Ben, what a great idea to enter "retired" Austin roses in their photo contest. But it's too much work for me to select all those old photos, unless they have some kind of limit on entries. It's funny they sent anything to me because I've never bought an Austin rose from David Austin roses directly. My purchases have been local, or from Canadian sellers, and a few US online sellers. I haven't had one of their catalogs in years, nor do I receive emails from them. Diane

Youshould.both do.that!

I guess they have heard about you, Diane.

Regarding thermometers: a thermometer in the shade gives you the most accurate air temperature. If you put a thermometer in the sun on a hot day, it heats up the components of the thermometer way beyond the air temperature.

And you might get a thermonuclear thermometer. Diane

Diane - Kitty is entering. I hope she wins! It's too bad you won't enter. There are so many people here who could also win. :) :)

mrh_sharon,right off the top of my head I can mention Roville and John Davis (but that is in an area next to some new implants that ARE getting watered) ; also saw a couple flowers on Sir Paul Smith...hope to get out there tommorrow and will try to take note...

Diane, I'm really sad you lost Caramel Antique, and to the nasty voles, no less. Of course, they had to pick the one you can't replace. You were the only one of us who grew that rose, I think? Funny that Kordes doesn't do well for either of us. Different conditions, but we both have dry climates, which makes it odd that English bred roses like us.

I have not had any communication from the Austin people. Just as well, I'm mad at them. Why they're so 'different' from other rose breeders, is beyond me. The rose community has been exceptionally good to them! If you send them photos, they should pay you royally. Your photos have done more to promote their roses than they have done themselves.

I contacted David Austin UK and asked when their new roses will be released in the USA and this is the reply:

"Unfortunately introducing a new rose to a country is a slow process and we need to take appropriate measures to ensure the rose will do the very best in the US climate.

Therefore, prior to introducing the rose to the US customers, it must be tested and grown to ensure the rose does as perfectly as we expect.

At the moment we expect for the rose to be released in 1 to 2 seasons, however this is not set in stone, and may change."

I asked them to please release them in the USA, the sooner the better. I doubt my one email makes any difference.

Side note, I will change my username since it's also my email and I don't want to get in trouble for posting what they say. I don't know the legalities of that.

Diane I was hopping you would enter with some of your Golden Celebration or Boscobel or Jude or any of those gorgeous pictures. I submitted one Queen of Sweden, one Lichfield Angel, One Princess Anne and Two Boscobel. Unfortunately I lost the full resolution images to many of my prettiest Austins in an Icloud mess, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to send some anyway. They had a very long list of (your give up all rights forever and ever, and we can do whatever we want with your images sort of thing but I wasn’t expecting to get anything anyway). It would be very nice to see anyone from this forum have some of their pictures selected. I wonder if Helen entered the contest with her amazing photos.

Thank you Sharon for the update and taking the time to contact them. I would LOVE to try Bring me Sunshine which has the happiest color in all of those new releases.

Dianela, I emailed DA Roses over a year ago about Bring Me Sunshine, and got a shorter, curter reply from them, saying about the same thing as the reply they gave Sharon. I guess they don't want our business, and they don't want us to grow Bring Me Sunshine, specifically. They do want to use our good rose photos for free, though. Hence, the photo competition. Diane

In this case, I can see DA's point, because it would be bad PR to introduce it in the USA if they only have like 100 plants ready to sell, and it immediately went to back-order status. They're not likely to ship live plants over en masse, because it would be expensive, they might lose a lot of them going through customs, and they could be selling those plants in their home market instead. So it will probably take a few years for them to get a new rose in full USA production and ready for USA introduction.

It would be good PR if they were a little bit nicer to customers about their reasons. As far as grafting each rose goes, they are sending own root roses only to sellers in the US it looks like. Edwards sells hundreds of Austins every year, and every one of them this year were own root. Their roses are grown in the US for US customers. Diane

@Diane - Agreed, whatever their policy is, they should be able to explain it politely and pleasantly!

