Evelyn - beauty beyond compare, long lasting blooms, fragrance in a league of its own, repeats above average, winter hardy w/o protection, BUT prone to octopus canes i.e. poor bush form, and is a black spotter.

Ambridge Rose - weak necks, small blooms. BUT blooms a lot, does black spot.

Molineaux - so so flower form, black spotter.

Graham Thomas - gets big, black spotter, flower form just so so, smells like decayed tea..very offensive.

Heritage - black spotter, stare at the bloom and it drops its petals...blooms short lived, odd and offensive scent.

Scepter'd Isle - nice upright bush form, small blooms that are short lived, another black spotter.

Obviously, Austins don't do well for me, biggest gripe, BLACK SPOTTERS big time.

If you are willing to spray for black spot, give Evelyn a go, but give her all the sun you can.

Moses

Not all of us have to spray for blackspot, and that's a good share of the West. I also believe a lot of these rose on the list need to be grafted. Diane

Evelyn peach and pink 2023

berrypie, Your Swithum is gorgeous! How big does St Swithun get for you? Does it bloom alot? Can the blooms stand up to warm weather? (blow quickly or turn white, etc.)

Blue Mountain Girl, It was nice of you to make this alphebetized list...it's helpful. I didn't know Bathsheba was unpatented, and several others on this list.

sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) it was an old photo I posted of St Swithun, all the roses from my old garden are long gone . I do remember a little about St Swithun ; it blooms more with a decent amount of sunlight.

I had two , the one in lots of shade didn't get as tall or bloom as much. My front garden never got too hot in North Idaho Zone 6b. The larger of the two bushes got about 4 feet tall, but I am a constant deadheader that won't leave the roses alone. The blooms were quite opulent and long lasting , though they do pale as they age.

I thought of buying St Swithun again, Paul Barden had good things to say about it, but the scent is just too icky for me . I bet it would be fantastic next to a sweet smelling rose that covered up St Swithun's fumes. If I ever move to a larger yard, I would be tempted to try St Swithun again, the blooms are so romantic looking

and the buds are really cute ( I'm a bud freak ).

Erasmus, could it be that Bathsheba isn't patented in the US? I just looked on HMF, and it only lists the Australia patent. Hard to imagine, though, since it's such a recent intro.

Blue Mountin Girl, thanks for posting this. I have something similar in my files, but it's nice to have it handy in one place.

Berry, I love all your photos above, but especially the one second from the top. That's a big, scrumptious looking bloom, and you're right, the buds are cute. So both the lightest pinks and darker pinks are all St Swithin? Well, on to HMF to look at photos. I'm curious about Carding Mill, too. Diane

Yes, Bathsheba is recent and popular so it's possible it may end up patented in the US yet. It may have a patent already applied for but not listed on hmf..I don't know.

I used to have St. Swithun and ordered a new one this spring. I liked it and don't remember any noxious fumes.

This pic title says " St. Swithun's first flush" 2005

St Swithun 2009

2014

'St. Swithun' is one of only 3 or 4 Austin roses that survives here (PNW) without spraying (though it does Blackspot quite severely). If you dislike the unusual "licorice/myrrh" fragrance, then you're not going to like 'St. Swithun', that's for sure. But it flowers well here, with little fussing.

If you spray to prevent disease, then it's potentially going to be an excellent performer. (in the right climate)

I think we had a previous conversation where we confirmed Bathsheba was never patented, but not the reason why. It’s too late for DA to patent now, once a plant has been in commerce a year in the US it can no longer be patented.

I have these own root in my garden and I don't spray:

Spirit of Freedom

Teasing Georgia

Bathsheba

The Generous Gardener

Benjamin Britton

Tess of the Dubervilles

Crown Princess Margareta

T

They all seem to be doing well. Of this list, the best ones in my garden are SoF, TG, Bathsheba, CPM, BB.

The Lady of the Lake, Carding Mill and Jubilee Celebration I have grafted, also, fine.

Some Austins do great own root and some are better grafted unless you just prefer a smaller plant. One Austin which I thought lacked vigor own root has very good vigor own root in another spot in my garden. Found that out last year regarding Radio Times. Thanks for the info on the patent, BenT.

