Moses , being in a totally different area my advice may not fly in your yard. I get blackspot on a few roses and lost Heirloom to blackspot that I never could control as I dont spray.

I have grown Lady of Shalott for 5 years and have never had even one leaf with blackspot. Even now when most eveything has terrible decrepit leaves, Lady of Shalott is totally clean.

Lady of Shalott is very clean here as well and we do have decently high black spot pressure but I don’t know how it compares with yours. I don’t spray either.

No; Lady of Shalott does get black spot and mostly defoliates by August for me in my garden.

I'm Z5b in the heart of that Great Lakes. It's own root from DAR-USA, and planted spring 2017. It's still pathetic and twiggy.

Never many blooms, either. In comparison, LoS (also own root from DAR-USA) I bought for my friend Jennie in Anderson, IN (Z6a) got huge its second growing season, and it's in worse soil and is neglected aside from some minor trimming to keep it out of the walk way. I'm peeved that it does so poorly for me while one with no attention three hours south is magnificent. 3/4 are Jennie's.

Steven

In my costal virginia garden, Lady of Sallot is extremely healthy. l had to move it (too close to water outlet) in October and it has dropper a lot of leaves but what remain now are still green and mostly spotless. It is planted at east side bed

mine got some this year but it wasn't a big deal. i don't spray. i have one grafted, 2 own-root, through a mix-up with my rose club order. it was a good rose though for its first year, bloomed a lot, and the grafted one put on some size. twin cities z4/5

...and it doubles as barbed wire to fence off your garden.

I've had my Lady of Shalott for two years. I'm in the piedmont of NC, newly rezoned 8a (but in my heart it's still 7b). I never spray; she is planted in moist red clay, now five feet tall and wide. In the summer she gets some blackspot and loses some leaves, but it wasn't a big deal and she kept blooming beautifully. Mostly I grow Kordes roses that are totally blemish-free (except one of my new ones--Laguna maybe? totally defoliated which was puzzling).

MiGreenThumb (Z5b S.Michigan/Sunset 41) Elevation: 1091 feet LOS gave me hell when I first bought it from Roses Unlimited in 2014. It REFUSED to bloom in a pot, so I moved it from pot to soaking wet clay, it gave 1 bloom in full sun but stingy. I moved it again to partial shade and it bloomed well in 2nd year.

LOS has tiny leaves so it prefers loamy & fluffy soil rather than my rock-hard clay that clumps in large "cement" chunks. I had to fix the planting hole with a 40 lb. bag of coarse sand. It blooms best with tons of acidic rain.

Leander is the one that gave me the most trouble as own-root among my 40+ own-root Austins. Leander died twice on me as own-root within the 1st year, it has one-tenth the vigor of Lady of Shalott (LOS). Leander also occupies one-tenth the space, and smells much nicer than LOS. Squirrels and rabbits ate tiny Leander in one bite since it's almost thornless.

Animals don't bother thorny LOS, and it survives many my zone 5 winters and bloom well (if watered-well).

Jude died 3 times as own-root and is equally stingy like Leander. Both bloom twice a year, rather than continuous blooming like Betty White. French Romantica or Meilland roses do better than Austins as own-roots in my rock-hard clay.

Steven: Your Sweet Spirit looks very good in HMF, I'm tempted to get that. How's the scent of Sweet Spirit compared to your many red Austin roses? Thank you.

straw, thank you for the information regarding LoS.

As for 'Sweet Spirit', I find the fragrance to be unmemorable; it's medium in strength, sweet, and vaguely fruity, but completely lacks the impact of David Austin's best scented crimson varieties. Of these, I have 'Fisherman's Friend', 'Tradescant', 'Othello', and 'Chianti's. FF and O have the best olfactory and psychological impact for the joys and memories they can stir, and feature the greatest depth and breadth to their fragrances.

In this regard, they are like 'Crimson Glory's family type of which most immediately come to mind are 'Mirandy', 'Chrysler Imperial', 'Oklahoma', 'Papa Meilland', and 'Mister Lincoln'.

Sweet, heavy, persistent. True, deep rose with an elevating punch of what I would describe as a pungent note if citrus that altogether can nearly be "headachey" on a sensitive day.

Steven: thank you for your beautifully written answer on the scents of red roses. I appreciate that !!

Mirandy has the best scent among my red roses, still regret killing per my daughter's request due to its nasty thorns. Mirandy's scent is stronger than Mr. Lincoln and far better in quality than both Firefighter and Crimson Glory.

Own-root Mirandy surpasses the red own-root Austins in my garden in scents & bush beauty and health (the Dark Lady, W.S. 2000, Wenlock, Munstead Wood, L.D. Braithwait & Tess).

A friend in my zone 5, Chicagoland, wrote the below on his grafted-on-Dr.Huey roses. He sprays but it doesn't help with Munstead Wood's BS:

(1) Jude The Obscure - lots of growth but not lots of blooms. I have 3 plants close together. Great scent but not really good in a vase. Goodbye Jude!
(2) Munstead Wood - MW has good fragrance but it's an awkward plant which also does not grow well. It's gone.

I agree with him per my observation of rose park's grafted-on-Dr.Huey Austins: Their Jude was huge at 7 feet tall, only one bloom in late fall (versus 4 blooms on my tiny own-root-Jude).

Rose park's bed of grafted-on-Dr.Huey Munstead Wood was a nightmare: bare sticks (less than 1.5 feet) full of blackspots in 2nd year. That's why I bought my Munstead Wood as own-root in 2015, and it still looks good in its 9th-year as own-root with no blackspots:

LOS below was bought in 2014 from Roses Unlimited, and it's denser in growth than Munstead Wood. Mine is own-root in 4 hours of evening sun. It does better with dense clay on top (to buffer acidic rain), and fluffy soil at bottom for better winter survival. It bloomed best when I topped it with 1 foot of leaves through my zone 5 winter.

Straw, you're an encyclopedia of rose knowledge. How can someone so young know so much? I plan to give Lady of Shallot a go....nothing to lose....gotta' keep trialing\experimenting in the rose realm. Thanks for your input and your photos.

Moses

Moses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA I'm 62, and I have been growing roses since I was 14. My Mom had a 5 acre garden in Michigan, and I learned from her to top roses with leaves first, then she dumped the wood-ash from her furnace ON TOP of the leaves to buffer the acidic snow and spring rain.

Mom told me never to put wood-ash directly on the crown of roses, its high pH will burn roots.

Our roses were grown no-spray and they were 100% healthy that way. Wood-ash provides calcium and potassium .. these alkaline minerals buffer our Midwest acidic rain.

Fast forward to my garden in Chicago, I make biochar (pH 8.6) rather than wood-ash (pH over 14). I burn wood in an outdoor pit at low flame, then douse with a bucket of water to stop burning so I get black charcoal. Roses really like biochar and I get shiny leaves too.

The shiny leaves of Munstead Wood from above pic. were from topping with biochar. Same with shiny leaves of Evelyn below:

Below cluster of Princess Charlene de Monaco was fertilized with biochar (high calcium for zillion of petals, and high potassium for cluster blooming).