This is a fabulous rose in our garden. So floriferous with very large blooms. She gets black spot quite bad though. We would not live without this rose.

Its a great bloomer here as well. Gets about 6 ft or more.

Nice pics, Hoang! PaoK blooms well for me as well. If she’s fairly new, she may need more time to get well established. Her big fragrant blooms are wonderful but her growth habit and poor disease resistance has made me consider replacing her.

Does anyone have this in California? I’m interested in it , I think

PAok has done well for me Lilyfinch, but SF is significantly cooler than Murrieta. My plants (3) have only gone through a single season, but repeat well, and the blooms are consistently large with good fragrance. My plants didn’t get huge 3-4’x2’, I blame that on lack of water 3/8gal a week, I’m planning on adding more water this year. Pictures are from end of July and early June.

My word, what a beauty! I love those blooms. Is it this one that Diane removed due to few blooms and growing enormous? I could be wrong about the rose she had such a hard time digging out. Yours are both gorgeous! Lisa

I remember Diane telling a funny story about PAOK and massively long roots like coach whips or some crazy thing. It was hysterical.

Yes, Diane did not like the Princess.

Lily, I have had the Princess since she was first available on own root from DA in Texas. She does get big here. Do not believe that she will do well in a pot and stay small (according to the DA website). Mine ate people that came up my walkway in her first year as an own root. She was over 6 feet tall and had to be constrained with ties. I moved her to the back yard the following year. Boy does she ever resent being moved. She stayed small and puny and put out few blooms. So, of course, I moved her again. I promised her that this would be the last move and she was to act like the regal princess she is and suck it up and produce, otherwise, she would be out of here. I had Jubilee Celebration ready to take her place. BTW, Jubilee does well here also.

Well, she showed off her true princess beauty and she is doing wonderfully. She is trying to grow her canes towards Vick's Caprice (that Cad!) as I think she has a thing for him and wants to try to steal him away from Mary Magdalene. Can you tell all the roses in my yard have quite the personalities? She really does love her new spot and is doing quite well. She does get morning sun and partial afternoon shade. Her flowers are huge and quite lovely. No diseases in my yard, just lots of beautiful flowers.

She has big blooms about 4--5 inches across or so. Since I get hotter than you in the summer, she should do fine there.

Lol @ naughty Miss Princess trying to steal Mary's beau, Vick's Caprice! She does have those big yummy bodacious cupcake blossoms though.

I am in California, zone 9b SS zone 14. It is not hot or dry here but my PAOK grew to over 6 feet this summer, during their 2nd season. I have 5 of them and boy, they all got so big! Very think, long canes that spread out. The style of this rose is informal. Definitely not compact. You need a lot of space in warm region for it. I have a dedicated area in the garden for the 5 of them - probably about 6 feet by 25 feet planting bed in full sun.

Here are some pictures below.

Here are pictures from the fall.

The blooms are big - biggest almost at 6 inches across and very fragrant. They are absolutely beautiful.

Wow Rose Lai, I bet your garden smells amazing with that citrus and rose combination!

Can anybody comment on how PAoK compares to The Ancient Mariner?

This my my favorite rose among 50 other roses in my garden in long island NY. I cannot imagine a day without this rose in my garden. I have had it for 1 year and the blooms were beautiful. All the roses in my garden have fungus pressure and i am dealing with it with bayer advanced and neem oil.

Or how is compares to Princess Anne? Thanks!

I have Princess Anne for 1 season. It is quite different from PAOK. The color tends towards purple when the blooms mature. So far the fragrance is not as strong for Princess Anne, but it can be early for me. Disease resistance is also excellent. The bush is more compact, but I have heard that it can get to 5 feet from others that have it for a few years. After 1 season it is a keeper. I will post a picture next.

I love the color of that Princess Anne, so excited for spring and SO JEALOUS of all the people who can still like things :)

I hope with age she gets better she black spots terrible but I put up with her shenanigans becuase her blooms are everything .

noseometer, I have both AM and PAOK. The PAOK blooms earlier than the AM. My AMs are constant bloomers with lots of huge flowers, but not COVERED with flowers like PAOK. AM flowers are not variable like PAOK. The blooms are the same color March - December, same size and petal count. They don't ball - they can tolerate massive rains at every stage of the bloom without batting an eye. They both are huge cupcake/cabbages with high petal counts, but I think the AM has more sizable petals in the interior. My AMs had a stronger scent from year 1 than the PAOKs did. My husband described it as "Love's Baby Soft" - does that tell you what generation we are? For the hot, humid conditions in South Texas, both do well, but the AM is ridiculously hardy and healthy, blooming constantly even last year when I neglected it with no food all season and water only occasionally, except when the torrential rains came.

I grew PAoK in Las Vegas. It was very heat tolerant and healthy. Sorry, I have not grown Ancient Mariner but if my memory is correct, PAoK is a deeper? shade of pink comparatively.

March

June... High 90's

Faded blooms

PAoK- On the bush at the same time - September

Princess Anne is one of my preferred Austins. It can have long candelabras covered with blooms. The shade of pink is different... I like it!

In Las Vegas, PAoK was on her way to becoming huge, Lily. In CA where everything also grows bigger... exercise caution... I do not know if you are going to remain in CA and/or for how long, but PAoK can get large, and quickly. In addition, so many states have agricultural restrictions regarding bringing plants into the state. AG restrictions resulted in my plants being gifted, donated and left behind when we moved to TX. Like CA, NV and many of the states out west are classified as category 1 regarding AG restrictions.

Thank you, txbornandraised for that detailed evaluation! Sounds like they are both great roses, and that you like TAM better than PAOK. I ended up getting PAOK because David Austin Roses had it own root, and I only get own root (after battling with Dr. Huey roots in my old garden for years, I eventually moved before Dr. Huey was eliminated). If PAOK doesn't do well for me, I'll try TAM. I do love the look of its flowers, and am not sure if I will like the variability of PAOK. If I get TAM, I will need to put it into a pot and plant deeply so that when it does grow its own roots, I can cut it off the Dr. Huey before planting it in my garden.

"Love's Baby Soft"! Oh yes, just the mention of it brings back the memory of that scent. I guess we are of the same generation. DAR's description of PAOK's fragrance "fresh tea fragrance with aspects of lemon and blackcurrants" sounds delightful if it is anything as good as the description.

Lynn, thanks for sharing your photos of your PAoK. They give me an idea of what to expect. The reason I got PAoK is because of the many reports of her heat tolerance, even though I'm not enamored with her form or her color variability. I reasoned that a rose that had decent flowers all summer would be ultimately more satisfying than one whose flowers could be incredibly beautiful but whose flowers fried all summer. Maybe I should put her in a pot to start...