David Austin potted roses
Hi
I've decided to purchase the following three roses from David Austins website: The Pilgrim, Gertrude Jekyll and Munstead Wood.
They are currently only available as potted plants.
Has anyone bought potted roses from David Austins?
If so, can you advise if the roots are quite established in their pots or are they the same as bare roots but with a pot.
I don't know whether to buy now or wait until when the bare root plants become available again if the root system on both are similar.
Thanks.
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I've not bought potted roses from DA but did buy some bare root roses (inc Gertrude Jekyll - it has the most wonderful perfume!)
I'd suspect that the bare root roses will be cheaper - certainly re. P&P costs.
If you get the potted roses, you'll get some blooms this year.
The bare root roses were in excellent condition when they arrived and have performed really well for about 15yrs now
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I've read here many times the Gertrude Jekyll has a stunning smell, and decided I must smell this rose too!
Have you grown yours in a pot or in the ground?
And what are the thorns like on this rose?
Last edited: 14 June 2016 13:29:51
I've got 4 in the front garden planted in the ground - visitors often comment on the wonderful perfume. Gertrude Jekyll is being grown in England to produce essential oil of rose.
The thorns are fairly typical for a rose, maybe a bit thornier than most, but I forgive her.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I have bought bare root roses from DA in the past but shipping to Belgium makes them expensive. I have since found a rose grower in the Ardennes who comes to a local plant fair in spring and brings me DA roses in pots and planted by him. He advises me to keep them in the pot till autumn so they can develop their root systems undisturbed and to be ruthless about dead-heading to conserve energy. Having had a few that struggle even so because of hard winters or the competition I now pot them into bigger pots and keep them there for 2 summers.
I would advise you be patient and wait for autumn delivery of bare rooted roses. That'll give you time to prepare their new home well. When they do arrive, soak the roots overnight in a bucket of water and then plant them out and they will have the rest of autumn and all winter to concentrate on making a healthy roots system.
I find Gertrude quite prickly but the colour is a gorgeous clear pink and the perfume excellent so she's worth it. Munstead Wood is a good rose too but I did have to rescue mine from the border and pot it because it was getting swamped by all the other plants. Same with a Benjamin Britten and Geoff Hamilton and Graham Thomas. I have Falstaff, Generous Gardener, Queen of Sweden, Tess of the D'Urbevilles, Teasing Georgia, Jacqueline Dupré, Malvern Hills, Sceptr'd Isle, Crocus Rose, William Shakespeare and Constance Spry all doing well in the borders as well as Kiftsgate and a couple of ground cover roses which are not DA.
Last edited: 14 June 2016 13:58:38
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
I have bought potted DA roses in the past and they have always been top quality plants with well established roots. They are always planted directly into the garden on arrival with an addition of mycorrhizal fungi which DA sell too.
I've bought all of those either for myself or as gifts and they are fabulously scented, very well established in their pots and ready to go in at any time of year.
I have a Gertrude Jekyll, planted last November and is doing well. I read it could be short climber and wonder if anyone grows it as a climber?
Like Ladybird4, I've bought potted DA roses and all 3 were good plants and established well, They even flowered the year I planted them. One, Brother Cadfael, has been in the ground for 3 years now and looks and smells fabulous
I bought Boscobel last summer, and there were some blooms right up to the first frost... it has settled in beautifully over the winter and there are currently over thirty buds on the bush!
I went on to purchase several bare roots from David Austin last winter and I am just starting to see a few buds on some bushes, still waiting for buds on others. I definitely find (with roses that aren't David Austin too) that bare roots really need that first summer for root development and settling in. I garden on clay, and it's true that roses are very fond of it.
I would buy potted, bare roots take too long. I have bought a potted rose from DA but it wasn't one of their English roses, it was a Meiland rose. No flowers yet but it was a recent purchase. I am happy with it. It was freshly potted. I left a few weeks before planting it in the ground, it was not fully established in the pot but you can plalnt them in the ground any time. The root system in bare root and potted is not similar. The bare root one is smaller.