haven't dropped leaves yet, and that I hope to strip. The old ugly foliage is a shame. One standout here is Tea Monsieur Tillier who has dark green healthy foliage right now.

Karen, I wouldn't say that Bishop's Castle has particularly long lasting cut flowers. Maybe for an Austin. I get maybe 3 days, 4 max. But they do stay wonderfully fragrant the whole time, and there are so many.

The leaves on my Bishop's Castle have finally just turned brown for the winter.

Thanks, noseometer. None of my pink Austin that i have right now make very good cut flowers. THey shatter within a couple of days and make a mess. The DA pinks that I have are Queen of Sweden, Scepter D'Isle, Olivia, and Sharifa Asma. Do you grow any of these? Do you think BC is better than these pinks? I was looking over BC's pics and they look like they also have rather weak necks. Is that the case for you?

Of those, the only one I have is Sharifa Asma, and she is too little for me to have tried as a cut flower. I'm probably not the best person to ask regarding cut flowers since I rarely do so. There have been other discussions on the forum regarding vase life for Austins, here's one: Fragrant Austins with longest vase life. I remember there being a thread where someone listed the days of vase life for each of their Austins which was impressive accounting. Oh, here it is: Which David Austin Roses last longest in the vase? I've also read about cutting them in fairly tight bud and refrigerating them overnight to help them last longer. I did that once and Evelyn lasted about a week.

Bishop's Castle does have thin stems and the flowers nod a bit, which is one of the reasons I'm fond of this rose. The flowers don't have bamboo-like stiff ramrod stems that florist roses have, so if that is an issue you might want to choose another rose. In the public rose garden, QOS does have stiffly upright stems. If you are looking for good cutting stems like florist roses but with English rose flowers, you might also try Charlene de Monaco, or some of the Romanticas, and some of the new Kordes roses have some of the English rose look. On the other hand, I think that the nodding flowers make for a beautiful bouquet. Here's one I made in September:

Bishop's Castle is on the far left if I remember correctly (others are Abraham Darby, Bolero, Marie Pavie, Falstaff, Sonia Rykiel). For this type of bouquet you will ideally use a thorn stripper and florist foam.

Wow, so so beautiful! Thank you very much for the links and the tip for the arrangement! I have tried searches but could not get to these ones. They are extremely helpful. I think I may check on Spirit of Freedom as one of the poster said it is a very good cut flower. Although I like Kordes roses, they just don't have the same delicious scents as the Austins. I found that Austins also grow and bloom better for me. THanks again noseometer.

That foliage is beautiful! I have Alnwick Castle myself, but it shows none of those beautiful red leaves. I guess it’s temperature dependent and my temps don’t get low enough to trigger those beautiful foliage changes. We are having a few very cold (for us) days here of about 60F, but I don’t think that’s low enough or long enough to do it. Thanks for sharing. I never would have known. Lisa

Yes, the leaves of Alnwick Castle don't turn that color until there have been a few weeks of temperatures at least down to the upper 30's. 60's would be unseasonably warm here, even this far south, because of the altitude. I dream of moving to a more moderate climate, but there are some compensations.