It's beautiful and the color seems perfect there with the white and yellow. I envy you having a mature, blooming rose after three weeks in the ground. No messing around with teeny, tedious bands for you. In some of the pictures the rose reminds me of a very double dahlia.

Yes it does Ingrid, almost like a pom-pom Dahlia perhaps... I hadn't thought of that until you said... thank you...

Diane, that's a fine photo of 'Boscobel'... I've got 3 of these now and I find most of the blooms are a salmon orangey/pink colour.... I don't dislike it, and some blooms are pink - very large too...and nicely scented.... at this stage I was wondering if James Austin was more like PAOK...? but I don't have that one.. I think it also looks like an old rose or two, some of the Damasks or Gallicas for instance, something like those..

It's only just been released here...

Hi Marlorena,

Your James Austin is very pretty. I can see what Diane means; in the photos it does resemble her Boscobel. At first I thought it looked like Princess Anne but not with the salmon tones. I'll be curious to know if the color and size changes as it matures. Actually, for being only 3 weeks old it appears quite large.

Thank you so much for sharing.

Julie

When I saw your pictures, Marlorena, the thought that that crossed my mind was I wonder if someone at DA is breeding with Damask Perpetuals now. It looks like one of their better new introductions.

Marlorena, I'm not happy with PAoK--it's much more salmony than Boscobel, I think, and plinks out little homely blooms of orange coral when the weather is hot (hotter than where you garden, I'm sure). For those with milder summers, PAoK probably wouldn't do this. She also grows into a big gangly rose here which I don't think would happen in your garden. Boscobel stays a pretty medium pink all summer for me, and has the nicest growth habit, which is not the least bit awkward. Diane

My PAoK is pink so far this year, and I did get a Boscobel which is almost blooming. It will be interesting to see what color it is here. I didn't like the orange coral PAoK either.

Oh, I love the color and bloom form!!! It looks perfect in its new home. It will be interesting to see what happens to the color and fragrance with time, if anything.

Oops! sorry, meant Marlorena. Fixed it though:)

Marlorena, a beautiful Austin! I'm so out of touch with newer introductions. Your blooms rival the classic Damasks!

Diane, a beautiful Boscobel!

Carol

Love James L Austin!

Heres what my PAOK looks like normally..even in the heat. It sometimes fades to a lighter pink but never any coral tones. I have a lot of humidity..maybe that's the difference?

This second photo shows PAOK faded after several days in the heat.. (It is under Olivia). I think is was mid 90's F that week.

Do you still have this rose, Marlorena? Do you think it is different enough from Gabriel Oak and worth growing as well?

Hi Dave, hope you're well..

..no, I don't have it now... it was a good rose, well rounded shrub, and the pictures shown above are not typical, the blooms are larger than that, more pink.. but I couldn't get much scent from it, and it irritated me, so it's gone.. it was a healthy rose too, in the main..

..I prefer GO for the scent and richer colour, at times dark cherry red, other times lighter pink, but like everything else, the trade off is that it's not as healthy as James... if you live with high disease pressure.. but I can put up with it as it occurs after the first flush..

..if you have the room I'd have both, as they're different enough, but I don't have room so need to make choices..

..I should add, the rose GO is most similar to is Princess Anne..

James L Austin here. First year.

@User Hi Marlorena! I hope you are doing well, also. I understand what you mean about losing interest due to lack of fragrance - I feel similarly toward Olivia Rose Austin. It’s such a good rose but has so little fragrance. I had 3 but just have one now. I have 2 or 3 areas I would like a deep pink rose and have considered either just GO or both and so maybe I’ll get JLA for just one area if I can keep it under 4 ft. I can put up with some BS as well.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR - JLA looks large and healthy in its first year. I love the bloom form.

I love my james austin. It seems to bloom more than young lycidas so far .. both planted last spring .

It has been in bloom , various amounts but since spring! Even now , has quite a few on it . It’s in an awkward area of my yard that the sun always glares my pics of it . But I love it !

That's beautiful, Lilyfinch. I like it better than my Young Lycidas, I think.

Sheila, I love the color and form of your James Austin. Diane

Sheila that is gorgeous!!

I too was shocked, shocked, shocked by what a great color James is. I hope the gophers don't get him.

So, I was in a nursery today and saw James L. Austin and sort of fell in love! And brought it home. Will see what happens next! I agree about the color! It suprised me to see how vibrant it is "in the flesh" after all the times I have seen it in the DA catalog. I have grown GO and it was a really dud for me--super weak and I got very few flowers out of it all summer, in only two flushes, and died down to one sad cane, so it was SP but maybe I just got a bad one. JLA is magenta , deep reddish magenta, almosrt sort of a rich hot pink. Very hard to describe and most photos cannot capture its vibrancy. It's not that dissimilar from GO, in color, although I personally think JLA's color is more sort of shocking, in a good way. Gorgeous. I have also grown Boscobel, which has salmony tones that JLA does not. It was so beautiful, also not great in my garden, not particularly tough--prone to every sort of ill and pest--nor prolific, only two real flushes, although I know that for some it does great so it was also SP. My Young Lycidas, however, is tough as nails. When I got it, it was almost dead, and now it's on it's third summer, worst spot in the garden, with buds galore! The leaves are not the most attractive, sort of weirdly crinkly, but the flowers are super. And it stays relatively compact and orderly compared to some. For me, it has less pink/red tones that JLA, it's more purplish, and Princess Ann is somewher between the two, more pinkish. JLA is a bit darker. And then there's the unique form of Princess Ann's flowers that are like no other. JLA does have a scent but it's not super strong, but lovely. Perhaps of all of them, Princess Ann has the most detectable scent for me, but they are all pretty. In it's first year, Princess Ann was very hardy, but not the most profilic. In its second year, it's about to give a big show of blooms, based on the uncountable number of blooms, and is growing quite upright and tall. And thanks to people on these chats, I learned that one needs to wait a year or two to see what a plant can do, which kept her off the SP list. Hope this info helps someone in turn. Here's a photo of my Jame L. Austin, colors are true to life:

@Rose Paris

Gorgeous James L Austin.

Live to see more photos of this rose?

kitty , heres two of mine ! its such a no fuss rose . i cant complain except lack of fragrance . otherwise no faults! really a great rose !

I have to admit that my favorite of the ones discussed is Princess Anne. I love the shape of the blooms and also prefer its color, which seems just slightly more lilac. Since I've never seen it in real life I could be wrong about the color. Sheila's James L. Austin from two years ago looks more toward the purple side also, but photos can be so misleading. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and grow a rose, and of course there's also the matter of different soils and climates.