Today is the last day of the one-week surprised rain in May in my area. We have been blessed with more rain this year and the roses are very happy. Even with all the rain, Spirit of Freedom blooms are still very lovely. Helen

Wow beautiful. I love everything about this rose.

I mistakenly ordered Star of the Republic instead of SoF. I don't know why they sounded similar in my mind. Hopefully, SotR will be a good rose, but this pictures have me anxious to order SoF!

dianela, I agree. This rose is wonderful. Beautiful DA wedding-style rose and very healthy. I had an arbor with 2 America roses before and the America roses got mildew all the time. I gave away the America roses and replaced them with 2 SoF and they amaze me. I'm glad that the America roses didn't work out for this spot so that I can have even better roses in their place.

vaporvac, SoF and SotR, lol :) Now you have one more rose to like/love and one more rose to look forward to :) Helen

Sooo beautiful! Thank you for sharing!!!

Vapor, that is too funny-I get StoR and SoF names mixed up too.

I know! SoF just doesn't sound like an Austin rose!

Wow, beautiful pics, Helen! I especially like the 6th image down.

Vaporvac - SotR is wonderful - Mike Shoup’s best IMO.

Anyone growing her. in a warm and humid climate? I just love the way she looks, but I'm afraid the blooms would ball...

Yes the blooms won’t open if rained here, that’s very unfortunate. I have three of these climbing up an obelisk; they are doing fabulously until it got hot and humid in the past few days. :(

thanks zzg, not the answer I wanted to hear, but it always rains here, so scratching this off the list.

A few more pics. Helen

Don't you just love how the buds are so small and darker pink? You would never think ALL those petals could fit it there lol!

Your retaining/raised bed wall with the terracotta colored top is gorgeous too. Goals!

Rekha, I grow SoF here. We have hot rainy summers. SoF is great here. I usually only get rose balling with cold rainy weather but not with Spirit of Freedom. This spring was cool and untypically rainy. SoF did not ball.

Here are some more pics of Spirit of Freedom. Helen

Love those buds! BTW, I'm STILL confusing it with SofR! I just started a thread on that rose and I thought this was a comment on it!

vaporvac, they are both good roses. For me to distinguish between those two I just need to remember the last word of their names, one is "Freedom" and one is "Republic". Helen

I'm really sitting up and taking notice of this rose because I have a feeling it would like my hot and dry climate, somewhat similar to Evelyn. So funny, I had earlier today put Star of the Republic in my cart on the Antique Rose Emporium. I'm happy to find that it's also a very good rose. Thank you all!

Such beautiful photos, lots of eye candy!

Isnt SotR more peachy and SoF more lilac?

I only have SoF..

Yes, sultry! the colours are very different, but doesn't the name SoF sound like a Texan rose too? : )) Ingrid, SoF is just up your alley in terms of colour palette, shape, etc.

Beautiful rose and images, Helen!

Thanks everyone. The blooms of this rose are so incredible that I want to capture them to make them last longer :)

Ingrid, I'm thinking the same, too. You will love this rose in your garden. I have 2 against an arbor. They are only 2-year-old grafted on Dr Huey, and they already look gorgeous. I go out and look at them at least once a day. Helen

So gorgeous!

This rose is so beautiful that I can’t stop myself from taking its pics. Helen

Helen, your photos are to die for. This rose has my favorite shape. I like how it starts as a ball but does eventually open up to deep cup.

I wonder how many petals SoF has. It wouldn't surprise me if someone said 200. I don't think I've ever seen a rose more packed with them.

It really is exquisite!

Thanks totoro, ingrid and pippacovalent.

Ingrid, I think you are right. I remember someone mentioned it has about 200 petals.

pippacovalent, "exquisite" is the perfect word describing this rose. Helen

What I have not been able to determine it is why SOF is unavailable... anywhere including England...???

Lynn, from what I have read David Austin has a list of roses that they want to discontinue, and SoF is on that list. However, recently someone said that DA may release SoF again. You can check if K&M still has it in stock. Helen

Thank you for the suggestion, Helen.

Unfortunately, the last response I received from D.A. was "they were not sure if it will be available for 2020". Regarding K&M, I have yet to determine if a rose on Fortuniana will be okay here?? Nothing I grew on Multiflora survived in Las Vegas. I do not want to make another incorrect rootstock mistake.

Heirloom Roses carries it in 1 gallons,own root. If they are out of stock, I think you can give your email to be notified or just call them.

If you can grow on fortuniana, you could check K&M or Cool Roses.

ETA..just saw your comment on fortuniana. Fortuniana rootstock is good in hot climates and alkaline soil. The plants are really vigorous when grafted on fort. A climber would be especially vigorous. My fort grafted roses bloom way more than the others even in pots. You would have to keep them well watered because fortuniana rootstock seems very thirsty.

You could start a thread to see if anyone in your climate or with your type of soil grows on fortuniana.

SJN-

I have been trying to source this rose from the usual suppliers for months. It has been perpetually out of stock.

All of my roses are in pots right now, and there seem to be three different soil types, at least, in Central Texas/ Austin, which makes it difficult to know if something other than DHuey will be okay. We will probably build or purchase a home close to where we are right now, but I cannot count on the soil being the same as it... I have had clay and sandy soil on one property in LV.

Thank you for the information. I would guess there are many enticed to purchase SoF based upon images in this thread.

I hear ya about the soil. Mixed areas in the same yard can be challenging. We have orange clay, sandy soil, and very dark rich loamy soil, depending on where I am on our property. There is sticky orange clay out by the street that doesn't drain well at all and it can be a small lake during our summer rainy season.

