I have The Poet's wife for its second year growing. My Austin's most of them it is 1 to 2 years before I really get the full benefit of them. last year it only had a few blooms. The first year the blooms were not as deep yellow as they are this year. It does get quite a bit of shade so I had considered moving it but it seems to be getting happier now. Starting to get a lot more blooms now and they are quite yellow. We just starting getting 90 degree heat and in July and August everything fades quickly if they bloom at all. I expect to have a couple months of nice color before the heat hits.

Such a sunny beauty. Videos show it so much better than photos. I love all the birds chirping in the background. You must have lots of birds where you live. TPW does pretty well here. It gets a little black spot during the hot & rainy summer but bounces back quickly. It is a good bloomer.

@oursteelers 8B PNW I don't grow Poet's Wife, but I really like clean yellows, especially with less orange if they're going to be "yellow". I got The Pilgrim this year and it was really healthy, vigorous rose here for me with the prettiest of all the yellows I tried this year: Julia Child - Too orange yellow for me...pretty but nothing unique color wise Imogen - Yellow centered white Austin. Yellow is warmer side like Julia Child and flowers shatter Graham Thomas - Again, pretty but too standard of a yellow for me The Pilgrim has the cleanest, cool toned lemon yellow and the best scent of all my yellows. I'm awful at describing scents, but it reminds me of my Jubilee Celebration (favorite). Fresh, clean, lemon citrus scent. On top of all these things I liked about it, the flowers were some of the prettiest of any of my roses. Really fluffy and could handle heat/sun well. Has a really nice subtle gradient to it which creates a beautiful glow effect. Here's are two pictures, first in warmer afternoon light, second in cooler morning light. Maybe you'll like her-

Hi Caroline, I think I live quite near you. I look forward to reading your posts and experiences with David Austin roses since we are pretty much in the same zone. Like you, I hope I live long enough to see all my Austins grow and thrive since I am a latecomer with my addiction for them. I have a large rose garden that finally, just this year has begun to reward us for all our very hard work. I had a thriving crop of thistle that has taken us 12 years to overcome but we won the battle. We have very heavy clay soils and have been hauling trailer loads of horse manure compost in every few weeks to help. We see wonderful results. Maybe we can meet in person one day and share our love of roses.