David Austin roses - arrrgh help!

Elinore

As a new gardener i was delighted when I was gifted a £100 voucher at work as a thank you.

In an attempt to get repeat flowering and easy care i decided on some roses. I have shied away from roses in the garden in the past as my great grandmother and my grandmother always said they were hard work and troublesome. However i was seduced by the fact the modern ranges are meant to be more hardy and disease resistant (and to be frank, stunningly beautiful)

So six weeks ago i bought four - lady of shalott, desdemona, lady hamilton and wollerton old hall. the latter being the only climber. all placed a foot or so apart along a sunny south facing wall. All repotted, Lady of shalott got a bigger pot than the rest, being the only difference.

lady of shalott and wollerton have both settled in really well, had huge growth explosions and are popping out the most beautiful roses left right and centre.

Lady Hamilton and Desdimona on the other hand have been sulking. The are yellowed, blotchy, look unhappy and though treated exactly the same as the other two seem really not to be thriving. I have treated them both with some rose spray with no change.

Any advice please i would hate to kill them due to my lack of knowledge - happy to provide photos if that helps

sheramber

Try contacting David Austen

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DaftyDuck

They are in pots, on a South facing wall? Roses struggle in pots at the best of times, this not hear it will be worse! Any stress on a rose, and disease is more likely.

Size of pot, and soil used? September has good advice, David Austen have good service ...

[Deleted User]

DaftyDuck wrote: »

They are in pots, on a South facing wall? Roses struggle in pots at the best of times, this not hear it will be worse! Any stress on a rose, and disease is more likely.

Size of pot, and soil used? September has good advice, David Austen have good service ...

Just before the heatwave I also bought four roses from David Austin. One of which included the Lady of Shallot.

I have a large garden and so cannot water my plants in this heat as there are just too many so they have to fend for theselves, but not my four roses. Every single day I have watered them.

I had an email from David Austin just after buying which said...

"With the hot weather upon us, it is really important to remember to water your roses.
We recommend a watering can full every day in these extreme temperatures. Pay particular attention to newly planted roses and roses in pots."

As DaftyDuck says it sounds as though they are too hot and too dry

DaftyDuck

... Mind you, I've only just noticed autocorrect has renamed sheramber to September!

cbsexec

A few years ago I bought a lovely rose from David Austin but unfortunately it died quite soon after planting. I emailed David Austin and they very kindly sent me another which is still going strong. Worth getting in touch with them.

Elinore

Good news! it seems they were holding on and and keeping me in suspense.

I popped down this morning to water them and they have a blush of new growth on all the stems

All the roses are in very large pots (small tree worthy size wise) as my research showed they like a lot of root space. Good quality compost mixed with a bit of the rose specialist compost (though i only bought a little as i though it a gimmick) and well rotted manure at the base.

Lady of Shalott's roses are stunningly beautiful, but Lady Hamilton' smell wonderful.