As far as own-root goes, I got one of each type direct from DA this year - an own-root Emily Bronte and a grafted LEH (replacement - and I'm still waiting for a leaf - argh!). So IDK exactly what they are doing down there in Texas. :)

I am in no way defending anyone or trying to throw anyone under the bus. I used to work at the corporate headquarters of a global Fortune 50 company (I didn't miss a 0, the company is in the top 50 of the Fortune 500), and while I know all companies are different, the one I worked at had different messaging that went to different parts of the company. I was in one of very few teams that was close to our c-level and we received excellent training and a lot more information than most other parts of the company, both within the USA and abroad. We were required to sign strict non disclosure agreements, pretty much for the length of our lives. We would be given confidential information and signed papers that should we ever disclose said information, we would not only be fired but sued. Being in a higher level team, we had visibility to the messaging and training that went to other parts of the company, USA and abroad, and some of the requirements that employees at other parts of the company had to adhere to. In fact, I was sent to train a new site launched in another country. And I can tell you that most employees (not just where I was sent, but globally) were inadequately trained to what I consider so severely untrained to the point of directly causing customer satisfaction issues. Even more, they were kept in the dark about a lot. And I mean A LOT. Which, in turn, would also cause negative customer issues. And, to add more, they were required to adhere to what I consider complete BeeEss, to borrow my new favorite expression from Diane. It was the only company I ever worked for that I literally had to work with our legal team on certain things. We also had a joke at that company: the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. It was actually a sad joke, really, because it was too true. To the detriment of the company, in my onion.

I have never looked at customer service the same way since. I never know what kind of BeeEss they are required to tell us. Or what kind of information they are required to withhold. I can only say that I would be very surprised if David Austin doesn't have specific messaging for their employees about: if a client asks this, here is the answer to tell them. And from what I've read on houzz, it sounds like there may be a bunch in common between DA and the company I worked for.

I have contacted DA USA a bunch over the last couple years, mostly to add on to my orders. Which I was told they now have a limit of 5 times that you can add to an existing order; I was not told a limit to how many items can be added in those 5 times. I also occasionally call or email with questions. There are two people I get quite often, one is very nice, the other is always curt. I wonder if the latter is who Diane had the misfortune of catching.

@Diane Brakefield I apologize for resurrecting your tangent, but how did Caramel Antique grow and flower for you? Does it have a lot of thorns?

Sharon, Caramel Antique grew well, but rested a lot between blooming. The blooms were large and many petaled with no scent to speak of. It was a great cutting rose, of course, but there weren't a lot to cut. It wasn't particularly thorny and the deer loved it, as well as the voles that killed it. CA bloomed during heat and the blooms were often affected negatively--some weird blooms during those times. I suppose Caramel Antique is a greenhouse rose for those of with very hot summers like here. Diane

RIP Caramel Antique

Thank you very much @Diane Brakefield! Your Caramel Antique is/was lovely! And the information is everything and more than I hoped for (in the best way, of course) and exactly what I need to know. Thank you!

Another mesmerizing video about her.

Penelope Lively rose exclusive personal review 2023

Diane - glorious blooms...but then all of your roses bloom with extreme beauty. :) :)

In case anyone is interested for that future purchase.. a little update..

She is something of a shocking pink, especially when the blooms just open.. but the scent is delicious, even on cool cloudy wet days.. quite rain resistant blooms too.. the scent does have hints of that myrrh in it, but not enough to offend if one doesn't like that too much..

I've just carried a bloom around my garden, sniffing all the way.. it's worth it..

The blooms may look like many Austin's, esp. PAOK and some others, but the scent is much better in my opinion, and the growth and foliage is more like 'Silas Marner' if you know that one..

..vigorous new shoots from the base... showing a lot of promise..

.. I think I am going to enjoy this rose..

I hope it makes it over here!

It looks like a wonderful rose, Marlorena. All those new shoots! I would love to be able to smell it. I'm heading over to Instagram now to see more of your garden.

Beautiful photos, Marlorena, of what seems to be a very happy and healthy rose. I like the last photo best, of what I take to be a slightly older bloom, where the lilac tones I love are more prominent, rather than the shocking pink. It's the same problem I have with Boscobel, a beautiful rose that I wish were just a bit more to the lilac side. Thankfully there are enough Austins and roses in general to satisfy all of us, even the most finicky!

@Marlorena Absolutely lovely! Thank you for the photos and good information.

