Thanks for the comments on Wisley, sounds as if it could be an Austin for me. (I must confess that I was disappointed at first as I thought your post would be about the Wisley garden!) How does Wisley compare to Heritage, the most common and best loved pink Austin in Sweden? I am not a great fan of the Austin roses after having seen nearly all of them at the RosenJensen nursery in Glksburg, Germany, and didn't like their growth habit at all. I like my apricot Abraham Darby, though, my only Austin except Constance Spry.
Marianne in Sweden

I haven't heard of this rose before, but that rose looks very pretty and healthy. Love the growth habit too. Cupshaped - you seem to grow so many nice, healthy roses. Interesting, when I was at a nusery two weeks ago, I had a choice between getting a Jubliee Celebration or Jude the Obscure. I ended up getting JtO. Reading through this post made me feel good about my decision because scent means a lot to me too.

mariannese - There was this UK gardening series I used to watch via pay television featuring the wisley garden - I loved that series...too bad I can't remember the name of the series now.

Cupshaped--I could not see your pictures with the link above. It just brought me to the Photo Bucket home page.

Yes Wisley (The Gardens) are magnificent and a must see for those visiting England.

Heritage is one of my favorite Austins (I think I have about 14 plants of them). Even if it freezes to about 3-4 inches above the soil level it will bloom all summer and be 5-6 feet tall in the fall (Unbelievable vigor). Hardiness is however not so good. This sometimes causes the rosebushes of Heritage to look a bit strange in colder climates. Planted in a group of 3 they form a big nice rosebush.

Wisley certainly is vigorous! It is rare to see Austin here that will form a nice rosebush planted solitary (I have only seen Teasing Georgia, Charles Austin, Golden Celebration and Crocus roses do that) Most other needs to be planted in groups of 3, so they look like a bush and not just a few floppy canes. The Growth habit of Wisley is certainly better than Heritage! Leaves are not so dark and modern in appearance as Heritage. Heritage is susceptible to mildew
but Wisley seems more healthy. The Flowers of Wisley are bigger than Heritage and they last longer on the bush. Wisley is more thorny than Heritage. The Scent is really good, maybe not as strong as the Scent of Heritage but really good and strong mixed fruity/old rose. Way better than Jubilee Celebration and Alan Titschmarsch IMO.

My Constance Sprys roses do extremely well here!!! Have gotten really big ... Have produced 6-7 new long 10-12 feet canes. I so look forward to next year it will flower

Jimmy: As for Jubilee Celebration: I do not like the fragrance of this rose very much. It is also really bad as a cut flower. It sort of become weak and soft as a cut flower. But I have never seen good plants of this rose anywhere. Personally and on pictures on line. My groups of 3 have an excellent position, but have low spreading growth and one hardly ever see one of the flowers, since they nod or flop to the ground. I give it one more year to improve ... I suspect that it will do better in a warmer climate!! But show me a good picture of nice Jubilee celebration bush! I have yet to see a nice specimen of that rose (Even though I have seen many good pictures of the blooms), the bush always looks low and floppy. Would be nice if any body could show a picture of a nice bush of JC.

Jimmy If you grow Austins for Fragrance these are the roses you want to look for (Othello (very strong heavy Old rose, Gertrude Jekyll,(very strong fresh old rose), Jude The Obscure (Strong tea with fruity notes), Sharifa Asma (Very strong fresh old rose and some fruity notes too). Whether they will do well in your climate as to growth habit and health is another matter.... What USDA zones compares to yours (Australia is very different)? What latitude/ city are you on/in?

And yes I grow many roses and is very critical. Most only survive about 3 years in my garden areas. But I try to plant most new roses and give them about 3 years before I decide whether it is a good rose (For me and IMO). Austins seems to like the cool, mild climate here (summer temps about 68F to 80F (90F is a heatwave here) and do not grow to huge sizes like in America. We also have very few insects that damages roses here (Notice the 2 rolled leaflets ...from leaf rollers I just remove these on my daily inspection walks.

jbfoodie That is very strange I see the pictures posted? Are the pictures not there for you?

cupshaped_roses - firstly I like to thank you for providing us with such a descriptive reply here. Really appreciated.

Usually when your roses are susceptible to mildew, do you spray them or leave them alone?

And thanks for your recommendations. I have Falstaff instead of Othello. My Falstaff gets powdery mildew, but I really adore the blooms - so beautifully cupped. The pics of Othello that I've seen in the net looks pretty too so I might add one next year.

As for Gertrude Jekyll, I don't like the flower shape of this rose. But I've read that David Austin used Comte de Chambord to produce GJ. Could you tell me a bit of Comte de Chambord, because I'm thinking of getting this rose next year.

Cupshaped--now the pictures are showing up. They weren't when I was looking at this post before. Very strange? Anyway, Wisley is a beautiful rose. Thanks for posting the pictures.