St Cecelia is new to me, coming as cuttings from a rose friend's bush last fall. Every time I visit his garden, I lust after the WONDERFUL myrrh scent of this rose. The last flower I took home from his place lasted for a few days in a vase. He uses Banner Max on his roses every two weeks, so I can't speak to disease resistance without spray. His bush is two years old, and it's about shoulder high on me.

I love this rose and I am totally thrilled to be adding it to my DA garden once I transition my baby plant out of the greenhouse!

I've had it for a long time. It is not disease resistant here (blackspot and some mildew). Otherwise it is a good rose with solid repeat bloom. Flowers are beautifully formed and last better than many Austins. The fragrance is powerful old rose and myrrh, but not everybody likes myrrh scent. It makes a full plant, upright and slightly arching.

St. Cecilia repeats well for me with several flushes through the growing season. My one specimen has a tall and narrow growth habit. At this moment it is 44 in. tall and 32 in. wide after minimal Feb. pruning and is covered with buds. As for vase life I seldom cut and bring roses into the house, but they last for a fairly long time on the bush and then the petals fall cleanly.

We grew St. Cecilia around 10 years ago in a different home and just planted it at our new home last year. I have grown around 120 different Austin roses over the years, and to my nose, it is the most fragrant of them all. The plant stays compact and branches nicely; I have never seen it grow wildly like some of the other Austins in our area which has a very long growing and flowering season. We find the globular flowers form to be particularly appealing. The repeat for us is at least average if not a bit better. The bloooms last around 4 to 5 days in the garden for us. This rose is a bit more disease susceptible (especially powdery mildew) in our garden than other Austins, but it is common to see higher disease susceptibility in highly fragrant roses. My grafted (R. multiflora) grew to around 2.5 feet in its first year and was fairly vigorous. I like this rose so much that we have decided to create a bed of 6 St. Cecilia roses; we had no problems getting cuttings to root and will put planting out our 6 own root plants within the next month or so. I have no idea why this particular rose is not more popular.

roselee, that's a gorgeous rose in what appears to be a beautiful garden. So nice to see the whole bush and its growth habit is not at all gangly, and no octopus arms. It does seem odd that it's not grown more.

Ingrid

Thanks Ingrid. Right, it has never grown those octopus arms. BTW, the outer petals don't always get brownish in my weather. Just to prove it (smiling) here some other photos of St Cecilia's sumptuous blossoms ...

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John, a bed a six St. Cecilas will be glorious!

My first year plant did well enough. It did not get any long, octopus canes. It did repeat reasonably well all summer. It is quite fragrant. With regular spraying, it did not have any big disease problems. The color of the flower picks up some apricot tone in the fall. I wish the flowers were larger. It certainly outproduced Eglantyne. I think St. Cecilia deserves a place in the garden, even if you only have one.

I want to thank everyone for your input. I'm giving this rose a try.

roselee - the first photo is the one I've been drooling over at helpmefind rose. The blooms look huge and that's what I like about it.

In my garden it has had better blackspot resistance than most Austins, better repeat, and it is a vigorous but densely branched, shrubby plant. It does have a strong myrhh fragrance, which is not my favorite scent. No mildew. It was named after the patron saint of musicians.
Linda

Jumbojimmy, I've never measured the blooms, but I consider them to be fairly large; at least with their globular form they give the impression large to me. However, they are not as large as the blooms on Lilian Austin, another oldie but goody. Just for curiosity sake I'll put a ruler across one of the flowers when it blooms.

Here in the New Orleans area, St Cecilia does quite well. The repeat bloom is excellent and I love the fragrance. Mine will be blooming again in a week or two. Can't wait.

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New to me last spring. Survived the winter but with considerable dieback. Blooms smell like fine licorice candy.

suebelle - gorgeous pics. Love how the petals of this rose are arranged. Thanks for sharing.

How thorny is St. Cecilia? Does it do well on its own roots?

Jumbo Jimmy, she grew very well here in my Semi-Arid, ZONE 5b/6a garden. She had good repeat.

She never had blackspot, nor any mildew--neither of which is a problem in my microclimate.

She didn't sprawl with octopus arms--her form was pleasing.

