Wow, thanks for all the feedback, that will definitely be a lot to digest! I guess I should add my short summary of the Austin's I've grown for anyone else researching DA's for this season: Ambridge Rose - Started off in a poor location but since I moved it to a pot it has blossomed. Short grower of 2-3 ft. Once I rid it of rust it has done quite well. Beautiful, large cupped flowers of pale pink cream centers. Petal edges are often scalloped. Medium myrhh scent. Fairly thornless, lovely foliage. Benjamin Britten - Very thorny, strong and upright plant. Color is a very intriguing blend of a saturated raspberry with a tint of orange. Amazing cent is fruity and strong, of apples to me. No disease. Tall growth of 5 - 6 ft. Lots or flowers, ok repeat. Brother Cadfael - Grown as climber, very stout and vigorous. 2-3 major flushes. Huge chalice cupped pink to dusty pink blooms. Completely thorn-free. Interestingly this year, the first flush was scented strongly of myrrh, the second flush had lost that scent and was purely tea. Flowers crisp in heat but fail to full open without plenty of sunshine. Jude the Obscure - Doing great now that I removed the ivy and roots around it, took a bit to get established after ridding it of rampant rust. Grown as a climber, around 6-7 ft in partial shade. Beautiful cupped blossoms with a delectable fruity scent. The very tangy scent is probably the favorite of all my Austins. Unfortunately it seems to start losing its petals as soon as it is plucked. Very few thorns. Ok repeat. Kathryn Morely - Fairly thorny, especially around the base canes. Lovely, delicate blossoms of pink fading to white. Repeats well and often. Mine is a bit straggly since it was planted in a relatively sunny/hot area. Grown as climber, must have hit 8-10 ft this summer. Very light, almost undetectable scent. Carding Mill - My current favorite. Very few thorns, no disease. Constant flush of blooms, huge blossoms, very strong myrrh scent. The color of the blooms is amazing, fading from orange to pink to cream. When the blossoms age they turn a pale apricot, but retain its petals all the way until the end. Lovely foliage. Growth of around 5-6 ft. I love how the petal edges are scalloped, and young flowers often remind my of water lilies. Sweet Juliet - Amazing scent when you can get it to bloom. Mine seems much more bent on throwing out canes and vast amounts of foliage after the first year of blooms. Also seems prone to powdery mildew and BS. Lovely multicolor blooms that are medium to small size. Bushy, growth that needs to be well trimmed. The Mary Rose - This is probably the best bloomer I've had, with the entire bush constantly covered in peony like pink blooms - also always my first Austin to bloom each yr. Each flush the plant which I've grown as a nice arching bush (canes arch beautifully) is completely covered in medium pink flowers that gradually fade to very pale pink. Scent to me is like soap from a boutique shop. Fairly thorny and prone to BS and mildew. Generous Gardener - Tiny own root plant, seems to be a pretty good bloomer. I know I'll love the blooms, now if I can just get the plant to grow. Charles Renne Macintosh - Own root, young and struggingly against mildew. Interesting color of flowers Graham Thomas - Own root, doing quite well. Few thorns and very nicely formed yellow flowers. Lovely tea scent. Golden Celebration - Fairly good repeat, lovely scent. Nice bushy growth. Abraham Darby - picked this one up at costco w/ Golden Celebration. Very vigorous growth, although the huge and heavy blooms are too much for he canes to support. Lovely color and strong fruity scent. The Ingenious Mr Fairchild - twiggy growth with a lot of blooms. Problem is that the spindly shoots are too weak to support the heavy blooms. The scent is an interesting mix of raspberry and others. Fairly thorny, vigorous growth. Can't help putting out its unique and lovely blossoms. No disease. Geoff Hamilton - Nice bushy growth, this one has some lovely flowers. A bright pink inside its compact petals fades quickly to quite. Lovely blooms. St Cecilia - The blooms were pretty nice and it was doing pretty well until it looks like it has succumbed to some sort of spider mite, or something. Blooms turn brown in the bud and the canes and leaves are sticky all over - haven't had the time to diagnose what has happened to it. Othello - Interesting almost pinkish red blooms. We were hoping for a dark red but this wasn't it. Vigorous growth, but holy crap.. the thorns. I had never seen such a thorny plant.. it was growing double rows of thorns rather like the teeth of a great white shark. The original canes had few thorns, but the new ones you could barely see the cane itself. Unfortunately the thorns and pinkish color caused us to give it away. Scepter'd Isle - Lovely petal formation, but the flowers don't seem to last, especially when cut. Currently throwing 10-14 ft tall canes with few flowers. We're waiting to reposition it at which point it'll probably be pruned back very heavily or turned into a climber. Not much scent to the blooms, although plant is disease free and almost thornless.