Thank you so much everyone for all the lovely rose experiences, stories and photos! I’ve been enjoying looking through them!

I ordered an Evelyn that should come this spring so I am excited to see it grow and bloom.

librarian_gardener, does your Spirit of Freedom bloom and repeat well for you? Also how large are the blooms? I’m interested in that rose if the cupcake pink blooms are large and if it would do well without spray for me! I have seen its health praised before on Houzz.

Does anyone else grow Spirit of Freedom and love it? Especially in high humidity areas?

I love Carding Mill too Berrypiez! Mine is just a baby in its 2nd season now. Got a potted one from DA October 2022. It was teeny tiny! I think I stepped on that poor rose half a dozen times at least.

Two of the ones I love the most that nobody talks about are The Lady Gardener and Scarborough Fair. I can’t imagine not having them in my garden. The Lady Gardener occasionally has issues with Thrips but thats on me. They're both exceptionally healthy, great shrub form, floriferous with sturdy canes. The latter only really applies to The Lady Gardener since Scarborough Fair has a lower petal count. Neither black spots which does happen on occassion for me. Again this is something more on me but hasn’t happened since all my grass (and weeds) have been removed. All around, all my plants, shrubs, perennials and annuals are much healthier since the grass has been removed. My biggest issue is rust but knock on wood I haven’t spotted any since I shovel pruned some of my biggest offenders and none of those were Austins. Honorable mention to The Lark Ascending as well, another one I adore.

Blue Mountain Girl,

Evelyn will steal your heart! I wish I could grow her. Keep us posted on how she does for you. Also, she is no wimp...she can grow very long canes. Remember, her blooms can nod, especially when waterlogged from heavy rains. They subsequently get ruined. Her multitude of petals is her blessing...and cursing. Her vigor will amaze you. If there's a bloom more spellbinding as well as being very long lived, staying reasonably good looking to the end of its presentation, it would have to have Evelyn in its parentage.

Austin's best rose is Evelyn, IMHO.

Moses

Moses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA I'm sorry that I can't remember , why can't you grow Evelyn ? My zone is similar, USDA states it as 6b ( more like 5 in reality ) . Evelyn has gotten through 10 Winters pitifully neglected in my neighbor's weed forest..

She is a black spotter. I no longer spray for fungus attacks, having replaced just about all my black spotting roses with clean foliage ones, which these days, is easier to do than ever since so many rose breeders are paying attention to this critical selling point. I could not get her to settle down and stop producing octopus canes...canes that would reach 6+ feet and often be blind, no flowers on them. Or if there were blooms on these canes they needed to be tied up or the heavy flowers would bend them down to the ground, putting their faces in the dirt. 🤔. I think she could perform better under my growing conditions if grown grafted on Rosa multiflora, and not own root as was mine.

When a bloom opened during a dry spell with no rain hitting it, it was a spectacle, but opening during a rainy period a soggy, muddy mess resulted.

Moses

AllSass, I've been thinking about The Lady Gardener and The Lark Ascending. Some pics of TLG show some pretty apricot colors but many look very pale...how is it for you?

The Lark Ascending looks beautiful but seems to get huge for many. Do you have any pics?

.

Moses thankyou for taking time to answer my question. Reading your post over again, I see a parallel of Evelyn with my own blind unruly life. Face in the dirt is good for humbling.

I totally agree with you we need trouble free , healthy roses. A decade ago I'm not sure I even enjoyed gardening ; wearing my makeshift hazmat suit in the sweltering heat to spray the roses, then waiting for the roses to recover from the spray... what an endless cycle of fretting over them. The sparse blooms were all that kept me going, running my plant hospital. I was glad when Winter came and the work was over !

Things have turned around significantly in my current no spray, organic garden. I no longer keep any plants that don't give me maximum results for minimum effort. It's still a wonder to me why the roses are so healthy now, part of it has to be that I don't meddle so much with nature. For sure the variety of rose suited to my environment is paramount.

