Kristine, your Darcey is lovely! I hadn’t given much thought to it previously, but now....

Vaporvac, thank you! Not too many Ohioans around here, for sure! List so far includes: PCoM, Falstaff, Earth Angel, Red Eden, Sweet Mademoiselle, The Alnwick Rose, Tranquility(but not for much longer), Wollerton Old Hall, Lady of Shallot, Distant Drums, Bliss, Quicksilver, Pearly Gates, Florentina, Wedgwood, and Brother Cadfael. I have a problem.

Even though my Boscobel is young, I think he might be a good candidate for a pot. Mine is doing fine in the ground, but Boscobel is supposed to stay mannerly, (we’ll see about that.) Boscobel is available ownroot from DA, and it doesn’t fade in my harsh afternoon sun. I only planted it in April, but the blooms have been gorgeous! Of course, I just deadheaded it’s two spent blooms yesterday, so I don’t have a bloom to photograph today. I have more buds coming, though. I’ll see if I can find a picture of a previous bloom in my phone. Lisa

Boscobels blooms on my baby ownroot plant last WAY longer, and are are larger than the blooms on my grafted 4 year old Alnwick Rose. Don’t get me wrong, Alnwick is gorgeous, but the blooms shatter in one day in the summers, here. They last a few days during spring and fall. Oh, and neither one has ever nodded for me. Both hold their blooms upright. Hope that helps a little:) Lisa

PS. Love Dude in your pepper tree, Tiffandrew! Lisa

Lisa your Boscobel is beautiful and it’s in the running for one of my pink choices. I have narrowed down my pinks to Boscobel, Princess Anne and Wildeve.

I have narrowed down my other choices to Desdemona, Munstead wood and Darcy Bussel. For now lol

Rachel - that's a pretty Falstaff!! It's pretty new...you may like it better in another year. :)

Kristine - oh wow!!! That's a gorgeous shot of your MW!!! I love it!!

Lisa - wow!!! Your Boscobel is fabulous!!!! Oh swoon!!! There's no fragrance...is there?

Carol

Everyone’s roses are soooo pretty! Wish we all had an endless amount of space and cha-ching!! I feel like I’m one of the few hobby gardeners of my age bracket... I’d rather spend my money on new pots and plants LOL! One day when I get my own house...!! That will be the day!!!! Does anyone have any experience with Scepter’d Isle? It looks so incredible and DA website recommends it for containers, but I’m not sure what “myrrh” smells like! I’ve heard it smells unpleasantly medicinal and I’ve also heard it smells amazing. That would be a beautiful pink to go with many roses if it does not fade!

Grace, I'm trying to figure out myrrh too! I thought that I would love it based on loving Jude so much, which I heard had a bit of that scent.

So I gleefully bought Wollerton Old Hall, and it smells like cough syrup to me. They are doing great otherwise and so many people like the fragrance that I don't know if it will change into something wonderful, or if it just doesn't agree with me.

I’ve been to several public gardens that had huge Austin collections, and from smelling thousands of plants, I think I have a good handle on myrrh. It’s little bit like licorice or anise, and it’s probably one of my LEAST favorite scents for a rose. Sceptre’d Isle is one of the purest myrrh scents, I love the plant and bloom, but I don’t grow it because I really don’t like the scent. If you took Double Delight and removed all its wonderful rosy, lemony, fruity and spicy essences, took out all that wonderful complexity and kept that one lingering anise note, you’d be left with... Sceptre’d Isle! lol. For me Jude has no myrrh whatsoever, and belongs in the fruit scented Austins. It smells of ripe tropical fruits and perfume, truly unique and wonderful, could not be more different from Sceptre’d Isle. I love the fruit scented Austins as much as I dislike the myrrh scented. Golden Celebration , Lady Emma (grapefruit), Evelyn (peach) are other wonderful fruit scented Austins. Double Delight and Tahitian Sunset are two roses that have a myrrh note combined with many other scents and smell amazing , too. But those single note myrrh scented Austins...I’ll pass.

Lavenderlace,

Yes, for us who don’t know exactly what myrrh smells like, it is quite confusing! It certainly seems like a definite a hit or miss for everyone- I haven’t seen an in-between haha. Guess I will not be getting any roses with the pure myrrh fragrance. BenT gave us great suggestions on some DAs with scents that will be good to our noses like Jude!