Karen, I'm glad your roses did well! Queen of Sweden is one of my favorites, and Lady of Shallot is newly planted in our gardens. Well -- I did it again. After three months in the hospital I was so revved up to create beauty (and also had a 25% discount code), I ordered a number of David Austin bare roots, mostly own root, and they arrived a few days later. I was still too incapacitated to inspect or plant them myself, but they're leafing out and one has even bloomed -- Princess Alexandra of Kent. They were planted in April with temps in the 90s, and I figured if they failed it would be a learning experience. I had another bout in the hospital last week, and since I didn't get my fingers burned with the first round of roses, I ordered again after I was dishcharged (I suspect David Austin's marketing team has taken control of our hospitals here, and they hypnotize patients into uncontrollably craving their roses). Last night I found the bare roots on my doorstep, and with help, I inspected them and bucketed them in pond water. I thought they looked fantastic -- lots of green canes, good, long root systems. I'll post a picture later if I can. At Humpty Dumpty House we get donations of plants other people don't want -- roses that don't bloom, puny bare roots, and this year we even got my dream plant -- a bare root David Austin rose tree with a big greenstick fracture. So I'm used to looking at things that don't look so good. Our philosophy is to take take things (and people) that are considered broken and useless, and give them a new life; a chance to be beautiful and to serve a worthy purpose. Not saying that anyone who pays good money should have to accept an inferior plant. But reputable companies will replace it, and you can send the bad one to us (big smiley face symbol) because those ugly ducklings really can become stellar swans. I find the challenge bittersweet, and it makes me love these gardens and plants all the more. Plant donations are tax deductible, and your facebook likes are helping us reopen the gardens in June, after my lengthy hospitalization. Lots of pretty pictures, design ideas, garden advice: https://www.facebook.com/HumptyDumptyHouse http://www.humptydumptyhouse.org . . .

Thanks for the feedback everyone! It's great to have a lot of rose experts to consult with =). Patty you aren't cranky at all! We pay good money for the bushes and I do expect decent quality, though I also completely understand giving a pass to small businesses. I do expect more from David Austin's because they're such a big company and make tons of money. So we'll see what the replacement for the replacement looks like. I'd be happy with just one thicker, healthy cane. Due to the advice of some lovely people here, I've found better and more local sources for healthier Austin bushes so that's part of the reason I'll likely stop ordering from them in the future. I've shopped with Regan's, a wonderful nursery local nursery called Alden Lane, another local nursery nearby, and Palatine's this year and all of their bareroots have been much nicer than many of the ones I've received from DA in the past - though I know everyone's experience with companies are different. But that + this headache with the Princess has me looking elsewhere first before ordering with DA in the future. Sue and oldrosarian, thank you! I did end up contacting them about a replacement today. I think I'd have been more likely to give them a pass if this wasn't a replacement for one from March 2016...but I've already wasted time and resources on one dud and don't want to waste time on this one only to have it die a few years down the road with the canker + cracked canes. Thank you all for your opinions!

Viche, FYI the tester is not inherently safer except that it works better saving frustration and frustrated workers can get dangerous. An electronic voltmeter has too little impedance to work well in some instances. Sometimes you can get currents with considerable voltage induced in conductors. They can drive you nuts with their indications of voltages that vary all over the place. A yes/no detector that provides a load will fix that, faster, and better. " ...never buy a house with a hilly yard. :-/" makes me smile recalling my time in Pittsburgh. If a real estate ad was going to have it. "level yard", it was in the first line of the ad. It appears that if you want lights there and don't want to dig behind the wall, some low voltage replacements might be in your future. Find where the circuit goes underground. That is where you install your power supply for the LED lamps if it is not too far away. Running low voltage is less demanding. If the junction box is too far away (voltage drop), you can bury underground cable to a closer point. LOL @ DavidR's anecdote. It is not every day that you find that someone can break two rules with only one cable between splices, but I bet others will post.