If I remember right, my first Abe blloms were not very big either. They're beautiful now! Tho not very plentiful... I think mine is in too much shade.

I would not worry about first blooms. In my experience they are usually not representative of what the plant will eventually do when more mature. Blooms often improve in many ways... petal count, form, fragrance, size, and even color.

where are you.. big city name..

fertilizer is not a panacea of all plant problems ...

a recent transplant is lacking a mature root mass .. burning off an immature root mass wiht excess fert ... will not speed you along the path to success ..

frankly.. with any perennials.. confers.. shrubs.. etc .. i expect nothing the first year.. under the presumption that the plants are growing said root mass for the rest of its life .. im not much concerned if plants fail to bloom the first year.. or have less blooms.. or smaller blooms.. etc ..

just water it properly.. protect it for winter if necessary... and next year it should all be fine ...

btw.. in my MI .. i would not fert after about 9/1..a s i want my plant slowing down for ground freeze winter.. not be all juiced up and not hardening off properly.. only made that mistake once.. and winter killed a bunch of roses.. go figure ..

ken

Welcome to the club,Mishu. I grow the original "Twig Darby", and I attribute part of his problem to being an own root. He needs to be grafted--at least in my garden. Diane

Ken is right Mishu.

My own root Abe has huge blooms. Baby roses have smaller blooms of course.

This is probably the only issue I disagree with Diane on. Her Abe is gorgeous but Diane has so many huge older roses, she is hard on Abe.

Sheila, he doesn't bloom much, either, and his blooms fry so fast, I haven't seen any decent ones since spring. Compare that to my two Munstead Woods, top workhorses and always sporting beautiful blooms. Or Golden Celebration. There's no comparison here. It's not just the size of the plant, but the bloom or lack thereof, also. One of my Munsteads has been in my garden about they same length of time as Abe, and MW is largish, but not huge. Diane

Diane, MW is amazing always here too. I can see where you see where Abe could improve. Many of us have a hard time thinking any of your roses could improve. They are the best!

Thank you, Sheila. I'm sorry I was so harsh on Abe. Speaking of bloom surprises, my tiny Blue Bayou declined for years and I thought it had died. But no, it came back a few years ago, and yesterday, you could have knocked me over with a feather. BB has got two buds. I am so curious to see this little thing bloom. Roses are strange. Diane

I just put a chair over a tiny Tea rose that is cooking in full sun and heat like yours, Diane. Why didn't I think of this earlier in the season? Duh? I have all my pots on the North side of my home, but I let this baby fry. I wish it could put up a new shoot and I could redeem myself.

Good luck with BB.

Abraham Darby's bloom as 1st-year own-root (from a tiny rooting 1/4 band size from a friend) was 3" across after 2 months in a 3-gallon pot. Below pic. was 1 month as a tiny-rooting:

Below was its 1st bloom after 2 months as a tiny rooting, at 3" across:

After 3 months grown from a tiny rooting, Abraham's blooms easily compete with other 8+ year-old own-roots in the vase (it's the lowest left pink). It's fertilized with high potassium fertilizer Schultz SOLUBLE for tomatoes at NPK 17-18-28 (1/2 dose weekly). Pic. was taken last year 2021. I also mixed in plenty of gypsum in the pot WAY IN ADVANCE. Calcium gives more petals, and potassium helps with big bloom since it's essential for water osmosis:

Now Abraham Darby is in my dense clay as 2nd-year own-root, I neglect fertilizing it, and blooms are the same size as when it was 1st-year tiny own-root in a small pot.

Diane, keep us posted on your Blue Bayou. We've discussed BB in the past, and even though my two are now gone, I still hve a soft spot in my heart for it :-D

@alameda/zone 8/East Texas, there are quite a few nurseries that sell the discontinued Austins, but with the proviso that they only use the breeding code as a name, and dont sell the current offerings. Sad, but at least they are still available from LongAgoRoses, Hummingbird, FreedomGardens and a few others. It does make it difficult if you want to combine shipping for all your Austin roses, though. 😣

Judith, So to clarify, if you click on a rose on the David Austin site, and it says, Out of Stock and Returning 2023, whereas some just say Out of Stock and nothing about returning..they dont say they are Not returning but just Out of Stock..so those ones are not going to return?

For example: try clicking on Spirit of Freedom.

I wonder why they are bothering to list them if they aren't returning?

This is what the girl told me when I called DA roses yesterday - roses like Abe Darby, Tamora, Benjamin Britton and some others did not say "returning in 2023" so from what she said - these will be discontinued. Dont know why they still list them......maybe will revise the website in Dec. or January. Other rose nurseries update in Sept. or Oct. and DA used to but now........they wait til almost time to ship in Jan/Feb. before they update. Surely they know what they are going to be selling before then???

Vap

`i agree Austin’s old rules were once a patent expired a DA rose could only be sold by its code name (Ausaucer) and not by the common one (Evelyn) which Austin had trademarked.

But in recent years they put additional pressure on their partners. If a grower wishes to sell the patented , newer Austins, they’re not allowed to sell the ones Austin wants discontinued (Abe, Evelyn) etc, at all. It seems some of their partners were asked to stop selling their roses entirely this year. Hence several vendors are no longer listing any Austin roses. I understand they are running a business. But it Seems to me they are trying to extend their reach far beyond the normal patent rules for the sake of financial gain.

The Austin licensing issue was discussed in more detail Here

A quote from an idenpendent Austin grower:

“After being a licensed grower of David Austin roses for a n of years and promoting their roses that we grow on fortuniana rootstock, ealways paying my royalties on time and always giving them the benefits of doubt, I was informed today that they will no longer let me grow their roses, they are no longer letting small growers have licenses to grow their roses. It is just one more nail in the coffin of a small independent grower. I am extremely angry and shocked. I was always taught take care of the small person and you will be taken care of”