Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Pot of Gold




Golden Celebration is a David Austin rose of (naturally!) golden coloration and full form.  The fragrance is sweet and good, though it's not quite as good as some other Austin roses such as Gertrude Jekyll or Abraham Darby.  This is my son Isaac's favorite rose that I grow.



The bush can develop long canes, but I've been unsuccessful growing it as a climber.  It just gets long, lanky, and ugly if I don't prune it back.  I've determined that Abraham Darby and Golden Celebration are better as shrubs than as climbers in my yard.  A side benefit of trimming the old foliage back is that it keeps at least some of the blackspot off this rose.



Speaking of blackspot, this rose is quite prone to it.  This year it isn't spotted too much yet because we've had super dry weather over the last month.  This rose is definitely a candidate for anti-fungal spray if you are the spraying type.  I just let it duke it out with the evil blackspot and try to give it the best growing conditions possible.  Plenty of water and mulch seem to give this rose enough strength to overcome the fungus and come back stronger than ever.  



This is such a beautiful rose that I had to have one, but I don't recommend it to people in my area unless they are dedicated rose growers who are willing to baby it.  If anyone out there can recommend any of the Austin's for a no-spray garden in the Southeast, then let me in on it.

3 comments:

Jeannie B. said...

This is a beautiful rose. I love the David Austin roses too and one day I might decide to be a dedicated Rose grower but not yet. I have very little trouble with Heritage which might be my all time favorite and that is probably part of the reason. I do have 4 David Austin Roses though. Who can resist them!

Masha said...

Interesting. Golden Celebration is prone to blackspot even here in California where blackspot doesn't really exist :). The blooms are lovely though and smell great. Did it bloom well for you when you tried it as a climber?

Davy Barr said...

It's always bloomed well for me in flushes. When grown as a climber, you leave the old growth on longer so the plant can get lengthier. This led to leaving on the old blackspotted leaves. Pruning it back forces more new growth, thus less blackspot showing and a better looking bush.