My David Austin by UPS experience

10 years ago

This will be long. Sorry.

One month ago I received my mail order Carding Mill. It was in a box and was very small, tidy and healthy but small. It had not too many canes or foliage but the canes were straight and the leaves green and shiny. It also had a few blossoms.

About two weeks later, I went to Regan's and purchased Teasing Georgia (Austin) and Kosmos (Kordes).I brought them home and planted them, as I had done the Carding Mill, In very large planters. They were much more mature bushes and quite a bit bigger than CM. I received CM as about a 16 inch tall plant. These plants were over 2 feet tall.

I was very happy with them because they had abundant foliage and canes. But I noticed as the weeks went by, that a lot of the leaves yellowed and fell off. I know now that this is just the plant removing older leaves and not a disease. But there were many and they were all in the heavily foliaged center of the plants. .

Over the last month, Carding Mill has overtaken them both and is now taller and has added many leaves. This morning it has several open blossoms and 15 additional buds. It looks super. The canes on CM are straight and tall . The other 2 are (as one Cornwall woman called London streets) all higgly piggly. They are all jammed into the middle of the plant which is dense with many yellowed leaves.

I called the David Austin store in Texas and spoke with someone I was transferred to in the 'growing shop'. I told him about my experience and asked why Teasing Georgia is so different from CM. He said that before they ship plants, they keep them pruned so that the middle of the plant doesn't get too congested. He suggested that if I want TG to be a more open plant that I start training it now by pruning out some the interior and more twisted small canes.

I have done this on both the Austin and the Kordes plants. We will see.

Comments please.

andrea

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Comments (5)

jacqueline9CA
10 years ago
Anytime you get roses from different sources they will have been treated differently, and grown in different environments, and even had different shipping experiences. I would not worry too much about those differences - I would just treat them as well as I can, and see what happens.

That seems to be what you are doing, which is great. The two which needed some pruning have gotten it, and hopefully will proceed to do better from now on. Please let us know how these three roses are doing in a few months - that will be interesting.

Jackie
andreark
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks Jackie for the input and the interest. I will put photos of all my roses (1 bed 18 months, 1 bed 4 months, and 6 planters 2 months) in a couple of months.

Thanks again,

andrea
seil zone 6b MI
10 years ago
Like Jackie said, the growing conditions between the two source were probably vastly different. The DA roses from DA are their stock and trade and are probably better cared for. Regans gets its roses from a big supplier as bare roots and then pots them up and grows them out for sale. There's no way of knowing who that supplier was and what kind of care they got but it probably wasn't as careful. Pruning probably only consisted of whacking off the tops and not thinning of any kind. Follow the instructions you got from DA and they should do fine.
andreark
Original Author
10 years ago
Seil, the interior pruning on Carding Mill is still evident. They removed a number of canes from the middle of the plant. What is left is a beautiful shape with a clear interior.

I have seen a video from The San Jose Municipal Rose Garden on pruning. And the woman who did the pruning shows how to prune to keep the interior clear of too many canes. She also shows how to prune the bush to make it shaped, as she called it, like a vase. My CM is free of interior 'clutter' and is shaped beautifully.

The other two English types are (or were) quite tangled.

The David Austin directly from David Austin, as you said, is much better cared for.

Thanks for your input,

andrea
susan4952
10 years ago
I have noticed the yellowing of the interior leaves with lots of BS on my dense healthy roses. What I interpreted as lush foliage is actually affecting the plant by decreasing air circulation. I will prune a little differently next spring and see if it makes a difference. These roses are such picky b$&tches.