I’m so glad you tracked one down. i hope it is extremely healthy

Echo -- so sorry about your LEH! I'm told that using a wire brush to gently scratch the base or bud union can stimulate new canes. Scratch enough to get through the crusty outer bark, but not enough to get to "green." Green would be too far, supposedly. And, alfalfa. I've tried this on a few roses when I pruned, so I'm hoping that works!

Alfalfa tea has broke new basals on my roses.

Thank you ladies for suggesting alfalfa tea. I have been wanting to try it and was looking up a recipe for it. I was mentioning it to some of my local rose friends and they were saying to get the meal and water it in. I see some people really swear by the tea and I’m kind of torn on what to try. I may do a Pepsi/Coke challenge where i do a meal watered in and a tea on the only rose I have two of- Jude the Obscure- as a control. One is grafted from DA and one own root from A Reverence for Roses and smaller so really not a true control but would be a fun experiment.

Echo , I have used and loved alfalfa tea ! I am wondering how it compares to spreading composted horse manure. I was able to get some this week for my garden and I spread it before our rain . I wonder if it has the same affect .

When I made alfalfa tea before I spread it I’d make it extra awful by adding a container of fish emulsion and more bloom . The smell !!! So awful lol

Lilyfinch, I do the same thing! My children think the stench is unbearable. I laugh it off because my plants like it. And composted horse manure is wonderful in our dry climate because it really helps my soil retain moisture and roses love whatever is in it. But I’m pretty choosy about where I get my horse manure from- if the horses have been fed Bermuda grass, I avoid their manure. I hate Bermuda grass in my garden!!

Also, make sure your hay hasnt been sprayed with Grazon! Roses aren't as susceptible to Grazon damgage as beans,tomatoes, peppers, mulberry trees etc but they can be damaged with enough. Grazon is a weed killer that is becoming very commonly sprayed on hay. It will persist for years, killing stuff and making their leaves deformed, preventing flowering ir fruiting even after going through the animals system!! They tell farmers the animals can eat sprayed pasture after it is dry and that its safe. My opinion is I don't believe it.

Alfalfa hay isnt typically sprayed with Grazon. Most people will give their horses Alfalfa Hay and the cows, non dairy goats, etc bermuda/coastal hay. Many in the South give perennial peanut hay to their goats. I give perennial peanut, alfalfa, orchard grass and or clean bermuda/coastal hay mix. You have to find out from the sellers/farmers what they are using and if its sprayed with Grazon. If its totally organic, that would be best but they may charge more (rightly so -its very expensive hay)for that clean composted manure.

We accidently put Grazon Costal Hay which was composted in the corner of barn when we first moved here, into a new raised bed. I thought, great composted hay for a filler on the bottom! I didn't know about Grazon then.

If you are in doubt, add a little bit of composted manure to dirt and sprout some bean seeds. They come up quick and after a few leaves, if grazon affected, those leaves will be very distorted.

Another tip..most people give their rabbits Timothy Hay and Alfalfa pellets. Niether of those hays are typically sprayed with Grazon. So if you can get a hold of bunny manure it would be ideal. Also for those who cant raise farm animals , they might still be able to have a rabbit hutch and have a few bunnies. You can worm compost under those hutches as well. Then you will know what your compost has or doesn't have.

Wow, Sultry, that’s terrible. Why is stuff like Grazon approved for use in our country? I have never heard of it before, but apparently my source for horse manure is safe as I have used it in my garden for several years without any issues. And I grow beans every so it should have showed up by now. Thanks for the heads up on that!

Echo, instead of doing your tea experiment with the grafted and own-root Judes, maybe try two roses of approx. the same age and condition? Just a thought. I'll also give a hearty thumbs up for horse manure... I had a student who gifted me a truck load a number of years ago, and it was amazing. She was a volunteer at our local adaptive riding program, and they allow anyone to come and get as much as they want. Also, rabbit manure... I used to have pet rabbits outside in a large condo I made, and their pellets were a great addition :-D

Edit to add that alfalfa decomposition produces triacontanol, which is a natural growth stimulant, which the horse and rabbit manures don't have (other than from their eating it, which would be pretty minimal).

