Beautiful Bloom!

Oooooh!!! That's heavenly!!! Does it have any fragrance? What's the size of the bloom.
Gorgeous!!
Carol

oh how beautiful! I would also be in love if I had that to look at every morning. :)

Just gorgeous..I have been considering giving some space to that one for years.

I love this rose, also. It has a very pleasant sweet fragrance to my nose, though not wafting.

Thank you all for the compliments!

It's only about the size of my palm now. It has a mild old rose/sweet fragrance, as stated above, and to me a little spicey.
I'm hoping that as it matures and petal count increases the fragrance goes up too...but so far I love the health of the plant itself and the coloration is to die for. Even if the blooms don't get any bigger they're plenty charming as-is.
If any of the other buds bloom better, I'll post pics.
This one, out of all my spring band purchases, was the one I anticipated the most. I so wanted it to do well and I hope it keeps thriving.
Thanks again!

I've always thought James Galway was a beautiful rose and that's quite an impressive bloom for a young rose, although it is bound to be even more beautiful at maturity.

I'm really convinced that rain helps bands to grow and bloom much more quickly. Mine in a hot and arid climate with poor rain last winter are coming along very slowly. Young Lycidas was doing nothing, in spite of daily watering, and when I dug into the soil it was totally dry below the first inch. That was pretty discouraging.

Easy to see why you are in love, it's gorgeous!

I love the blooms on my James Galway. It has been planted a year and threw a tall cane, hoping for more, about 7 feet tall. But had a cluster of roses that seemed to last and last.

Gorgeous! I think that's going on my "want" list...

I love this rose. It's a wonderful rose that grows large in my garden setting (8 feet wide). It has fantastic clusters of blooms packed with petals and with a lovely fragrance.

This is a pic of a section of it:

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Thanks guys! It's nice to have people to "ooh" and "ahh" with me over things like this.

JG was the first Austin rose I saw online. I HAD to have it and the only place I could find it in stock was Heirloom. I thought for sure it wouldn't make it because I didn't know how to grow something so small. I'm thrilled it's happy.

Thanks to everyone, again, for the encouragement, and those that have the rose sharing their experience.

Ingrid, you must be right. We haven't had rain here in about a month, except a light sprinkle for a couple hours one night. I have to religiously water, and since JG is in a half-barrel, I try to water deepest around the perimeter to encourage the roots to spread.

Krista, that's drop-dead gorgeous...and it's hardy in New York? I'll have to tell my mom it would probably do well on her 6a Ohio farm. I'm green with envy, thank you for sharing.

-Kellyn

Thank you, Racin. I'm zone 5 and it's quite hardy here. It forms really substantial canes. I grow it as a freestanding shrub, but use mini-trellises and stakes to support some of the canes.

My first JG was grafted onto multiflora rootstock and became just what it was supposed to be : large and vase shaped and loaded with blooms.

It was simply wonderful and darned near broke my heart when it got RRD.

But I waited, and left the land fallow for two years and then replanted it, because it belongs where I'd chosen to plant it. And I will keep replanting it there if this replacement gets RRD, because it's that great a rose.