BenT,

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I was seriously thinking of switching out Olivia for Scepter’d Isle. I think I much prefer the fresh floral scent of Olivia. The bloom form and rumored health of Scepter’d Isle made it such a jewel in my eye! So sad that the scent of myrrh is so strong. Since I absolutely LOVE fruity and floral scents, I’m probably going to look for other ones!

Now I will need to to go back and re-smell my Wollerton Old Hall once this flash opens up! I can’t describe myrrh for anything, but I do know that I was absolutely in love with it’s scent. The non-stop blooms have been helpful too. I can’t really identify or describe scents very well at all, to be honest. With the exception of Falstaff being lemony, and Sweet Madamoiselle being very sweetly floral. That particular rose has a very very strong floral scent, to me at least. That might be one that you like, Grace.

BenT, I also agree with your suggestion for Evelyn. I made a visit to a botanical garden recently:

Here is Evelyn trying her best in intense heat.
The scent is amazing! Kept going back to smell her. I’ve heard heat will reduce bloom size and scent. While I’m unsure of her health in my area (the shrub did not look great), the scent is to die for.

Wonderful pics you all have shared! I have wanted to grow Falstaff and William Shakespeare 2000 so bad but I am out of room in my garden and so a pot would be the only option. Potted roses can bring out the worst (as far as disease resistance goes) in a rose with the environmental stress that comes with being potted and so I’m a bit afraid to try those two.

I did pick up The Poets Wife this weekend to add to the patio. I went to get another rose but TPW looked so healthy and had a nice rounded shape and so I just had to buy it.

Ben is correct about the myrrh scent - very anise like. Scepter’d Isle has a sharp anise scent (one I did not enjoy years ago but now like) vs Tamora that has a sweeter anise scent. Bathsheba has a very warm, sweet anise scent and is becoming a favorite.

Oh, I was going to suggest ensuring potting soil drains well by adding extra perlite and/or vermiculite. The worst mistake I made was making “homemade” potting mix that worked okay at first but in less than 2 years the roses experienced a decline in every way as the organic matter turned to sludge.

Thanks for that info regarding pots and stress with disease resistance, Dave! I wasn’t aware of that!

Hi Grace,

I agree, Evelyn is one of the nicest scented among all roses. Several of the forum members told me Evelyn requires just a ton of sun, water and food, I followed the advice and she really seems to respond to it! Evelyn has bloomed all through this super hot summer , we had 2+ weeks where the average high was 104, every day well over 100 degrees. The flowers were bigger when it was cooler, but still there was plenty of new growth and peachy blooms during the hottest time. Evelyn also has perhaps the best substance of all the Austins, the flowers last much longer than the average Austin. My Evelyn this spring:

Golden Celebration:

Jude:

Ben, each one is a winner .

Rachel, thank you for your suggestions! I will be sure to keep my eye out for SM, sweet floral sounds right up my alley! I absolutely love the beauty of Falstaff so I’m going to add it to my wishlist as well.

Ben, your roses are gorgeous and so healthy! They are beautiful. Now I’ve got even more roses to wish for.

I was at a local nursery over the weekend & they had just received a shipment of potted DA Bishop's Castle - they were warmed by the sun & smelled amazing - super strong classic rose scent. I think it's a larger plant so might not be a great choice for a pot, but I was tempted to buy it based on the fragrance alone!

Ben, you are giving me hope that I might actually be able to grow Evelyn if I really put my mind to it!

Sure Grace! She’s an absolute beauty for me, and lasted for a week at my desk at work!

Rachel

I appreciate the comments and pics of Sweet Mme, it’s a tiny brand new plant for me and I’m glad it will smell great and be long lasting, two really important qualities for me.

Did you wallpaper your office with roses? Lol! That’s a good rose lover.

Haha! Yup. It’s actually fabric that I pinned up on a wall of by cubicle. Interestingly enough, I did this 1.5 years prior to ever purchasing a rose.

