May State of the Roses Post

Before anyone should think that all my roses look fabulous, be it known that I'm only showing pictures in this post of my better looking plants or those that I have good pictures of.  My Double Delight looks so bad that I haven't shown any pictures of it this year.  Some of my other roses, such as Mrs. B.R. Cant, Westerland, Madame Alfred Carriere, Gertrude Jekyll, Compassion, Prosperity, Buff Beauty, and Crepuscule, are all in-between flushes.  With that disclaimer in place, on to the show!  The following pictures were all taken within the last day or two.

This is Abraham Darby looking better at this time of year than ever in his life.  Usually, by late May blackspot has this bush looking very poor.  I think it's because we've had an exceptionally dry May that this hasn't happened this year.  Plus, I'm trying to keep this plant pruned back very far so it is continually putting on new, spotless leaves and growth.

Belinda's Dream is performing up to her usually stellar standard.  The blooms are as huge as normal and they have been continual this year.

Dublin Bay is putting out a second flush of bloom right now that will be amazing in about a week or so.  It's really doing well for me this year too.  I've trained the branches quite horizontally along the chain-link fence and he's putting out far more blooms than last year at this same time.

Ducher is also blooming like crazy right now.  Of course, this bush always blooms well for me through the heat.  Because it hasn't been as hot as usual, the blooms haven't started crisping yet and are larger than normal for this time of year.  As usual, no disease to speak of.

Yet another stellar performance month out of Earthsong.  The blooms have kept a deeper color because of the cooler weather.  Such a perfect plant!  I don't think there is a spot on any leaf on this entire bush right now.

Golden Celebration is performing about like Abraham Darby this year and I think for the same reasons.

Julia Child is putting out her best flush of blooms of the whole year right now.  She is such a sweet plant.  The other plants around her tend to shade her out some in the late summer, but at this time she is getting the perfect amount of sun.

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.

Going for the Gold

This Golden Celebration bloom is truly delicious.  The color, form, and fragrance of this bloom cannot be topped.  It has some equals, but no betters.  This is why I grow David Austin roses.



Here is another bloom framed inside a square of chainlink fence.  In the heat of summer, they sometimes are more open like this.  Take note of the blackspot on the leaves in the background. 

The above picture shows why I have a love/hate relationship with David Austin roses.  This scraggly bush has few leaves and looks unkempt even though I give it plenty of water and mulch through the year.  I didn't spray fungicide and it shows.  This is what the plant looks like in late summer down here. 

But how can I resist when I look back at pictures like this, taken in April when blackspot was nonexistent and blooms were profuse.  Sometimes you just have to "eat the meat and leave the bones" when it comes to roses!  Maybe next year I'll break down and spray my Austins to keep them looking better.

Beautiful Blooms of Gold

The David Austin rose Golden Celebration makes such beautiful blooms that they are breathtaking.  These roses aren't the most carefree of plants in my hot and humid climate, but to me they are worth it.  Count on this rose getting at least some blackspot and not looking lush during the summer period.  I do little to no spraying on my roses, but I have a high tolerance for blackspot as long as the rose is strong enough to recover from it.  Given good mulch and adequate water, my DA roses have been able to overcome bouts of blackspot and make wonderful spring and fall bloom flushes.  The full, huge, and immensely fragrant blooms justify the pickiness of the plants.  Golden Celebration has only been with me for two years and it's promising to become a nice climbing rose for me like Gertrude Jekyll has.  Abraham Darby  has become more of a large bush and has resisted my efforts to make it into a climber.  If you can't resist the magnificent David Austin blooms, go ahead and plant you some of them.  However, beware of the fact that they are prima donna plants and may misbehave at times.

Full Plant Pictures of Golden Celebration

Several days ago when I posted pictures of Golden Celebration, I mentioned plans to post some pictures of the whole bush so you can see it's growth habit.  GC looks great right now, but it generally gets quite a bit of blackspot and loses most of its leaves in the summer. 

This plant will get a lot bigger over the next couple of years and I hope to have it climb all along the chainlink fence. 

Celebrating the Gold

Golden Celebration is something of a primadonna rose in my part of the world.  Like all the other David Austin roses I have tried, it gets terrible blackspot in the summer and needs spraying at least every ten days if you want to keep the leaves on the plant.  However, I'm growing it anyway because I love the huge, golden, and wonderfully fragrant blooms.  They have that many-petalled, old rose look that I just love.  The bush gets huge with our long growing season and can be grown as a sprawling bush/climber.  I have mine on my chainlink fence for support. 

The first picture here is of a bud as it first comes out.

The bud opens further the next day.

And then it opens all the way

And here's a cluster of blooms so you can see more of the plant.  In a few days, the bush will be covered in bloom and I hope to get a whole bush shot.