My 'Glamis Castle' does best if not pruned (just the very tips, and any dead wood). 'Prospero' is the same way.

'Tamora' is great here, 'Lady Emma Hamilton' pretty good. 'Molineux' is very, very good, a real bloom machine. 'Lichfield Angel' is stingy, so far.

But California is a big state, and Sunset 15 is quite different than 23.

We live in SouthTorrance Calif near coastal area, all my DA roses blooms repeatedly, They are great, I always have a good compliment from friends and family. Most of my DA roses are healthy.

The OSH ad today had bare root roses starting at $16.95 and David Austin starting a $19.95.

I didn't have much luck with the David Austin roses I planted 25 years ago. I have room for one more rose in my small garden. I'll see if they have an Elizabeth Taylor.

In my hot, dry climate my best Austins are (or were) Carding Mill, Sophy's Rose, Bishop's Castle and Potter and Moore. Pretty Jessica and Chaucer are still to young to evaluate. I truly dislike the viciously thorny and bad-smelling (to some of us, anyway) Glamis Castle. Sister Elizabeth is lovely but didn't prosper in full sun or morning sun only. Charles Darwin was a failure for me, unfortunately. Young Lycidas was bare-root and should have done well after a year in the ground but so far is disappointing. We shall see. Even after looking at the 2014 catalog that I received yesterday there isn't a single rose that really interested me. The hype and the reality at least in my garden are too far apart except for the few keepers I mentioned.

If you can still find them, both English Garden and Symphony did well for me in the Central Valley. Both had growth habits very like HTs, strong canes growing straight up, and both stayed at about 3-4' tall. The flowers on both are quite beautiful, flat and double. English Garden has lovely color shadings. Neither had the fading tendencies which have ruined (for me) some of the later English roses. Heirloom still sells Symphony; I don't know if EG is still in commerce; it is both beautiful and mannerly and did not deserve to be neglected.

The Nun does fade--to a beautiful soft white color. The growth habit is very like La Reine Victoria, kind of lanky, so you need some underplanting, but it did not for me mildew the way LRV did. Glamis Castle was nothing but mildew. Yuck.

Radio Times is one of the most beautiful of DA's offerings, and it blooms almost as readily as a china, even in the heat. Unfortunately it is not no spray. I found I had to cut back the mildewed parts 2 or 3 times a summer; For no other rose was I willing to go to such lengths.

For me, in CA, Pilgrim did not bloom at all. Lilac Rose has clusters of flowers which are too close together. Sceptered Isle had the weirdest growth habit I have ever seen in a rose. It needs LOTS of space. Mayor of Castorbridge didn't like the heat. Graham Thomas was a special case. If you want GT, you must irrigate throughout the winter. In spring, after a wet winter, GT in full bloom, in all his 8-10' glory is a sight you will not soon forget. Don't expect flowers in summer heat, but the bush itself in CA is not plagued with BS, and did not mildew for me and was not by itself an unattractive part of the garden.

The Prince seems to be excellent just about anywhere. Gorgeous flowers and another mannerly growth habit. I confess a certain fondness for both Othello and Falstaff, ungainly, thorny bushes and all. I think the bushes have character!! And, the flowers of both are to die for, as also my favorite of all Austins ,Evelyn, which has fantastic fragrance, utterly beautiful color shading at every stage of the bloom, and fairly rapid repeat, and needs no more water than most HTs.

Charlotte and Bow Bells have done very well for me. Charles Rennie Macintosh has also been lovely. I have an eglantyne that is gettning one more year to do something with herself. I am trying CPM because I need a high-impact rose in a key spot.

'Pretty Jessica' is doing very well in my garden even though it is planted in a fairly difficult spot (palm root competition and too much shade). Mannerly size, lovely globular, wonderfully fragrant blooms.

'The Prince' is getting a little bit of powdery mildew here from time to time, but it is forgiven because of its absolutely gorgeous, velvety, dark crimson, very fragrant blooms. One of the smaller Austins.

My absolute favorite though is 'Charles Darwin'. I grow two in big containers and they are incredible floriferous. I love the always changing yellow color of the blooms (from mustard yellow, to a very pale one, to a yellow with a slightly apricot touch and anything in between). My bushes are completely healthy. They show signs that they might have outgrown their containers. My guess is once in the ground, they will become really big roses.

'Heritage', only in the ground for one year, but I am not too impressed so far. The color of the rose is mostly a pale apricot-pink here (not the cool light, pale pink, that I had hoped for), which I don't like so much. The blooms shatter very fast and the bush gets some powdery mildew.

'Mary Rose', one of the earliest roses to bloom in my garden. I love the bloom form. My rose is growing in a big container and gets some mildew from time to time.

All my roses are grown own-roots.

Good idea for a threat. I love to compare notes on how the Austins are doing in CA!

Christina