The Jalbert roses have peaked my interest, hopefully they will become more obtainable. Each year I wonder if i can do this anymore , then Spring comes and I'm more enthusiastic than ever. Refining the process is key. " though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

Erasmus, I do have pics but theyr’re on my SD card that I neglect or are in a folder somewhere. I took 15k pics over the last 2 years with the yards being torn up and been trying to sort those out when I am in the mood. Work has been stressful for the last 8 months so most of the time the last thing I want to do is look at a computer. it’s getting better now though so hopefully I can start sorting them all out. As luck has it, I sent my friend some pics over Christmas she wanted to share with her parents and I did send this one pic of The Lark Ascending.

Wish I coukd find a pic of the whole bush. The buds are adorable. If you recall those popsickles called bigsticks, that is what the colors of the buds remind me of. When they fade they go light pink to an almost white center but still are pretty with the opalescence some DA’s have. As they open the more heart shaped the petals become. When the sun hits them they just glow. Mine isn’t too big or at least it isn’t yet but I do have it in the back of the bed its in. I’m 5’2” so everybody is big to me lol. I’m not sure about thorns. Thorns and scent are things that I really don’t pay much attention to but probably should. I kind of just ignore them until someone mentions one is almost thornless or prickly and I’ll think oh yea it is lol. I really need to go through these pics. I got a new lens for my camera and took some really good ones of The Lady Gardener a couple weeks ago. It’s been in flush since 2/1.

Blue Mountain girl. Spirit of freedom does very well here in north Alabama and we are super humid and black spot heaven. I stopped spraying a few years ago and got rid of most of the worse offenders. SoF does get some black spot but recovers quickly and it blooms well with amazing cupcake blooms and nice scent. My best no spray Austin’s so far are Bathsheba, Teasing Georgia, Olivia, spirit of freedom and Vanessa Bell. I left many Austin’s behind on a recent move but Desdémona, Benjamin Britten, Princess Anne, Queen of Sweden and Lichfield Angel also were fine no spray. ( by fine I mean they bloom great in spring and do not get heavy black spot until late in the season). No Austin is even near 100 percent clean here so far. If you want clean clean foliage you need to look into other varieties or spray.

When I noticed the photo of The Lark Ascending above, I thought it looked a bit like Morden Sunrise, which I've grown for years. So, just for a lark, I'm posting some pics of Morden Sunrise in 2023. Diane

berrypie,

My thoughts are in line with yours. My roses used to 'torture,' 😧 me with spraying endlessly for fungus and insect issues. I seem to have licked the fungus problem, and the only significant insect pest is rose midge fly. The others: aphids, rose slug, mites ( I know they're not insects), Japanese beetles are of a far inferior magnitude than is the season long, relentless onslaught of no, zero, blooms that occur if I don't go after the RFM with guns blazing. Going organic or nearly so is not an option for RFM, because as back to nature, organic, as I may be in my garden, it doesn't prevent female rose midge flies from flying into my garden from my neighbor's and wiping out my flower output to zero, all season long...from first flush to last. I'm not growing roses for their foliage.

My face always goes face down into the mud, but I pick myself up, clean up, and keep going on. Such as in life, roses are a microcosm in a class of their own. Joys abound, sorrows occur, and rebounding assures success in the end. Sounds suspiciously like a Christians walk through life, doesn't it?

Moses

AllSass, thanks for the pretty picture and the description of TLA. I don't remember a popsicle " Bigstick". I remember orange push ups, kind of a creamy orange. Or they might be called Dreamsicles. I don't pay much attention to thorns either.

Morden Sunrise is very pretty also. From what I hear The Lark Ascending has some similar colors to Ghislaine de Feligonde but much bigger blooms. Not sure how big. Some seem to have beautiful shadings. I think I'd want an own root plant of it so it might not get as big. It probably has enough vigor to make a good sized plant own root.

Ghislaine's tiny blooms

Thank you Dianela, that is so helpful! I have all of the Austins you mentioned doing well for you except for Spirit of Freedom, Benjamin Britton and Queen of Sweden. I agree that as long as they hold their foliage for most of the summer that’s enough for me. I like to use salvia, speedwell veronica, pincushion flower etc. in front to cover their bare legs. I think I will need to try SoF!

Blue Mountain, SoF is a good bloomer and vigorous on its own roots. The blooms are fragrance and average sized and very, very thick/dense with petals. The blooms are round and deep, for sure. The only downside is that they shatter after a couple of days when cut in the vase. This is a plus on the plant, as it is self cleaning in the garden.