I have JLA first year in the ground.. was slow to start but now growing nicely and quick to rebloom. Im in inland SoCal. So far JLA does well in the heat with some extra water. He's currently being attacked by chili thrips and my neighbors rabbit. The pic below isnt a great one but kinda gives you an idea of how it grows.

Thank you for response, your pic does help; it looks like blooms remain full and still have some size. Austin’s Pictures reminded me of Dark Lady (a favorite)and JLA is suppose to stay small. Assume yours is grafted.

Yes it is grafted.

Here is another picture.. of JLA just blooming away... I really like its color in my garden, I will probably order another one.

A bloom from this morning, I did not detect any fragrance yet, nice sturdy bloom it didnt shattered when i touched it.

thank you so much for keeping me informed I have decided to try this for Feb. How big would you say the average bloom size is?? the only deterrent for me is small bloom size, Where this would go needs a big or at least medicum size bloom for balance. Can you tell I am an Interior Designer. Balance is much easier for me to achieve inside than out. Some of my plants need wheels I move their plantings so often. :))

When the next flush comes I will measure it for you, though its still a young rose so its possible its mature rose size might change. ( I could be wrong lol)

Sorry I am not home and can’t measure my blooms to help with the size. My James is also a 1st year plant so the bloom size is not reliable. Here it is on my hand, I am petite 5’3 or not overly large hands.

bloom size will likely be considered medium. Most david Austin’s in my garden fall into the medium size bloom category.

here is next to Stella d’Oro day lily so it may give you an idea of size.

according to

https://rightroses.com/james-l-austin

the bloom size ranges from 3.5 to 5 and they consider it a large bloom. The 3.5 is probably what I have seen so far, but again too new to tell. Good luck!

Most helpful and very appreciated... it has nice flower form, looking for a duplicate of Dark Lady with it’s very large peony type blooms. Ha, maybe I should just plant another peony, but I have better luck with rose.

Austinkisses how well does the Dark lady perform for you? Do you have black spot pressure in your area? James’s blooms are not as large as the peonies I have but he also blooms 8- 9 months a year in my zone 7. I don’t know any Peony that can compete with that. If the Dark lady’s blooms are super large and she is healthy I might need to add her to my garden.

So far my largest size blooms in the Austin’s are Boscobel, lichfield angel and Carding mill and Princess Alexandra of Kent. Ohh I just remembered Princess Anne‘s blooms are not the largest but the shape can be very peony like.

Not at all in the same color range but in case you like them.

Boscobel specially large blooms in the spring

Princess Anne

dianela, what beautiful examples. Love the Prince Ann as a bush so glad you included. I am always first concerned about how the bush will look in my garden then about the individual flower. That wonderful bush photo you sent says it all for me. Yes, we do get blackspot in Dallas I spray but very seldom and I have not noticed Dark Lady being a magnet, I would hesitate to say she was blackspot free as most are not in my gardens. I have a Boscobel and it has not thrived. I hear such good reports on this site as she seem to be a favorite, and yours is beautiful. Mine is in the same bed as others that are thriving and fabulous so not sure what is up, she has been planted for 3 yrs, came from DA in Typer. Her petal count becomes almost single in summer and slow to repeat. . She is nowhere near the size of Dark Lady for me. DL is easy 5-6+ inches, larger than any other Austin I have grown-and I have grown many over the years. In summer heat with months of temps hovering around 100 she drops to 4" but so do I. Her color is consistent year round and I love her smell. Not much conversation about DL and she is not a strong performer in England I understand more suited to US. I have read complains about her stems not holding her blooms but this has not been a problem for me. When she has several open 5" blooms on one stem and it rains then she drops but she is not a hybrid tea after all. :))) I often put muriate of potash on my young big-bloom shrub roses to strengthen the stems to hold those heavy flowers. This works well while I wait for them to strengthen with age...

Did not mean to go on and on, you can tell she is may favorite out of many. I am zone 8a by the way. I will try to send pictures, it sometimes works for me sometimes doesn't.:)

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She is the one right next to Peace and we know how huge Peach can get. This was not the fully opened flower it just seemed to expand and expand.

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Color is more like the previous pics. This bush is in part shade maybe 4 hrs a day. I put another that was own root in the sun and both perform the same. Own root not as large as per all Austins it seems.

that would be "sun" for 4 hrs 5 is pushing it... a plus for me to get such blooms in my north facing garden. I latter pulled out the prink rose by the column because is was not getting enough sun- replaced it with an Endless Summer hydrangea that has been happy as a clam- gotta love a rose that is beautiful in so much shade.

Wow austinkisses thank you! Thank you for sharing your pictures. The dark lady looks incredible and so does everything I could see from your garden pictures. Please feel free to share more =). I also like to see full bush shots of the roses before deciding, but I don’t have any design talent so I don’t need it, just like it lol.

Sorry to hear Boscobel has not being performing well right now. I usually get more than one of each type, and I have noticed that in some cases one of the group just doesn’t perform like the rest, even planted next to each other. It makes me wonder if that one plant is defective in some way.

Here are mine with full bush shot this spring. Boscobel is the only rose here that stays at 3 to 4 feet with no pruning. The red rose in the back is Darcey Bussell which is my best red Austin so far. The cream is Lichfield angel.

omg you would not believe the difference. in our Boscobel. Had no idea it could look that great. I wonder if it likes cooler temps?? I have been looking at Darcey. Creams don't work well for me visually in Dallas heat, beside which, some I love in spring and fall are more cream in summer. Your design looks righton to me. and your roses are beautiful and obviously well grown. Keep me posted if you try Dark Lady. I am often miffed why no one sings her praises more. I wondered if she was just fond of Texas. hee hee.

