Do I give up on my David Austin roses?

Weather, location and soil really affect roses. They like to have their feet in sticky heavy clay and need feeding and watering regularly. My soil is thin and gritty so the few roses I grow are in large containers but Cornwall is notorious for black spot, such a damp climate down here, so growing these lovelies is never easy.
I have Gertude Jekyll in a large ceramic pot and this year she has been wonderful, best ever since she was planted several years ago, especially her second flush. The others, not all Davis Austins, have varied. I lost 1 bush but the rest have hung on.

 

This is an interesting article about the future of roses in the UK.

What is the future of roses?

 

Very interesting, thank you.

 

15% off David Austin bare roots with the code CRAFT.

 

Thanks Plantminded, that was a good article. I used to belong to the RHS so don't get their magazine any more.

 

Ha! I gave up on the RHS last year as, since Brexit, they have managed to deliver a maximum of 2 magazines per year and always 6 weeks late and I can no longer benefit from the seed distribution scheme either.

Living in Belgium and then France I accept that I can't often benefit from free entry to RHS and partner gardens but was happy to continue paying the membership fee while I got the magazine but 2 a year comes in at £40 an issue.

Still a good deal for UK residents tho and there's lots of good info on their website.

 

I've never bought a DA rose or seen a healthy one in various garden centres. I think they are over rated and expensive - paying for the name.

In a previous garden I had nine floribundas in one bed. That bed was sandy soil being just 250 yards from the sea. I composted it twice a year (home produced) and they all thrived and flowered well from late spring through to late autumn.

Floribundas are tougher than other varieties and worth a try if you have difficult soil or conditions.

 

I have a lot of DA bred roses and agree that they are over-priced, over-hyped, over-fussy, and with a tendency to be top-heavy and therefore flop over a great deal and require supporting. The more successful roses in this garden are either hybrid teas, floribundas, old gallicas, or ramblers, none of which are DA bred, although available through their online shop. It's down to soil type and situation, of course. The DA roses I have in big pots definitely perform better than the ones planted directly into the soil.

 

Most DA roses have a specific style (or two actually). If you really like that, while you can get similar roses elsewhere, it feels like looking for diamonds in a pile of rubbish to me. If you see no value in that style and your main concern is health, then yes, they are overpriced. And there's certainly truth to them being top heavy. They do get better over time, after a few hard pruning sessions, but it's true. Also, a lot of the "shrub" ones have the tendency to exceed their expected size or even climb (e.g. Bring Me Sunshine).

Having said that, most of them have been healthy in my clay soil (the only one I have had significant issues with is Lady of Shalott) and to me their beauty takes my breath away, so I don't consider them overpriced / overrated personally, considering how long roses live for as well.

I have had 3 floribundas in the past. Disease resistance varied greatly. The most sickly rose I have ever had was one of them ("Friends for Life" - I also hated the blooms and regretted getting it). I have only kept one, "For Your Eyes Only", which is a stunning persica rose which is also very disease resistant. There are still at least 3 DA roses that I like more than it (The Pilgrim, Penelope Lively, Silas Marner).

That's not to say that everything David Austin do is great. I have really disliked some of their releases, especially the latest one. And you can get fantastic roses outside of DA. But they do have some really great ones.

 

I agree with the above. I have chosen DA roses over others purely for the scent. The Austins have cross bred a lot since the Dad retired, I feel they are losing some of the beauty of the 'old' varieties. Gardens tend to be a smaller these days so not much room for old fashioned ones to flop about. I found a gallica growing in the hedge in my garden, I have never pruned it or fed it. I tend to forget about it until I walk down the garden in early summer and wonder where the delicious smell is coming from. A single flower only may be open but boy does it pack a punch. I dislike the colour but the hips are stunning so I continue to ignore it.

 

I bought my first ever DA roses for my Belgian garden by ordering bare-roots direct from DA. I then discovered that they were a bit of a gamble given the winters we had there with -15C and worse for about 3 weeks every Feb.

At my favourite plant fair in May I then discovered a Belgian grower who sold DA roses, potted up and healthy and for about the same price or less than the DA bare roots. Most did well apart from Molyneux who died and Tess of the D'Urbevilles who needed moving twice before she was happy and Grace which also died.

For this garden I've bought some from a French online nursery at competitive prices - Lady of the lake and Malvern Hills because I like repeat ramblers and a Falstaff, Fighting téméraire and Lark Ascending but my other DAs are all from cuttings I took in my Belgian garden - Benjamin Britten, Queen of Sweden, Teasing Georgia plus a couple I had in pots - Geoff Hamilton, Munstead Wood and Graham Thomas. They've all struggled a bit in this year's heatwaves and drought.