Yes, I do plan to do that as well. All the roses in my Grafted Jude bed are the same age, all planted together from DA.

Does anyone here who lives in the south or warm climate, have an Own Root Cinderella Fairytale Rose?

I am wondering how big it will get in Florida? Will it be a large climber like Colette?

Okay! I made the alfalfa tea! good heavens, a lot of water in the giant rubbermaid trash can. Added 11 cups of pellet alfalfa per some recipe I found online.

Gave some roses the pellets directly, watered in quite a bit to make it soft (also tried to break them up into smaller pieces), mixed into the soil and mulched and watered on top. In three days will give the other plants in this randomized controlled trial the fermented tea. photos taken of all the trial participants.

Pellet group: PCdM, OR Jude, Masora, Boscobel, Alnwick, Bliss, Twilight Zone, Celestial Night, Amazing Grace, WS2000, Rouge Royale.

Tea group: Grafted Jude, Carding Mill, Eustacia Vye, Juliet, LEH, Roald Dahl, Lady of Shalott, Sweet Mademoiselle, Lady Gardener, Fun in the Sun.

posting this lest I forget 😂

Many DA grafted bare root roses are still available currently for sale. Evelyn is still available for anyone looking.

DA prices are so reasonable after seeing other nuseries! $35 a rose! Wow!

Somday I will add a few from my fairy wish list: Evelyn, Gabriel Oaks replacement, Poet’s Wife, Gokden Celebration, James A, , & Charles Reinee Macintosh, Just a few I ponder….. And The Prince & WS2000 from another nursery! Lol!

Kitty, William Shakespeare 2000 was extremely floriferous for me, one of the top Austins I've ever had ; heavy, spectacular long lasting blooms. I took him out along with all the grafted roses, hoping to gradually replace my best Austins with ownroots.

Last night I was thinking again about who to give rose bushes to so I could make a new garden of only the most favorite. I'm going to ask the Senior Center if someone strong will come dig out a few , 12 year old Madame Hardy isn't going to go without a fight.

My neighbor spray paints old pots and metal racks for her garden - her projects turn out incredible. There is a charity thrift store in Coeur d'Alene that is a gold mine full of potential furnishings, I'm heading there as soon as the snow melts.

It's going to be great to have Evelyn back again.

Peachy,

Congrat on ordering Evelyn. WS2000 sounds wonderful! Diid WS2000 have many thorns? I’m trying to stay away from the real thorny ones. The thrift shop & neighbor’s spray paint projects sound enticing! Love to see what you chose to have this year in your garden.

This season, no new DAS, but maybe another year. I have a ton of florist roses coming, instead.

KittyNYz6 David Austin has met his match from the Etsy sellers and Highgarden . Your florist roses are bound to be just as great . Edouard Manet is one I am enamored by, you will have such a lovely addition with him in the yard. Ever since my Vicks Caprice got eaten by voles my garden is still without a stripe.

William Shakespeare does have many big thorns on a bush that grows in the shape of an apple tree - at least mine did. It's not too terribly armed with drawn swords like some, but wicked enough to be wary of. The canes are stiff and hold up the large blooms nicely, the downside being it's a wide rose bush to keep in an area where one doesn't have to work around it much or you would get Shake speared.

For the last several years I've been trying to keep a promise to myself not to get excessively thorny roses no matter how tempting. It's really hard to resist Munstead Wood and Gabriel Oak , but I have to draw the line somewhere. Besides there are plenty of phenomenal roses with a gentler nature.

William Shakespeare 2K is good here too. I had 2 in large pots but a tree limb fell on them. One didnt make it and the other is struggling. They were both great before that. I believe it is grafted on DH. I would like find get one on Fortuniana. If I cant find one, I will have to graft/bud it myself. You can see how nice the leaves stay here. They can get very magenta in hot weather but that is the case with most reds here except Don Juan and Florentina (so far).

