David Austin Vs Hybrid Tea Roses

But you grow more than tea roses, I assume. When I watch them they can’t get beyond the petals of my teas and move on to more nourishing flowers with an accessible floral disk. Many varieties of roses provide this but not the teas.

I am not a rose expert, not even close but at one point in my life I was rose-crazy.

You don’t say where you are in zone 10. Like fruit trees, if you live outside arid, dry climates, your roses will be diseased if not spray.

David Austin has a lot of good roses and it has better marketing. Most of their roses are not diseases resistant in hot or cold humid areas. My friend s and I have tried several roses in our humid east. We either had to spray them, look at rose bushes with defoliated/ugly leaves or get rid of them.

If you are not into spraying them, KnockOut roses may be your option but KO roses do not have a climbing one on the market yet.

One of the most fragrant climbing roses I grew was Zephirine Drouhin. It is also thornless. The color is bright pink. I removed it because I don’t want to spray roses that I want to inhale their fragrance.

I still have a climbing America because I like its apricot color. No fragrance. Other climbers are Eden, Cecile Brunner, New Dawn, Iceberg, etc. some of theses can grow huge in your zone.

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New Dawn is extremely vigorous in the right condition. I love the pastel pink variety. They bloom all summer long.

My friend had a New Dawn climbing up the side of her house. It is indeed beautiful pale pink. She took it out because she did not spray and black spot was serious issue here.

Humidity!

Thank you so much all!

Its good to know that I am not the only one who thinks there are other roses better than David Austins :slight_smile:

@Rayrose - I am going to go with your suggestion of mixing up the Hybrids with the Austins! Thank you!

@mamuang - Secret rose looks gorgeous! Thank you! Plan to do a lot of research before I order some roses. Our weather is great but property taxes are huge and our lots are tiny. Not complaining but looking forward to moving out once my son is in college! :slight_smile: Did not know about Kordes - they are gorgeous!!!

I currently have Roald Dahl, Lichfield Angel, Mayflower, Darcey Bussell, Charlotte, Grace, Scepter’d Isle and Emma Hamilton from David Austin. All tree roses.

For DA, I like Abraham Darby, Dark Lady, Graham Thomas.

My friend loves her hybride tea, Tropicana. But if you like a more muted color, it is not for you!!

I had Veteran’s Honor. It did not do well for me. It was one of a few roses that died on me :confounded:. It is not as fragrant as Mr. Lincoln, I was told.

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Look up rose called Pope John Paul II. It’s a hybrid tea, large white flowers, citrus fragrance - VERY fragrant and the blooms are beautiful. Bushy, healthy shrub - but I’m in zone 7 with a dry climate, so a lot of common rose diseases aren’t much of an issue. The rose is said to be rather disease resistant though. And it really is stunning.
Angel Face is really pretty too and great fragrance, but smaller blooms, although I hold my judgement - I have this one on own root and it was slower to get going. Really hoping it may finally come into its own this year.
Twilight Zone is a little citrusy too, with sweeter notes. Does get bleached in midsummer, but that color!

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@Girly I listed the roses above for Mike who said was looking for citrusy fragrance. But Pope JPII rose would fit your criteria too. Twilight Zone is very showy too - in a different way - but my shrub is still fairly small so can’t say if it would deliver the kind of impact you’re looking for. I think it stays on a smaller side overall. Similar with Angel Face, and at least for me the blooms start in hybrid tea shape but then get fluffy - may be a look too similar to DA :wink: Now, BIG blooms and stunning - check out Surreal. It’s newer and Jackson & Perkins exclusive… But I swallowed the bait, hook and sinker after the first look at pictures. Can’t say it’s exactly pastel :smiley: but the colors do deliver on the promise in the name. Plus about a million petals and fragrant to boot, too. They say it’s a floribunda. I don’t know. Mostly pops up big flowers for me.

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I don’t find that to be a problem. Once the bloom
opens, no matter what type of rose it is, they’ll get
inside.

Secret is an outstanding rose and one of my favorites.
Personally to me, all DA’s look too much alike, except
for Belle Storey, which is exceptional.

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Pope JP2 is a bloom machine. Only problem is they all ball up, when it rains.

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All my DA roses have balled up when it rains. I hate that.

I can see that being a problem. Not much of an issue in my climate, so I wasn’t too bothered, since next blooms are fine. They’ll ball up when snowed on too.
That’s one of the things I value a lot about this and similar groups (helpmefind has been great for roses) that we get to exchange behind the scenes experience about performance in particular climates. Information that doesn’t make it to official product marketing materials :wink:

There are many excellent rose breeders. Where I live, there happen to be some of the worlds finest breeders of historic roses or roses of antiquity, along with new hybrids. Roses flourish here with no black spot to think of. The rose gardens are fabulous.

The rose breeder companies that I have heard about are Meilland of France, Kordes of Germany and David Austin of England.

What puzzles me is England. With its frequent rain and fog, it can still grow fabulous roses. France and German are in a drier climate so that’s the advantage.

No rose does well in the shade. All roses need two things, water and sunlight. Without those, grow something else.

The puzzle in England is that it is warmer there and spring starts far earlier than yours.

The honey fanatic has a different opinion and I have a different experience.

Who cares.