Roses

Has anyone grown old English Roses and if so do they give a good performance

I haven't got any old varieties, but I do grow the "old rose" styles from David Austin.I love the bloom and the smell in the garden.

What roses were you thinking of trying?

There are some advertised in a garden magazine as old English, the latest breeding, totaly hardy, so was wondering if they had really improved since I had last tried English Roses about 50 years ago then they had a very poor performance

Scarlet just on thinking back I am sure the ones I had tried in the past were David Austen roses and didn't do very well at all, so went to Aberdeen to get some roses from Anderson and Cockers

I have a cream coloured rose flowering now.

Most of my roses are David Austin - I've bought the recently bred ones. So latest was bred in 1990.

They have the fragrance and beautiful blooms of the ones dating early 1900 and before.

When I moved here there was one rose - it smelt gorgeous but never performed very well. I added a couple and they did ok.

I've added a few more over the years and the Autumn just gone had my birthday present delivery of Roses.

Now it may be luck? My soil is clay, I try to loosen it, I add lots of homemade composts. I think roses like clay?
I plant with the M Fungus stuff/( sorry can't be bothered to check spelling) I make sure they are pruned and all leaves removed. This is not a major job in Jan when there's nothing else to do. I feed and mulch - which is a sprinkle of rose feed and Chuck on some manure or compost. They honestly have been fabulous. Last year they really came into their own - my garden had never looked or smelt so good.

Now I have got several P Beals roses and they haven't performed well compared tothe David Austin. I certainly haven't pruned that well in the past and I found that David As stems could be very thin and often wouldn't hold a flower and quite harsh on pruning now and it has helped.

I have a cream coloured rose flowering now.

I cut all my roses off and have taken every leaf on all the ones I have when I pruned a couple of weeks ago. But they were still trying to flower in my garden in November.

Just a few of mine -

                           

I wouldn't hesitate to buy more.

I mostly have pink! I've a couple of peachy ones and the white roses I have are climbers from elsewhere

My two standards - Anne Boleyn
They were stunning last year- they repeat flower too so although they don't flower as much as in the first flush deadheading gave me flowers right through until November this year.

   

I think I must be David Austin's number 1 fan

They are lovely.
I spotted new growth on my rose cuttings yesterday so that very exciting. Don’t know what it is. Took the cuttings from outside the holiday cottage I clean. So it’s a climbing I think and pink. I’ll have to get some photos of it later in the year, so you can help ID it.