Can I have some rose advice please?

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

Hi. I was given a Claire Austin rose for my new garden by my grandma.

I looked it up. I did everything they said to do. It says it is a full sun rose. So I planted it in the place it was going to go.
Is there anything I should be doing as it is a bare roots rose. The afternoon sun is fairly hot. Should I be shielding it while it is new ? I am watering it as it says oh the website. Which is 10litres every few days.

I really don’t want to kill this as it means a lot to me as my grandma is one of my fav people and is 93. So I want to make sure this doesn’t die. Any tips would be helpful.

You can feed it with well rotted manure or a proprietary roses for from a garden centre. Feed it now and then once again at the end of June.
Apart from that it sounds like you are doing it all right.
I have lots of David Austin roses and I REALLY love them, so you know the name of the type you have

Thanks. I will get some tomorrow!

I am very amateur at gardening but have planted quite a few bare root DA roses over the years and all are thriving. We have very heavy London clay soil which is good for them but other than occasionally feeding, I more or less leave them. You may need a spray for aphids if you get a lot of them. Deadhead the flowers when they die then more will come.

Seven years ago, my DM bought me a DA rose and then very unexpectedly died.

The rose was found about ten days after it had been delivered, down the side of the house. I retrieved it and stuck it in a pot, in full sun, which I never ever watered. It was there for five years, except for a brief and very exciting trip on a van when I paid someone to clear my front garden and they pulled it out of the pot, stuck it in their garden waste then took it away. I called them crying and they returned it the next day.

We moved house and I popped it in the ground, 18mo ago. It is very happy and has trebled in size. It is really surprisingly hard to kill roses in my experience 😁

So I want to make sure this doesn’t die

Good news: roses are as tough as old boots

Water and feed, as above. If you're feeling fancy then a spray bottle and a diluted foliage spray of Uncle Tom's Tonic once a fortnight or so during the summer will also help keep it healthy.

Don't worry about the sun - it'll love the light and heat it provides.

If you feed it with manure - just put a covering on the ground around the stem, but not touching it. The rain and worms will take the goodness down to the roots.

Alliums planted next to it improved my DA patio rose

This is all very reassuring to a beginner Gardner. Thanks.

All good points made by others OP. I'll add in a.... not word if warning no exactly, but don't be at all surprised if it doesn't do massively well this year.

In my experience, David Austin roses seem to put in a LOT of effort settling in and developing roots. But year two, all of mine (and we have a DA obsession in our house!), were absolutely thriving.

You'll probably have another one by the end of the year

The quality of David Austin roses is great, am sure you’ll be fine.

Feed with their rose food every March and, again, after they’ve had their first flush of flowers (June/July depending where you are). If you mulch (layer of compost) on top, it helps keep the moisture in.

Once established, water well once a week April-October (more often if particularly dry spells). When watering, water well around the base of the bush - avoid soaking the leaves/blooms.

Cut back well around Feb/March.

The David Austin website has lots of great info, and some videos, regarding caring for roses/annual timetable of care etc.

They really are hardy buggers - you’ll be hard-pushed to destroy it. Mine got an awful battering last summer during a freak rainstorm. The bushes were flattened and parts of them drowned in surface water. I cut them back, they survived the summer looking ok and are now looking great heading into the new flowering season.