I also got the email from DA last week saying 2 out of my 3 orders would ship starting in Feb 2025, although I expect to wait awhile since DA still categorizes me as 7b. Meanwhile the Crown Princess Margareta that I ordered from High Garden arrived two weeks ago and was smothered in leaf buds on healthy, mature canes and is now leafing out nicely. Oddly enough the rose arrived in NC (shipped from Portland, OR) while I happened to be in Portland, OR for work. I woke up early to walk about and check out everyone's gardens and saw a number of rose bushes already beginning to flower, so it makes sense that the rose from Portland arrived so smothered. My roses in the ground here in NC are much further behind. All have buds but are just beginning to leaf out.

And here in SW Idaho, zone 7, covered with snow, we'll hit a low 4F tonight. No leafing out hahaha. It's 18F right now this morning. The sun is bright, but it doesn't heat us up much in February this far north. Diane

Echo, I'm interested in how your compost tea experiment goes.

Sultry - what a beautiful picture of your WS2000!! mmmmm :) :)

Diane - yeah...roses are a loooong way away for me too. We'll have to live vicariously through others. :)

Thank you Carol!

Anyone else get shipping notices? I just got the email from DA saying 2 of my orders have shipped! Still waiting for word on the 3rd one.

My first batch came the other day and rhey looked great ! i was fortunate to have dannahue filled . it is thorny for sure and i may need a decorative fence or something to keep our pup from it and the kids . last night i ordered 4 more : lady of the lake , pilgrim , emily bronte and alnwick . now i swear im done ! 🤣

Lilyfinch - excellent!! It's hard to be "done" buying roses. lol

I keep going to this local nursery, one location has different DA’s from the other second location. This one has YL. I didn’t leave with one but the temptation was real!! apparently we are going to have more freezing weather so, If i was going to buy it, I’d wait anyway.

Echo, I wish the nurseries here had Austins. I dont know how you can resist lol.

Lily, I've been wanting to try Lady of the Lake and wondering how she does. I hope you update yours. I got The Pilgrim too and its totally new to me. I hope it does well here.

They didn’t always have them! and what they have always surprises me! for example, they had Evelyn, but no Boscobel lol .

it is very hard to resist. I still have bareroots coming and no spaces but keep trying to figure out how to add ”Just one more…” lol

I know, right? lol So hard to resist. And I'm so sick of -20C/-4F that I want to buy every rose there is. lol

Lady of the Lake is so pretty, I really like that one.

I got my 3 today! Evelyn, Eustacia Vye, and Bro Cadfael. EV looks great, Evelyn ok. BC - have some doubts. Will say more later.

Hey I think this is DA rose. Was supposed to be Evelyn. Can you all please tell me what rose you think it is?

ActuActually since it should be a DA how about munstead wood ? it looks thorny enough thats for sure !

It could be Munstead Wood, but it looks like The Prince. Probably isn't though, right?

Good luck with those three new Austins, Deborah. You sound kind of pessimistic about Brother Cadfela, darn it. I hope all three take off fast for your. Evelyn, in my experience, is a fast starter. Diane

I like the way I spelled the Bro. He's a cad fella. Diane

Ha ha, Diane! I hope he's a fun kind of cad that turns out to have a heart of gold. Or pink! My delivery came just as I was finishing digging the hole for Bro Cad. As the driver handed me the box, I saw that the bottom was collapsing in, and one of the roses was kind of coming out! The driver said I could refuse delivery, but I said I'd take it and hope for the best. Now that people are freaking out about crown gall, and given the state of the box, I was very careful with my inspection. EV looked great -- maybe one cane looks funky, but big roots and big canes. Except that the grafts on one side of the rose didn't take or had the canes cut off -- so it's very lopsided. Evelyn didn't look as robust as Eustacia, smaller roots and canes, but seems healthy and well balanced. Brother Cadfael has some seriously damaged canes, very small roots, with one long one. In getting them out of the box, I somehow let them all move higgledly piggledy, so now I don't know which rose was partially hanging out of the box upon delivery. They are soaking now in a bucket with some Vitamin B. I think I will report this to DA, who will probably advise me to plant them and see what happens. Which is what I will do, but I'm a bit nervous about B.C. I had originally ordered 5 roses, but I cancelled the other 2. See how restrained I am? The only other rose I will allow myself to buy this year is Lady Emma Hamilton. Or maybe one more Moonlight in Paris. NO! No more! Stop it!!!