I'm surprised no one seems to have mentioned Lady Emma Hamilton! Of the five varieties of DA's I grow in pots, she's the most well-behaved, and usually the one that neighbors ooh and ahh over. The scent is unforgettable, like fruit candy, but not obnoxiously sweet. Her blooms can be a strong orange color, or a mix of sunset-apricot and dark pink, but they are plentiful and fade from that, to a bright

coral, to a mottled pink. I love how the buds and blooms open into different shapes. The petals also seem sturdier than the others I grow.

f.rosario - I just got a really, really small bareroot (got it free, because it was too small to sell)...and it's starting to bloom now....and the fragrance is the best I've ever smelled!!! 10/10!!!! I love your 2nd picture...looks great in its pot!!! It looks like it's an upright bloomer for you! So was my first/only bloom...glad to see it stays like that. :)

Carol

rosecanadian I left my plants with a neighbor for two months and now Munstead Wood looks like a many-armed swamp creature, Lady of Shallott seems to be vomiting canes, Jude the Obscure resembles a fork with 8 tines, and Brother Cadfael has one fat cane 7 feet tall and another that's 6 feet sideways. Only Lady Emma is recognizeable as a shrub.

Vomiting canes!!! Oh I love that!!! You are too funny! LOL I think I'm going to love Lady Emma H. :)

Carol

Wow so many great pics from everyone!

BenT your Evelyn and GC are beautiful! I just might be inspired to try them both again, seeing yours makes me think that both did not do well for me due to location. I’ll have to try them in different areas of my yard next time around.

Rosario thanks for sharing pics of your LEH, she’s beautiful and I love how shrubby she looks in her pot, I wish I could smell her too! Your rose fabric is so pretty too, that has to make being at work more pleasant to have roses to look at on the wall and to have smelly roses on your desk. I love rose fabric too, my mom recently made a quilt for me with all rose fabric so now I have a rosy quilt and it’s awesome!

Cyndita that Bishops castle looks amazing! Did you buy one? I would love to have one but maybe not for a pot, I think it wants to be a large bush so not sure it would be happy in a pot but for sure I will put it on my list for the garden in the future.

Carol that’s so great you were able to get a small bare root of LEH and it’s already bloomed for you!

Dave great advice on potting mix too and that’s so great you got The Poets Wife, it looks like a really pretty yellow, I would love to see pics when it blooms for you.

I am wondering why I haven't gotten LEH, maybe this spring.

I am trying to re home some of my roses but obviously my friends art as into it as I am and I can't find any takers for some of my roses I guess they will just get to stay in pots for now.

I will add to the praises of Lady Emma's, though I only have two. Love the fragrance but one new pot has produced over a dozen blooms while the other one hasn't had its first bud.

f.rosario's beautiful plant is fantastic!

Kristine, I found that with my gifts, at first people would take one or two, and then they would run if they saw me coming with another one!

But then they get hooked like the rest of us!

I think I will have to do like growers of Zucchini do, sneak it into their car and run away

Love the Lady Emma pics. I agree, she has one of the most unique and wonderful scents...like grapefruit. By the time I decided I needed one, all the mail order places were sold out :(

Kristine

Just place it by the front door, ring the doorbell and run away. Hang a pitiful little sign on the rose like ‘Hello, My Name is Savannah and I’m an Orphan’.

...make sure to cut away those weird looking blooms or your girl will remain an orphan.

Ha ha Ben. Too bad all of her buds look like that. She is turning into a big waxy dud

BonCrow - Thank you! :) I'm so excited about LEH!!!

Lavenderlace - that's strange that one LEH is doing fabulously and the other isn't. Just proves that sometimes it's not our fault. LOL

So far I love my Savannah...it's a bareroot that's only about 1 foot high and it has 4 big blooms on it. Now it has to grow a little. :)

Carol

boncrow - I didn't buy one of the Bishop's Castles, but I was really tempted! I took the picture to remind me to put it on my "consider for later" list :o)

Carol, is your Savannah on multi flora rootstock?

Kristine - yes. :)

Cyndita Bishops Castle is for sure on my “one day must have “ list. I’ve been really impressed by how it can take the heat based on what others have posted about it. I’m really excited to plant some DA’s in pots, so far I have had some really great suggestions and ideas so it’s going to be fun narrowing it down to the final selection.

