Hall of Shame Roses

A lot of Austins look great and grow well, but for me the myrrh scent is too high a price to pay. I grow Windrush and Jude the Obscure, which don't have it.

Margaret wrote:A lot of Austins look great and grow well, but for me the myrrh scent is too high a price to pay. I grow Windrush and Jude the Obscure, which don't have it.

Myrrh fragrance, citrus/fruity and tea fragrance go well in hotter climates. Say, Pegasus (strong tea fragrance) just smells forever in a vase, or Ambridge Rose (myrrh). But damask scent disappears quicker in hotter climates (to my knowledge and experience). I need to spray all cut flowers with water mist to retain damask scent for a while longer, and put the vase away from direct light. Same is when growing them; I put all red double roses with damask scent way back, in semi-shade, and put forward semidoubles and lighter ones with tea & myrrh fragrance.

Ozrosarian wrote:

Rose Petal wrote:That is a newbie to me

The growth is upright and slightly wider than a normal HT, and grows up to some 1.6 m. You see from the pictures that it has HT-like foliage and growth. If you plant two, they'll mingle and produce an outstanding shrub that will knock people's socks off.
Highly recommended. I couldn't live without it.

Absolutely stuning Oz

I don't think any Austin's (apart from maybe 'Pretty Jessica' ) deserves to be in the hall of shame... this is a place reserved for the very worst of the worst Most Austin's are quite beautiful given the proper care and attention. Down here in Tasmania the Austins are, in general, quite stunning and I too would not be without a few. 'Pegasus' is among my favourites. 'Abraham Darby' is an outstanding breeder and, whilst it is slow to build here, is beginning to develop into a beautiful plant. Autumn and into winter is definately the best time for AD... it sulks here in the summer. 'Othello' is thorny in the extreme but I love its wonderful perfume... one whiff and all its many faults are forgiven. 'Mary Rose' is pretty ordinary IMO... I'm going to try it as an own root plant to see if I can get a better spreading plant shape out of it. Grafted onto Dr Phooey here it is below average. One of its sports, 'Winchester Cathedral' is shaping up to be a much better rose here than 'Mary Rose' is. I haven't tried 'Jude the Obscure' yet... kinda interested but not enough to make me go out and buy it yet. I want to get 'Benjamin Britten' (Dee... the cuttings looked like they had taken and then went black on me ), because I want to cross it with 'Fortune's Double Yellow' as Karen (Rosemeadow) did... that cross intrigues me. In general, for me, it's the old roses behind the DAs that interest me more.

So... all up... I think we need to reserve this place here for the very worst... the indefensible... the intolerable... the ugly... the absolute bottrom of the barrel... The photos, Oz, are just lovely and a clear indication of why the DAs have proven so popular all around the world.

Yes Mary is a non performer here also Simon, would love a pic of Pegasus, one of my fave songs in the 70's

My thing is that they are planted FAR too close together and just cramped in where I can find a piece of soil , hence now if they go to 'GoD' not replaced let the other angels spread their wings and if they don't they be dewinged as well

Never got around to photographing Pegasus... you can see it here though: http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.15298 (This is Rita's old plant. Rita is also a member here).

that is So nice as well Might have to in time, not this season, shovel prune a few more and make way for my retirement roses

I think Claire Rose has earned a place here. I'm told that florists can't get enough of it (yeah, because it's plastic). It was the unhealthiest rose in my garden, so either the florists buy from people who spray non-stop, or they sell it with all the leaves removed.

Margaret wrote:I think Claire Rose has earned a place here. I'm told that florists can't get enough of it (yeah, because it's plastic). It was the unhealthiest rose in my garden, so either the florists buy from people who spray non-stop, or they sell it with all the leaves removed.

So your not happy Jan, opps meant Margaret

You don't get much black spot in greenhouses though margaret... mildew yes but not much spotting... I don't know 'Claire Rose' either.

I'll move Ambridge Rose to the Hall of Fame. I'm just now discovering all the titbits of this forum. Thank you all.

Just discovered this thread .
Funny the first rose to be mentioned was Woburn Abbey. It was probably one of the first roses to disapoint me when I started off my first rose garden .
I bought it because I remembered the wonderful display that the beds in the middle of Kings Park Road used to make when I was a kid.
They simply glowed.
Well the one in Donnybrook didn't glow very often ; it was a piddly grower and stingy with it's flowers . I'll include Whisky and Julia's Rose in with it . There was no excuse for their poor showing at that place either , it was rose growing heaven with rich loamy soil , lots of water and manure unlimited . I didn't shovel prune them though , just let them be but I have not bought them again. I have a "Climbing" Julia's Rose now , it doesn't climb but it does grow slightly better than the bush and certainly produces more flowers . It's stuck in an out of the way spot where i don't have to look at it's scabby growth and barely give it a second thought [or anything else for that matter] till it flowers. Others that I was not impressed with were the whites Honor , Mt. Shasta and John F. Kennedy . Couldn't fault their growth or flower production - it was their colour in my garden . They always seemed to look a grubby grey shade of white . Not attractive at all .
Souvenir de la Malmaison is another one I haven't bothered with , not really her fault poor love but her sense of flowering timing was just so off . She's a bit like the little girl with the little curl .... and flowering nearly always coinciding with rainy spells , those brown mooshy balls were not nice.

I've never deliberately shovel pruned or killed a rose , if they were not doing so well I would move [and still do] them around the garden to see if a change of location helped or just park them somewhere in the outer reaches of the yard.
I did end up killing the feral fortuniana that was in the garden in Donnybrook . That didn't start out as pre-meditated murder , I just wanted to transplant it so it wasn't slashing at me everytime I used the front steps. But by the time I'd had a week of nearly digging to China trying to get it out , getting ripped to bits by it's thorns and in general not making any progress , it was open season with axe n mattock n chainsaw . Fixed it.

Ophelia is not doing well for me here atm , but the roses haven't exactly been pampered the last couple of years so we'll see how she goes this year..

cheers. Oz

One thing I would recommend people with poorly doing roses try is to see if you can strike it and grow it own root. I firmly believe that the choice of understock for particular areas can doom a rose to failure. Burgundy Iceberg is a classic example. It is, without exception I think, grafted onto Dr Phooey. When grown here own root it does quite well. On Dr Phooey it is a big FAIL.

Well that's worth a try with Ophelia at any rate.
I haven't tried BI at all yet.
One of the main complaints I have heard from people is lack of consistency in colour and it didn't live up to the dark burgundy colour as expected.
The few that I have seen in flower , have the burgundy colour but it lacks intensity , watery almost . It may just be something as simple as feeding more potash , I don't know .
All I know is that alot of people aren't happy with it.

cheers. Rosalie

I would agree with this too. A lot of the Iceberg sports have been very unstable. Have a look on HMF at some of their colours... some are even half whit half coloured. Have a look at this little article I wrote on it and you'll see the variation in my own plants: http://www.rosetalkaustralia.com/the-lab-f27/secondary-axillary-buds-in-roses-t207.htm