Rebecca- your roses are gorgeous but so much work. I live in Massachusetts. It is so difficult to even dig a hole 10 inches deep with all the rock, boulders and ledge so I try to buy only own root roses. I have gotten some wonderful own root roses from DA and have some more scheduled for delivery next week. I hope they add more own root to their collections. I recently ordered 'Queen of Sweden' and 'Windermere' which is by far my healthiest DA rose and covers herself with delicate soft blush pink blooms from early summer till fall. She is cane hardy in my Z5b-6a garden. The only negative is lack of the "to die for" strong perfume scent that Austins are so known for. sharon

All the plants have buds and Munstead Wood is the first to bloom-- 9 flowers have opened and 9 more developing. I gave them water and nothing else for weeks, then as they started getting bigger, sprinklings of bloodmeal and half-doses of fish emulsion. At some point I tried giving them a bit of diluted potassium with indeterminate results. (Maybe because I got muriate of potash instead of the potassium chloride, sulfide or whatever it is that's supposed to be better?) Once I gave them water left over from cooking beans (no salt) and they seemed to like it fine. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the whole plants yet, but they do seem like they are taking off. Though Munstead Wood, Lady of Shallot, and Jude the Obscure are growing with big open spaces between canes-- I don't know if these are the reported David Austin octopus arms, or pest damage to terminal shoots that would otherwise fill out the center of the bush, or particular growth habit in Houston, TX weather, or if it's just something it'll grow out of after a year and some pruning. The other, younger two plants that I've messed with the least, Lady Emma Hamilton and Brother Cadfael, have much more attractive foliage and look more bushy/shrubby. LEH has sixteen buds already and is nicely rounded, while BC, who has been growing tall thick canes and took the longest to leaf out and bud, looks more like a sturdy column shape. They are all at least two to three and a half feet off the soil level. So far the scent on MW is very sweet, like berry candy and rosewater (rather than dried rose petals), and seems stronger after a fish emulsion feeding. Can't wait for the others! Thanks to everyone for being present on this forum. I've been going through a lot of posts and learning a bunch!

What a lovely row of JA. I like the lavenders in there too. I just got this rose from our local rose society. So glad it is so beautiful!

I have a loamy clay here in zone 6. I have tried a number of Austins and I loved them, but I usually ended up with some kind of foliage issue. It's been awhile, so I don't remember what. I keep trying different roses that are thought to be good in a no spray garden and last spring I planted - Savannah and Beverly and Pope John Paul. Savannah is a Kordes - my first. It was enjoyable in it's first season. Pretty foliage and I liked the color and texture of the blooms. It didn't grow too much or produce many flowers, but I didn't expect a lot in it's first year starting off bare root from Palatine. But by the end of the season, it was suddenly showing some problem with one of the canes. Not insects, but disease. I left it alone and just hoped for the best this spring. This spring, it had some leaf buds on it, but they deteriorated as soon as they opened and while the other roses were pushing out more buds and then opening leaves, Savannah did nothing and looked worse. So I decided to cut all the canes back to the ground. And I thought that was the end of it really, but to my surprise, it sprouted new canes - about 3 of them. Right now it's about 6-8" tall and has leafed out and looks okay. Not a great start for a rose though. Beverly is another Kordes and last year it did fine and produced more flowers than Savannah and looked healthy. This year it has filled out with leaves. I usually have roses starting to open by June 1st, so, we'll see how it does this year. The foliage looked clean all season last year and so far this year too. Maybe by the end of this season I'll be able to make a better comparison.