Her fragrance? I got addicted to what I considered her exotic, ultrafine, myrhh fragrace. I understand how some people might find some of DAVID AUSTIN's myrhh scented roses repudgent, as each type of his myrhh scented roses that I've had the pleasure of getting a good whiff of, had it's own unique fragrance--that plus we know the individual person smelling roses has their own unique smeller . Some of his myrhh scented roses--that I've had the pleasures and experiences of smelling--I've liked better, than some of his other myrhh scented roses. But I have not smelled one of his myrhh's that was repugnant to my nose. Although you know, we hear here, some of us don't like the smell of his myrhhs.

Is this rose a fast grower?--Mine was an own root band from Heirloom, and took 3 yr.s for her to start leaping, but I loved her from the beginning.

And yes, one would be enough for either a specimen or planted with other roses--at least that was the case in my no spray garden. :0)

Gardener-zone4, mine did great on it's own roots here. :0)

Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful pictures with us, Suebelle, and Roselee.Roselee, your garden is a BEAUTEOUS wonderland. :0) And, Suebelle, I LOVE your lace table cloth. Also your white with blue-flowered, pitcher with your beautifully arranged St. Cecila blooms is sooo lovely. :0)

�Saint Cecilia (Sancta Caecilia) is the patron saint of musicians and Church music because as she was dying she sang to God. St. Cecilia was an only child. Her feast day is celebrated in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches on November 22. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cecilia

Deborah

Here is a link that might be useful: Who is ST. CECILIA?

Thorns-- straight, fairly small and thin prickles cover the stems. They are sharp, but it isn't one that grabs at you. I have it next to a path.

I said I would measure the size of St Cecilia's blooms. Right now in our already 95 degree weather the globular flower is about 3 1/2 inches across.

Here she is ...
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Dove Song, thank you for the link :-)

Thanks everyone.

I've already added this rose to my order along with Claire Austin.

You guys use inches in America? We use centimeters.
So that works out to be 8.89cm. Pretty huge!

Thank you for posting this and for the beautiful pictures.

I potted up my 1st St. Cecilia yesterday. I can't wait to see her bloom.

I was wondering if anyone knows how big an own-root St. Cecilia will get in my climate zone 4?

Thanks,
Kitty

"myrrh" smells like anise or fennel (if anyone is familiar with those).

Beautiful Parker !! I have one coming from k and m this april . I may not sure I'll like the fragrance ( if it's like Jude the obscure ? I don't know what is wrong with my nose but that Rose smells awful to me ) but it's blooms are so luscious ! Can't wait to see for myself

I planted a own root last summer, can't wait for the blooms! Mine was from Linda, LongAgoRoses.

YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS ROSE!! I got one last spring from Roses Unlimited. I planted it with David Austin Rose food, and it recovered for about 2 weeks. Then it took off and went crazy after that.... Grew all new growth and leaves and bloomed it's heart out. Big handful blossoms with a fragrance that made my heart sing... Myrrh, but with a twist... Not like Cressida. Sweeter. And the color was amazing. Bloomed all the way into fall and by that time was in the shade of a fence and STILL kept on. It was my last rose to give it up in November. The Monday after Thanksgiving, we had 25 inches of snow and I haven't seen it since. :) The banks covering it are 3 feet high and snow so hard you can walk on top of it, so it will be a while before she peeks out again.

I am not ready for spring yet, but I am looking forward to seeing and smelling that rose.

Rebecca

Well that is a rave review Rebecca ! I am so glad I have it coming . :)

I just picked my st Cecila up from the rose society sale yesterday. It came from k and m , and has one bud one still a couple days from opening but I can already smell it and it is divine !!! I hope the fragrance stays the way I'm smelling now . Also I'm not sure how k and m mails their roses as someone picked them up but I am very pleased with their size !

It's a good repeater in warm climates

@Rebecca and Lilyfinch- how is she for black spot? Do you spray? If so which spray is most effective but with the least impact on the environment? I don't spray and tend to buy roses that are disease resistant but I've had her in the past and fell in love. Sadly she died from too many transplants. Her scent is divine as is her flower. I just ordered 3 own root from RU and still have concerns about disease resistance. But I just have to have her!!

