Mine is free of blackspot here too, which is quite rare for an Austin. It repeats well but I deadhead it and don't get many hips. It is really large (7x5) and sturdy self-supporting so it holds its blooms high and does not bend down even after a good rain.

Thanks, Lori. I had noticed that TGG had a great large-shrub habit if pruned to stand up. Lots of dark-green foliage, too. This plant (not mine) was 7x7, lost to rosette.

I grew the Generous Gardener years ago in Michigan (when it was new). It was a beautiful talk arching shrub for me that repeated over, and over, and over again all summer. Just a perfect rose, never a spot of disease, gorgeous blooms, and tons of them. I can't wait to get the garden in shape for it and I will have at least one again by next spring.

I'm growing mine wrapped around a copper obelisk/tuteur. Still young, but it either repeats or has a long slow flush which lasts a long time.

No disease so far here.

Folly

The flowers are interesting. It makes attractive slender buds that hold that form for several days. Then they puff up and open deeply cupped, almost globose, with a nest of petaloids inside. The mature flowers have variable and somewhat irregular form, sometimes deeply cleft into four lobes like certain damasks. Some of the flowers have a heavy old-rose fragrance.

We have 6 TGGs growing on arches. They're about 6 years old.
The bushes are vigorous and send up lots of canes.

When I keep them deadheaded, they repeat well, but the spring flush is the most magnificent.

Here in inland eastern South Carolina (aka the Black Spot Coast), TGG seems moderately disease resistant. I'm strict about following a twice a month spray routine. Still, sometimes the disease pressures catch up with some of the roses. I have seen some black spot on TGG, but not much.

Overall, I've been really happy with TGG. The bushes fill up the arches and the foliage is beautiful.

To keep the bush in scale with the arch, I remove about a third of the canes in late fall.

In my relatively dry zone, TGG blooms reasonably well for the spring flush but only sporadically if at all the rest of the year. My bush started out free-standing but now enough of the canes have been surviving (it's about 7 years old now) that I bend the top canes over into a nearby arch and we'll see if it sends up laterals and blooms more effectively on those. I think the disease resistance on mine is pretty good, but this is the first year in maybe 7 where most of the canes were healthy and didn't need trimming mostly to the ground. TGG is worse than most of my Austins for "hidden canker" where the canes look perfectly green with healthy growth but are deep brown in the center down most of the length. This happened even in last year's relatively mild winter, which is why I'm so surprised the canes are so healthy this harsh winter. When Madame Caroline Testout cl needs to be pruned to the ground and TGG is cane hardy, you know it has really been a weird winter.

My bottom line is that it's a good plant and OK where I have it, but it's a back of the bed rose that's not a showy specimen. Blooms for me are a muddy cream that's fine at a distance but not particularly thrilling up close. Teasing Georgia has the same shape and growth habit, but with much better hardiness and rebloom for me by far.

Cynthia

Cynthia, do you deadhead it after first flush?

I suspect regular loss of canes to winter would impair repeat bloom in vigorous growers generally. They make long canes that bloom at the ends.

"Muddy cream"--"nuanced ecru"--"delicate apricot blush" ;)

This post was edited by michaelg on Sat, May 31, 14 at 15:20

Yep, I do deadhead pretty faithfully and I've never seen mine put on hips, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. The loss of canes might indeed be the key here, so we'll see if I get any repeat bloom this year now that there is much more surviving cane (at least 3 feet) this year. Mine is just now opening into bloom, so I'll post a picture in a bit to give you an idea of its better face in my zone.

Delicate apricot blush - if only!! I've learned not to trust the words "purple" or "russet" or even "apricot" till I see the rose for myself. I'd actually like TGG a lot more if he were a little more grey or russet, since that would give him some interest. Nuanced ecru, nah - not my thing either. Now SATURATED ecru, that might look nice. Anything with a little more oomph - even a good saturated white would be better.

Cynthia

We planted one on a front wrought iron fence in a prime location in 2011. The first 3 years it didn't do much at all (grafted, direct from DA). But this year: look out! It has about a bizillion buds, all set to open in the next few days. It's now big, robust, and absolutely healthy. We have a whole lot of Austins, and the only other one this big and healthy is Teasing Georgia, which is the star of our rose garden.

Generous Gardner, buds upright and loaded!

Ecru--eggshell--antique lace--the skin tones of Mimi in La Boheme--in the 1890's every fashionable poet wore 'The Generous Gardener' as a boutonniere, preferably a flower in the first stages of decay. On one occasion Oscar Wilde thrashed the young W. B. Yeats with his ivory-tipped cane in a dispute over the last bud of TGG in a flower stall. But one can hardly expect a personne du Kansas to understand a color such as this, with its subtle frisson of sin and mortality.

Ah good ol' Oscar, always handy for a hint of scandal. I don't blame him, though - I'd thrash someone with my cane for a cutting of a rose 100 years in the future too. Maybe by then they'll actually have a winter hardy fragrant lavender AND a winter hardy russet. (Nah, too outlandish). I beg to differ on two points, however monsieur!! Moi - je suis personne du Nebraska (ahem), not Kansas, unless you were referring to the time-traveling Oscar. Also, I gots plenty o' 'preciation of sin and mortality - why I flaunt Erotica right there in my back yard, and X-rated is slated to joint it. So don't accuse moi for having the absence of low class or nuthin'!

Seriously, Clarion - that is one downright gorgeous TGG bush just loaded with buds. If mine could show a fraction of that "wow" factor I'd forgive it for being essentially a once-bloomer. Now that you've taunted us with the buds, you really have to post a picture of this in full bloom.

Cynthia

Took a picture of my bush for you, Michael. Not quite in full bloom but you can see the sturdy shape of it. It's probably as wide as it is tall now that I look at it again. :-)

Wow, thanks to Lori and Clarion for the photos. Clarion, how tall is that fence?

The fence is 5'.

Here's a shot of one of our TGG on an arch.

Mine ranges from antique lace (thank you, MichaelG!) to the palest shell pink. I have it in a location where the worst glare of the sun is limited and roses do not fade badly. In all day full sun they would be that nondescript warm white everyone painted their walls in the 1990's.

On the whole I go for more voluptuous roses, but I do like this one. And the canes are flexible enough to wrap when they are young.

Folly