Your last paragraph regarding the same rose being grafted, grafted, grafted over almost a century is a topic on my mind. Maybe best suited for a new thread or the hybridizers forum. I’d love to chat about what DOES change though because the scale of this had just ocurred to me literally yesterday when talking to another ARS member about some seedling starts Ive been working on. The fact that all roses by the same name have the EXACT same genes is some nutty scientist nonsense without a doubt.
I have a similar issue with my larger petal counts as well here in the PNW. My newest shoots seem to do best and not ‘nod’ over at the bloom. Could be a pruning issue for me and I’m hoping plant maturity will help as well.
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I live in north east Florida and I have had a dozen David Austin for some years.
Needless to say that we have here very hot and humid days from June to October. Some of these roses will do better than others.
Gentle Hermione starts wilting (every year) in June and (kind of) recovers in November. I think it is not adapted to heat.
Heritage and The Alnwick are doing Okay, at this time still blooming.
Olivia Rose Austin is doing really good with lots of blooms.
However, as you mentioned, these blooms are outstanding but small.
Each year, I see my D. Austin thriving again with cooler days, in November.
Harlow Carr is my best. Seems to be always happy and blooming from March to February. However, the shrub is hardly 2 ft high.
I water these roses at least 4 times a week.
This March I also purchased a tree (Desdemona) which is in a big terra cotta container. It did well the first 3 months with a profusion of blooms and it started wilting by mid-June. Yellow leaves falling quickly. I think I gave it too much water (roughly 2 Gal per day). I reduced watering a week ago.
In my opinion, David Austin roses are delicate and not really adapted to hot and humid climate.
All my other 120 roses are of Fortuniana root stock and they are doing really well.
Do you use shade cloth for any roses in FLA?
Not at all.
All roses are in full sun and they are OK. Watered twice a week.
However, from early July to September, blooms are somewhat smaller, anyway much smaller than the huge blooms we always get around Xmas.
In the 9 years that I grew roses in the Atlanta area, (Jimmy Carter Blvd and 85 area) I successfully grew David Austin roses. I had Abraham Darby, Crown Princess Margaret, and Bishop’s Castle. I feel like there was a couple more, but I can’t remember. I also grew other higher petal count roses successfully. I am, and was a no spray rose grower.
In my current garden, the humidity is worse than Atlanta. I grow many more David Austin roses than in Atlanta, without a problem. In Atlanta I had a fair amount of shade, did little supplemental watering, and was ok with some blackspot. Here I have more sun, have done more supplemental watering, and still have little disease issues. In both gardens, I have really good soil, so I am wondering if that helps.
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You were fortunate in the past not to have bad black spot on your David Austin roses. The few that I have are not disease resistant. Olivia is the best one. Are you willing to spray them? Perhaps contact some rosarians in a local rose society for some suggestions.