Not yet Nollie but I only know about DA roses and you’re right yr 3 being the time they really get into their stride and show what fabulous roses they are. Following this thread has been a real eye opener for me and made me realise that DA roses are not the only ones around.
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
Ha! I bought one last year to cover an area of fence at the back of our garden, but before I had started reading this forum - so I missed the warnings. It doesn't seem to get a lot of favourable mentions so I somewhat concerned! So far though, I have to say it has done what we wanted, which is more or less cover the area in question and is now producing a lot of pretty blooms. What comes in the next few years, once it has got established..? I think though that it should be pretty easy to remove if it becomes unmanageable. Or will it?
It took me three years. I cut it to a stump and every time a shoot appeared, i rubbed it off. It gave up eventually. That stage was easy enough, but removing the branches and roots was a bit of hard work before that. Mine was in the middle of a large flower bed with a long area of fence but it took over and swamped everything. but if you dont want to grow anything else down there, you should be ok. In the right place, I'm sure it would be great. I put mine in the wrong place.
Exactly that @Bright star, there is a whole other world of roses out there and this thread and Marlorena’s ‘Notes’ thread have opened my eyes too. Some of my DA’s are fabulous, but there are a few duffers, or ones that turned out not to be to my taste.
Have a browse through Peter Beales’s site for starters, or if you have an idea of height, colour, what aspect you want it for etc, post those details and ask for recommendations based on your criteria?
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I agree, plus there are rose choices I made in my more ignorant days when I knew little beyond David Austin, that I would not make now. Trouble is, you invest so much time in them and they only really come good (or not) in year three, so ripping them out seems a terrible thing to do.
My Austins planted this March looks better now than my older Austins (years old, hard to guess how many, but certainly over 3), which is a bit depressing. They are like happy naive children with no real life experience which will get crushed by life later when the blackspot appears and after autumn gales and wet Welsh winter... but we will see.
I guess I have so challenging situation (climate and soil combination) that I should keep everything that grows well here, no matter if I like it or not. And that it is always going to be trial and error.
I am at the moment quite into old roses but almost every time I like the look of something, it is once flowering or too big or with a bad disease resistance (often all these combined). And almost always I can find some Austin lookalike or other modern old looking rose which is repeating and suitable for small garden. Unfortunately, Austins aren't the best for disease resistance. But I spent yesterday evening researching the ADR trials and I don't think there is a single rose that I like. So it is always going to be some compromise.
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There's the Amber Queen bud again.
Ghislaine de Feligonde:
Have a browse through Peter Beales’s site for starters, or if you have an idea of height, colour, what aspect you want it for etc, post those details and ask for recommendations based on your criteria?