Penelope sounds sort of like the David Austin counterpart to Sweet Madamoiselle. One video described the coloring at times to resemble Strawberry Hill. I wish I had a big English garden to fill with Austins, I would try a few new ones without hesitation. In my small flower bed Paul Neyron and Bliss looked so horrible together I had to move them apart. It's a major decision over every added rose. Funny how one rose can throw off the whole garden.

I wish I had a bigger garden, too, Berrypie, and a couple of dependable gardeners to do all the really hard stuff while I direct them. But I've found over the years that nothing really clashes in nature, at least in my garden. You can always add a few softly or brightly colored annuals or perennials to bridge the transition between colors you might think clash. Diane

Marlorena - fragrant even on cloudy, cool days...that's a winner in my books. Your rose looks heavenly. I would love to get one!!!! :):)

I love that fourth photo, what a lovely shot of the trio. I need a rose with an outrageous scent.

Versigny is the best this year but not strong, i have to hold the bloom too close at risk of inhaling bugs.

This is hands down the best DA rose released in the last 5 years - it's really FRAGRANT, forms a fragrant cloud around the bush, repeats really well, produces masses of flowers, healthy so far. It's the only DA rose apart from Gertrude that is fragrant even on a bad day with cloudy weather. Dannahue is very vigorous and gives lots of flowers but they shatter in a day (just like Elizabeth), which is not the case with Penelope - the flowers last at least 5 days each. Just a must for anyone.

How are the thorns on Penelope ?

tiny thorns all over the stem, the tips are almost thornless though

Thanks Stephen ,

What a beautiful face she has .

Stepan - oh, wow!!! Talk about a lot of flowers...gorgeous!

I'm sold.

Penelope Lively is pretty & love disease resistant! She looks similar to my Leonardo di Vinci. Or PAoK. I think for a fushia pink Penelope L is wonderful and her fragrance sounds yummy! I also have P Anne, another fushia. And I may add James Austin.

@Stepan S Thank you for the information and photos! Penelope Lively is gorgeous! She's been on my wishlist since I saw Ben Hamilton Anderson's short and this only cements her place on my must-have list.

I am really bummed to hear that Dannahue's flowers only last a day. I was hoping it would be a good successor to Jude the Obscure. I'll still buy it when/if it comes to the USA. It is my favorite from the recent releases (I can't resist globular blooms).

Anyone growing Bring Me Sunshine? How is that one? It's also absolutely beautiful.

Sharon, Bring Me Sunshine isn't available in the US, but Marlorena grows it in England, and she's posted photos of this rose. Currently, she's posting on one of the top threads, but I can remember which one. She shows some of her other beautiful roses on this thread. Anyone remember which thread that Marlorena is currently posting on? I'm in love with Double Easy Orange, or as I call him Orange Julius. He's Tom Carruth's orange Julia Child. Jackson & Perkins is the only seller of DEO that I know of. Diane

Thank you, Diane! Going to search for it now.

I can't find a recent one on Bring Me Sunshine. :( I tried search in discussions, in Houzz.co.uk, and even went out to Google. Is there a trick to finding a discussion? Sorry to ask, but if someone finds it, would you please add a link here? Or send me a private message with the link?

I did find the one on Dannahue: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6374693/let-s-talk-about-david-austin-s-dannahue

Sharon, have you tried HMF (Help Me Find Roses)? There are some Bring Me Sunshine photos, including Marlorena's. Diane

Sharon, I got the houzz discussion for you. It's at the top of the page. Diane

Does anyone know if this will be available in the USA ?

@Penny Aquila

It is available from David Austin TX right now.

Yawn. Another pink Austin just like all the ones before it. Big marketing push behind it.

David Austin Roses *is* planned obsolescence in the rose world, it pushing over-consumption and the notion that if it's not new, it's not worthwhile.

Pass.

Steven

Looks lovely to me. Reminds me a bit of Dee-lish for some reason, although the color is different. If it smells as good and blooms more, then it's something I'd go for.

I would love to try it in my garden as well. It has enough depth of color that I don’t think it would look washed out in my bright sunshine here, and if it’s a fragrant one, I’m ready to try it! Hopefully it’s available next year.

Once in awhile I check youtube for any new Penelope Lively videos. Roses seem a lot different when you can see the whole bush and the size of blooms in comparison.

If there is another year to wait, that's time to hopefully get comprehensive reviews.

Well here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE3F9xDszSo