In general, I often find that it takes 3-4 years for my Austins to really get going. That was one reason I was so surprised that my latest Austin purchases (Lady of Shalot and Munstead Wood) started growing and blooming immediately--and they've almost been non-stop since then. My previous Austin orders never grew and bloomed that well. Now 6-8 years later, most of them are doing fine.

Kate

This is Lady Emma's third year in my garden, like you I purchased her own root. She is still not quite two feet tall. I have not pruned her at all, only dead headed. At the same time I purchased Grace, Carding Mill and Tea Clipper. I do have to prune back these others each spring. Grace is a good three feet, Carding Mill between four and five, and tea clipper is six! I planted them in a row against a horse fence, so Lady Emma has really disappointed me to not grow as tall as the others. When comparing her to the others though she has a different growth habit. Her growth is really dense, leaves grown close together so she is more compact. She is well rounded and overall blooms nicely in flushes. I just wish I had known she was so slow, as I would have not planted her where she is. I'm posting a picture just so you can see her size and shape, as you can see she is just beginning to get to the second railing of the horse fence. (Excuse the ugly wire fencing in front of it, trying to keep my puppy out!) She is said to be a three foot rose, and normally in my hot area roses grow taller than what is said of them. I'll wait another year or two, if she doesn't grow more she's going to have to move.

Hmmm. Just a slow plant on its own roots I guess from what I'm hearing. Has anyone grown a grafted one and could tell me how it's growth habit differs??

Grace e

Mine is grafted from DA. 4th year in the garden and it is still a small wimp. Planted next to Carding Mill and Princess Alexandra of Kent (both own root and huge). If it doesn't do anything by this fall it will be replaced. Probably with a red.This is the only Austin rose that has been a total waste in my garden.

In my climate it seems to be becoming a nice well behaved bush. Not somethng I can say for many Austins. Grafted from DA UK and planted last fall. Retains its colour in the heat but has a tendency to produce some semi double blooms, which look quite nice actually.
Nik

I have a grafted LEH, she is still very new, & has only been in the ground since early April, so I can't say what she is like as a fully grown bush, but here is what I observe so far... She was very slow getting started, I planted 4 other grafted bare roots at the same time (2 of which were also Austins) and she was absolutely the last to start putting on good growth, which is why she is also the shortest. However, since the growth has started she has grown steadily, having had 3 or 4 basal breaks even in the last couple of weeks, all of which have quickly grown about 9" over the rest of the plant, and seem like they are still climbing, before this point the plant was maybe 16"' tall. She was also late getting started in the blooming department, but now that she has I have not yet been disappointed by her frequency yet. She definitely blooms in flushes, much like my Munstead Wood, but the resting period between seems to be pleasantly shorter than Munstead (who has been a little stingy for me so far). Since you have one you already know but I'll just say it again, her blooms are absolutely gorgeous. LEH has one of, if not my favorite bloom out of all the roses I have collected so far (only one year in)- such a lovely blend of orange & pink with highlights of yellow- reminds me of a sunset, & the fragrance! It is delicious, like some kind of fruity desert. Maybe this rose is one of the few Austins that just does better grafted, or maybe I just haven't had it long enough to have a negative experience with it yet. I will say that I do feed my roses well, I used lots of compost, rose tone, & bone meal when planting, and I fertilize regularly with my special rotten banana smoothies -I just throw old bananas or banana peels in the blender, fill it with water and blend- then dilute it down so that I have enough for the whole bed-so sophisticated! Sometimes I will add a little molasses or sulfate of potash, or some other organic plant food, but whatever is in there I always dilute it down significantly. Since I have been doing the smoothies I have seen tons of new growth on this rose, and most of my others as well but particularly this one ... so maybe she responds well to potassium? We also have been getting tons of rain here lately with this crazy polar vortex situation, so I am sure that has helped a lot. She- like most of my Austins reeeeaaaally likes water, so maybe try just watering more and making her a banana smoothie every now and then and see what happens? I wish you luck! I personally adore this rose so I hope you continue to try to make her work for you!

Jessica

This post was edited by Dinglehopp3r on Sat, Jul 19, 14 at 19:20

I snapped a couple of photos of mine for you!
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I counted about 10 new buds on her while I was taking these photos.

I should also note that while several of my roses have varying levels of BS at the moment, LEH remains spotless. My garden is a no-spray zone. The tall plant you see to the left of LEH is actually a sweet basil plant that has gotten way out of hand.. but it's just pesto waiting to happen, so it won't be a problem for long.

Jessica

I got one this spring and it is struggling and tiny. For a while I thought it was toast. It has some tiny buds now. Maybe I will have to cover it with mulch when winter comes.

Munstead Wood and Lady of Shallot took off so well in large containers with amazing growth.

Carla

Carla, out of all my roses my little Lady Emma did fine last winter. Not one bad cane on her, while roses to her left were badly damaged by the unusually cold weather. So despite her size I think she's a tough litle rose.

In my experience all own root roses need at least three years to get going. However, from all the reports I've read LEH is a short compact rose even when mature, which has been part of her appeal. If you want something taller and more vigorous in the same color range consider replacing her with PAT AUSTIN. Mrs. Austin is very vigorous and an excellent repeater. Just be forewarned that she nodds her tangerine colored blooms like a Tea rose. I think this lends her a certain grace but others find it objectionable.

Wow this is a surprise. I find LEH to be almost too much, it doesn't get massively tall but it produces too many basals (if there is such a thing) Mine maybe sticks to 4' and now it is getting mature it has maybe 20 stems. It's almost gallica like. Maybe this is another to add to the needs damp and cool temps, I think rather than Pat I'd probably go for LoS - not much fragrant but the blooms last longer than LEH and it is more vigorous. No red foliage either which is my favourite thing about LEH.