Thank you! I would definitely like to try the dark lady. I’ll ask around to see if anyone grows her in a more humid area. I saw on your other post to Ben that you don’t get as much humidity in your area, and that might really help keep your roses clean. In north alabama my humidity is over 90% most of the year with lots of rain so my blackspot pressure is huge. Even the roses rated as excellent on the Austin website get blackspot here and the black lady is rated as poor. It is amazing how beautiful and lush it looks in your garden, you must be doing something right.

! But amazing pictures! Austin Roses oh, what is the pink that you removed? It's really pretty.

I think lighter pink was James Galway.
Did not know about Lady’s poor rating for bkspot. That may explain why she is not more popular. I do believe that climate is the most important element in successful rose growing and trumps all else. Learning to work with or work around our climate shortcomings and selecting roses that are cooperative in our endeavors. That came out kinda preachy sorry. This site is so, so helpful in helping us select those roses willing to work with us. I just put my zone in my name wish everyone would do that.

thank you for the comment austinkisses not preachy at all, all true. Paying attention to which roses do well in other areas with similar conditions is the best way to avoid disappointments. I always ask and try to choose accordingly. The James Galway you removed is another I really want to try. It is supposed to do well in some shade and I have a lot of grown trees around my garden so always looking for shade tolerant roses.

I now need this rose! Saving this post as a reminder.

Vapor isn’t she pretty? I really like her. She blooms in sprays, never singles and the look is so fluffy. I haven’t had much luck with peonies so far and I like the look. She does get black spot here but blooms like a champ.

Dianela, she is so, so beautiful.

Beautiful Dianela... Im jealous! my Princess Anne was attacked by chili thrips and never bloomed.

So sorry haku to hear your rose got damaged by those horrid creatures. I hate thrips. Hopefully you will get amazing blooms next year.

haku84:

I just started reading this discussion today.

On Oct 19, you mentioned that your JLA was being attacked, not only by chilli thrips, but also by your neighbor’s rabbit.

I’d like to know if the rabbit is coming over to your place all on its own, or under your neighbor’s supervision.

Dying of laughter over here!!!

Rifis - funny you should mention the rabbit it was back in my yard again today. The rabbit isnt kept in a real cage apparently but just loose in their backyard and with a board blocking it from getting out (which clearly isnt working). So when the kids handle the rabbit its not put away correctly.. Im assuming and ends up in my yard. :( Im considering buying them a REAL cage for it to live in. Im surprised actually that is surviving this long, we have a huge coyote problem, dogs, chickens, cats, have all been targeted.

Austin,

have you been to the DA trial grounds at Farmer’s Branch? They have all the new DAs grown there. My concern with James L Austin is that the petals maybe too fragile for our weather. I saw it yesterday there and the petals were badly scorched, even though our weather has been very mild. It may have had the most petal damage of all the hundreds of Austins at the garden.

They also have Dame Judi, Imogene, Mill on the Floss, Roal Dahl, Ancient Mariner,Bathsheba, all the new varieties there. Mill on the Floss I think in the Austin catalog is most beautiful, but on the trial grounds it was a rather plain looking pink rose on an absolutely huge vigorous plant. Dame Judi had horrendous dieback on every plant.

Mill on the Floss, bloom detail and full plant.

I must say my friends and I examined and smelled EVERY variety, and all agreed we liked two oldies best...Jude the Obscure and Sharifa Asma, they had the best scent. We liked The Dark Lady, Crocus Rose and Olive Rose too.

I’ve taken pictures of past visits Here And Here

Farmers Branch on my visit list for Spring! Have visited DA in England was not aware of Farmers. THANks.

I have grown all the early Austin's most in Houston, which often gives different results. My experiences.... In Dallas - Sharifa is ok not one of my favs. Liked him better in H. I was considering removing him to make room for a modern, he is healthy but tired of his thorns and his semi double summer washed out blooms. . In Houston, Jude did better than Golden. Jude bloomed continually in shady spot, kept flower form and peachy yellow color in summer. My Dallas Jude does not get enough sun to perform consistently. I must have pushed his shade tolerance too too far but I wanted him at the back of my garden where his paler color would draw your eye without stopping it, esp. in evening and at night. Golden gave me a lush spring fall displays in Dallas but he took up too much real estate with little summer rewards so it is gone. Olivia Rose is never out of bloom. NEVER. I am trying to train it into a climber but she keeps telling me she wants to be a large shrub. She is so dependable as to be almost boring. Though she is smaller and paler in summer blooms are still pink and full. The rose no one mentions much that gives me year round beauty is Mary Magdalene; bush stays small and neat, flowers good size in summer, always smells great, little or no disease. She has a lovely habit of leaving a few small petals on her spent buds like tiny pop pom that are lovely for a long time, making for more bush beauty. This even in summer. Though she whites out in high heat she never looks dirty,but rather giving impression of white rose. She looks delicate but isn't probably appropriately named. I have not grown Bolero (on my spring list) but I would think Mary is rather like that rose. Another plus... sprays of both Olivia and Mary last forever as cut roses. The tighter buds will actually open if they have even the tiniest bit of color. I know everyone loves Munstead Wood but his dark summer color reminds me of Prince which I disliked. I grown MW and he is lovely when not black red, but he does have all those thorns. Sophy's Rose is another constant bloomer that keeps form and color. Funny thing, I tried grafted Evelyn when she first came out in Houston. I hated her; octopus arms, with few blooms and then only at tips. I have her in Dallas and she is one of favorites, very consistent bloomer, keeping form and color in summer. Even in Texas results vary so much. I did not give Evelyn much time in H or TLC so fault could have been mine. I grown do grow many others but this is already more info than anyone probably wants. I do go on and on and on it seems. :))

My Dark Lady has been super, I just cut 10 giant blooms before freeze comes.