Z10 So Cal -- who did you get the rose from?

Deborah - those are great choices!! Exciting!!

SoCal - I'm stuck in the house with -30C/-22F (with windchill) and there's no place to order new roses from and I have no more room anyway. But, I'm so bored.

Oh DD, I don't like hearing that re: Brother Cadfael!! Let us know how it goes.

I recieved 2 of my DA orders several days ago. I haven't had a chance to post pics yet. They are soaking in the glorious rainwater we got the other night from our wild thunderstorm. It filled the ponds almost all the way.

The 9 DA roses, I recieved all look good. 2 are very small but I think they may be the own root ones but I haven't had a chance to look them up yet, to verify.

A bunch of these will go in pots for now. I have been planting fruit trees and kidding season is well underway.

I need to contact DA about my missing order which was the 2nd order that I had placed. Hmmm

Pics soon!

Carol, I have been entertaining myself on YouTube videos. My brain is getting mushy. I would invite you over 🩷💗

Jen, Diane I'm just waiting for it to open up some more so I can take more pictures to help identify it .

Sultry, looking forward to seeing. Yay to full ponds! i hope they can sort out your missing order!!

I think the entire US has full ponds, some in the form of snow. This has been a terrifically wet winter everywhere. Here are a few pics of Cad Fella. I'm hoping my pics post from now on. Hope springs eternal, especially for gardeners. Diane

I got the cad planted. After trimming off the damaged canes he has very short stubby canes (3) left. He looks like a chunky monkey!
Got Evelyn in. Then did a bunch of other work & ran out of gas. So Eustacia will have to go in tomorrow.
GORGEOUS Bro Cad, Diane!!! How many roses have I bought because of your photos? I’ll have to count.
Sultry - eagerly awaiting your baby goat pics. Maybe on the seasonal thread so we don’t totally hijack the DA orders.

Glad you got the Cad planted. Those weren't the best photos above, though. I hope your Bro does well. He likes a lot of sun and so does Evelyn. Bro's blooms are very large, yes. Diane

Cad in the middle.

Cad on the right.

dd I hope yours recovers well ! What a trip to have that happen ! It would be so nice if they sent you another for your trouble . It was a beautiful day today and I got a lot planted as well ( foxgloves and iris ) and tomorrow I plan on doing more . I have to get what I bought planted before I can go back to Armstrong’s for more !

Diane your pics are so beautiful!

I am really hoping I have brother cad somewhere in a pot still .

My younger self used to remember my roses by their pots , and location bc I mostly kept them in one place . I used to have an iron clad memory , of all my plants , when and where i purchased it and even how much they cost . I loathed how my mom kept every tag ever in her garden beds and now I see why she did it lol . Over the years my pots got moved , my kids remove every stake they see and o have no clue what pot he was in ! He may be long gone even . Only the good Lord knows at this point 🤣

Sultry - how many kids have you got so far? I'm glad that the rain was so good for your pond and yard. :) What kind of fruit trees? I'm excited to see pics of your roses this summer.

SoCal - lol...waiting for spring...so hard.

Diane - wonderful pics of the Bro...I especially love the full bush shot!! I love your plonks....Cadfael really stands out...what a looker! :) :)

Deborah - I hope your chunky monkey grows well and has enormous amounts of blooms. :) :) Evelyn will be a beauty for you, for sure!!

Lilyfinch - foxgloves and irises...whimsical, cottage garden plants. Love!! That's hysterical about your kids removing every stake they see. :) :)

Has anyone in zone 7 or 8 received their DA orders yet? I have yet to get a shipping notification. Last year my order shipped March 1.

Caroline, I’m in zone 8 and I received my DA order on Feb 28.

I'm in zone 7A and received my order on March 7.

I just got my 2nd one today in 7b

I received my three orders last week and yesterday (7b/8a). Thanks for calming my fears, all!

Some of DA roses are on sale! 20% off including Evelyn.

https://www.davidaustinroses.com/products/evelyn