I'll chime in, bought Claire A last year and Jude this spring. Claire is nice, I wanted a white, but after our cool spring she seemed to have succumbed to botrytis. I must research to see what can be done. When I got Jude, it was crummy weather and delayed planting for some time. After potting it just sat there for weeks and I thought I killed it, but then it took off. Got a bunch of lovely first blooms with great fragrance (why I bought) and now has about eight buds on again! I'll have to take pictures when they bloom, very happy with this one.

Thanks mercurygirl! Claire A is a beauty and one I have looked at too. And I may have to take another look at Jude since he seems to be so popular with everyone but I was afraid he might grow to large for a pot. How was his fragrance for you since that’s the reason you got him? And I am looking forward to seeing your pics!

I have another question for everyone growing DA roses in pots.

Own root vs grafted, does it make a difference? DA sales potted own root but their bare root roses are grafted. I’m curious if one is better than the other as far as growing them in pots.

I don't know the answer, but am interested, as well, boncrow. I figured the pots for mine will be temporary, as my soil needs work. Both of my DAs are growing well and may need to be transplanted before too much longer. I applied the DA rose food at planting and in spring. Claire has gotten much bushier, was lankier last year, and also has some new buds. We'll see if they form and open this time. Jude's fragrance was strong and very rosy to me, although seemed to vary with time and bloom. I found one blurry photo of the first blooms. Will try again when all these buds open.

Boncrow, my Jude hasn't gotten too terribly big in its pot, but it sure does seem like it wants to climb. It grows upright on canes that aren't too flexible, but the overall shape is uneven. I don't know if that'll change after a pruning. It seems to take the heat well, but flowers exposed to direct summer sun burn quickly. The scent can be a bit polarizing for some-- my roommate thinks it smells like (unused) baby wipes, I think it smells like tropical fruit, but we usually agree that after a certain point it smells a bit indolent, like wilted jasmine. Here's a bloom from today that was shaded and didn't look burned:

Also my Lady of Shallott was an own-root bare root (the others were all grafted), and although she is certainly very vigorous, she has bloomed the least out of the five Austins. I even tried pegging some of the tall canes, and she still looks like a fountain of leaves. Maybe next year. Apparently the own-roots take a while to come into their prime.

Mercurygirl - now that is what I want from my Austins!!!! Your Jude is stunning!!!! All of my Austins are terrible. Beautiful!!! Yours looks a lot like Abraham Darby.

Thanks, rose c. The blooms did start out quite peachy pink, then faded as they opened. I can see the similarity, have an Abe D in the ground, which should probably be transplanted. He was a cutting from my old house ten years ago.

LEH and Jubilee Celebration have been doing well in pot for me. Got Abe this year and it has been growing like mad in its pot, but I think it it's growth habit does not lend itself to a pot long term.

Rotor when you did Abe in a pot, was it own-root or grafted?

*totoro, so sorry.

Everyone’s DA are so gorgeous! I have heard that Jude wants to be a large rose so that’s why I haven’t considered him for growing in a pot although he is a gorgeous rose.

So far my for sure list is narrowed down to:

Munstead Wood

Desdemona

Lady Emma Hamilton

i want to add one more but still not sure what I want, I’m leaning heavily towards Princess Anne, Anne Boleyn or Young Lycidas or Boscobel. Out of those four Boscobel is in the lead lol.

Roald Dahl (first season)

I have a new Desdemona in a pot (planted in June) - it had a beautiful mini first flush, but then the blooms all scorched in the hot afternoon sun. So, if you go with Desdemona, I'm thinking morning sun + afternoon shade would be good (I'm going to move mine, once I find a better spot for it).

Here's a couple of pre-scorch photos - I didn't take a post photo, as it was too sad. (Of course, the white stucco wall behind it certainly didn't help, but the scorched blooms were facing away from the wall.):

Another really good yellow Austin for a pot is The Poet's Wife. Olivia Rose Austin is a good pink one also.

If you want a fluffy pink, have you considered Princess Alexandra of Kent? She's about 3.5 x 2.5 and, according to David Austin, has a "delicious fresh tea fragrance with aspects of lemon and blackcurrants."

Princess Alexandra of Kent

I wouldn't know since I do not grow her, but if I had any space left open, I would definitely plant her in my garden.

Austin adds that she is highly fragrant and very healthy also and "ideal for pots and containers." Really BIG blooms, I'm told.

Kate