There are patches of that same clay in other areas. In the wooded areas there is nice rich dirt because I let the oak and pine leaves decompose as they did for decades before we moved here.

I have rabbits and chickens so I do a lot of ammending of the sandy areas where I have rose beds. Compost is the best soil enhancer, in general, no matter what you are working with. With sand, you have to keep at it because the compost will sift down over time. I do have many worms and nice dirt where there were no worms before.

You may be able to get some free manure in your neck of the woods for your compost pile. There is Black Cow at Home depo thats already composted as well.

My sandy soil in Las Vegas required major amending, SJN. That often caliche riddled soil was awful! Texas A&M conducts soil tests. When we purchase a home here, I will definitely order testing.

Cool roses also sells own root roses so it might be worthwhile checking to see if this is one of them. Although I gather you've already checked with them, that may have just been for Fortuniana rootstock which you cannot use.

Sultry jasmin.... you are right about our sand here in Florida. When I started my rose garden I dug down 4 ft and made a bed the width of the house and 10 ft wide. I replace all of the sand with horse manure. Let it compost and refilled until the entire hole was nothing but good dirt. Planted and then in less than a year the roses were back in sand... it was like where the heck did the sand come from, where did the dirt go.... Now I know I have to replenish every year and sometimes every 6 months... I don't see how the sand rises and the dirt sinks...

Oh, I know right! Sometimes after a hard rain I find crazy stuff in our yard..one time a huge net like for a shrimp boat or something half buried. Then 2 days later totally gone! Makes me nervous lol.

The chickens have dug up odd things that totally disappear if I dont pick it up right away. Old whiskey jugs, old eyeglasses. Who knows whats down there. Far as I know this was never a landfill or anything but its a very old farmstead. Sometimes farmers had their own dump. Theres a river branch behind us too, so during flooding it runs over onto our property.

Hello, I realise that I'm at least 11 months late to this thread, and have never posted on here before... but I'm hoping you all might be able to help me with a mystery rose I have been trying to identify for literally years, and which I now feel close to certain may be Spirit of Freedom. It grows in the front garden of a house a few streets away from mine in London, but I've never plucked up the courage to put a note in their mailbox to ask, and now I'm not there. I am obsessed with it, every year I look forward to it blooming and smell it every time I pass — sometimes multiple times!

Anyway, on to a description: they have it growing freely in a bed at street level and the canes seem to arch every which way to a height of about 7ft. It is highly floriferous and goes on blooming for weeks, seemingly in two flushes. The mid-pink flowers are cup-shaped and very densely packed with petals, causing them to nod downwards at the end of the canes in clusters. The outer petals sometimes curl back but on the whole the flowers seem to simply open with the petals still pointing forward. They seem to fade to more of a lilac pink as they age. So far, so Spirit of Freedom, from what I have gleaned online.

The two factors I'm less certain of are scent and buds. The scent most often puts me in mind of raspberries, however the DA website describes it simply as pleasing with a hint of myrrh; I admit to not being entirely sure what myrrh should smell like. The buds on this plant seem to start out a whitish-yellow with crimson-edged petals, opening to a paler pink but still with the darker edge, until they are fully opened. By contrast, most images I have found online show dark pink buds opening to a lighter flower, and if there is any white/yellow colour it is towards the edges rather than the middle of the petals — a reversal of what I've seen on my neighbor's plant. The distinct darker petal edges also are lacking in most photos I've found online.

To back all this up I've posted photos below, and would so appreciate any views anyone might have to offer, with all your collective experience of SoF. I'm a novice rose grower but I am in love! And I must find this rose.

Wow! I can see why you want it. I have 2 SoF new roses. I wish I could help. Not sure here.

Elizabeth, this rose's blooms remind me a lot of The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild. Here are the pics from HMF:

https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.225157

https://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.66420

Helen

Oh my goodness, Helen! I do believe this is it! Having searched even more images online, the shape and flowers look identical, as do the buds, and the scent sounds much more like what I remember. I am SO grateful, thank you!! Strangely I had never come across TIMF in any searches, including on the DA website, but then their images don't especially resemble the way they look on my neighbour's plant. Well, I am going to order one of these as soon as I'm back in London and ready to plant. Once it's established I'll confirm once and for all if you were right, but I can't see how it could be anything else. Thank you!

And Sheila, I see you're in the Rogue Valley — so am I! What an amazing coincidence. Happy gardening to you all and thank you again Helen, you may never know just how happy you've made me.

Elizabeth, I'm glad you found your rose. We're waiting for pics when it blooms in your garden :)

This rose is currently for sale on David Austin website. However, it is one of the roses that got sold out early every year so you should order early. Helen

Thank you for the tip, I will do. Actually when I checked on the UK site the potted option was indeed sold out until July, but bare-root are available for November. Do you have any views on which to go with?

Holy cow!!! Stunning example of TIMF!!!! Elizabeth, I hope this rose is all you've imagined it to be! :)

Elizabeth, I think the bare root is fine. Helen

I have one own root and one bare root grafted and they both seem good. Too new to say which is better here. The own root from Heirloom looks the best right now, but the grafted DA roses improve with time here.

Thank you all so much and yes, I also hope I can raise as beautiful a plant as that one. If I manage I'll report back... Happy gardening.

I love this rose. I need it for an entrenc . Does it have many thorns??

Hope I can finde it in Denmark

@Katrine og Danny Sørensen Yes, it has many short thorns. Helen

Hi! Late to the party. Can I ask what is the best way to grow spirit of freedom rose? On a fence, arbor, wall...?