Rebecca- How did she do over this horrid winter? I'm in MA, z5b so a little warmer than you but we still had a couple of winter nights that dipped to 15 below. Do you winter protect?

Thanks for any info. As always it is really appreciated

sharon

Hi Sharon! I have never had black spot in my garden, although other rose growers in my area say they have had it, so I can’t comment on that. St. Cecilia is totally disease free in my yard.

I have her right next to the house right now, so that is not a fair judge of hardiness because of the heat that comes through the concrete in the winter. However, she has been out in the yard far away from the house and survived that and 3 transplants in one year with 100 degree heat many days. I have to keep her for that reason alone. This past winter we had -26F for many nighttime lows and she winter killed to the ground, but because she is next to the house, I can’t judge that for sure. I am going to give her a year’s rest and then move her to her permanent home to replace a grafted Perdita that died last winter. AMAZINGLY, 5 of my 6 grafted Perdita survived that wicked winter planted with the graft 4-6 inches under the soil line without much snow cover, and only a few wood chips on top of the soil!!! Another great Austin rose!!

ps. Deborah in above post says no blackspot.

Rebecca

Rebecca- thanks for the update.

Wow!!! I chose Scepter'd Isle (still hasn't come) over St. Cecilia. Maybe I should have done the reverse. Roselee - your picture is wonderful!!!!

Carol

Carol- St Cecelia is supposedly being discontinued so grab her while you can find her. I had her in the past. she was probably the prettiest and most exquisite scented of all the Austins. You could just stand there and admire her beauty and sniff her lovey scent forever.

sharon

Darn. Why didn't I order it!!! GAH!!! Hortico had it. Maybe I can get it next year. Darn!!

Carol

Carol, I would buy her if I were you. Mine was so black spotted that she literally had no leaves but still produced flowers. One of the prettiest and most luscious scented of the Austins and near continual bloom. It doesn't get much better than that!

sharon

Sharon...I really wished I would have gotten her. Next year!! What is the scent like?

Carol

AH, CAROL... The scent is not as swoonable as Cressida’s, BUT it will definitely make you swoon. She is going to be my first to bloom this year. I can see a small bud forming now. If I ever leave her in one place long enough for her to perform, I’m sure she will be one of my favorite roses. Seeing as how she is off patent, I plan on taking cuttings of her this fall before the freeze for my cutting garden.

Rebecca

Carol- I've never smelled Cressida but I love the scent of St. Cecilia. She smells really sweet almost like fruity candy but not cloying or overwhelming. It's really hard to describe. I haven't had her for a few years but I remember her scent being really pronounced and just very appealing.

sharon

Oh, Sharon, you would love Cressida!!!!

She smells even better than she looks!!!!!

Rebecca

Sharon - sweet candy!!! Oh wow!!!! Why oh why!! didn't I get this rose!!!! ARgh!!!! :)

Rebecca - your picture of Cressida is wonderfully beautiful!!! Oh my!!! I love it!

Carol

Rebecca- I think I had her many years ago but she didn't do well. Probably more form my lack of experience than anything else. This forum has been such a wealth of info and I've learned so much. How big does she get for you in Z4? I'm running out f room, especially in the sunniest areas of my yard which get between 5- 5 1/2 hours of sun. Not the best condition for growing roses but some of the Austins do decent without a lot of sun.

Carol- Sweet candy!! The smell reminds me of some kind of "candy dust" from my childhood but I just can't place it. Crushed "Smarties" maybe??? I just remember that she smelled exquisite, at least to my nose, but not the typical rose scent. It's been a while since I lost her but I remember that she was my favorite rose for scent.

sharon

Sharon - arrrgghhhhh stop tormenting me. LOL :) Dang it all!!! I'll definitely see if I can get it next year. Drool!

Carol

:-)

feels like this is another one on the chopping block :(

I got Cressida and St Cecilia from Hortico who rescued these with Rick's help I think.

I am desperately looking for a cutting of this rose bush. does anyone have one still? i am in oregon.

@summersrhythm_z6a Hi there! How did your Saint Cecilia Own root from Long Ago Roses turn out? I am planning to order mine soon!!! Would love to hear :)