David Austin - The Generous Gardener

[Furries]

Does anyone here have this rose? Am pretty sure of my choice (it will be a climber), but any feedback would be great. Photos would be an added bonus!

Mine is 2 years old. I think it's a very charming rose although some say it takes a while to take off and grow big. Mine is still not that large

I've had mine several years. My gardener cut it back massively last year to put new fencing in so it's not massive at the moment. It has the most heavenly scented roses and blooms profusely. Love it!

I got one last year. It didn't do a lot. It's starting to get away this year (all foliage so far, no buds).
Thanks for prompting me to have a close look at it - I've spotted some greenfly that need sorting!

We bought one a couple of years ago but moved in March so had to leave it. I took several cuttings though which rooted and are now small but planted in the new garden (which ironically is FULL of roses!). Ours did well and climbed about 4 feet in two years. Beautiful, graceful flowers. I'll see if I can find a photo of it in bloom last year.

Generous Gardener 😍

I planted one in March which is about 9 inches tall at the moment. I’m not expecting much from it this year but hopefully next year will be better.

I have one. I bought it as a bare root stock last year, and once the weather warmed up I swear I could watch it grow! I had about 20 blooms.
I trimmed it back a bit earlier in the year as recommended by David Austin (they are very helpful if you email any queries), I fed it as advised and it has now taken off again and is making strides along the top of my pergola. The buds are coming now.
Greenfly was a huge problem, and I ended up buying Rose Clear, as nothing else shifted them. I am new to gardening, and this rose, and it’s progress, is really keeping me interested.

This is about 3 months growth from a couple of twigs planted in April.

Wow @ThreeKneeRepeater that looks great!

I bought two roses last year and they didn't do much. I think I had about 6 roses all summer. They've taken off this year and have 10-15 rose buds each so I'm impatiently waiting for them to flower.

I wondered if all roses spent their first year busy making roots but I bought a bare root Gertrude Jekyll a couple of months ago and although it's tiny, it already has 2 flowers. The only difference is that I added a few bags of compost on top of the bed last November (for the worms to dig in for me over winter) and used tomorite fertiliser last month. I think the older roses must have been starving. We have heavy clay soil filled with rubble which is very difficult to dig.

Just bought and planted bare root Generous Gardener, Gertrude Jekyll and Wollerton Old Hall, all for fragrance. Not expecting much this year, but any flowers will be a bonus. We had DA climbers in our last garden and they did take a year to really get going.

I planted Generous Gardener and Gertrude Jekyll about a month ago. Loads of buds on Gertrude. Nothing on GG but nearly made it to the pergola post now

I fed both of them as per the instructions. David Austin rose food was out of stock so I emailed and they suggested Top Rose as an alternative which I used.

Thanks for the feedback all. The photos are great and it’s good to hear that the fragrance is lovely.

This will be my first time training young plants over a rose arch. I’m not expecting much in the way of blooms for the first couple of years.

I agree that the DA website is great for info and tips. They also recommended Top Rose to me as they were out of stock.

My standards and shrubs out the front are looking great - loads of buds on each of them. Fingers crossed I do as well with the climbers!

I love TGG! Good choice OP, here's one of ours from a couple of years ago

Sorry OP, this bloody new site still won't let my post pictures!!

My absolute favourite David Austin rose
I will try to remember to post a picture when it starts blooming this year - the number of flowers throughout is wonderful, the scent and the foliage . We have ours climbing up and along the front of our garage - it is truly lovely .

I planted one as a bare root about 18 months ago and it flowered that first summer. Its not the earliest rose to flower but when it does the sight and smell are something to behold! You also get two flushes of flowers with it if you keep on top of your deadheading, so it goes quite late into the season. Its now one of my favourite roses, along with Gertrude Jekyll. Fingers crossed so far it seems much more resistant to black spot than Gertrude Jekyll is, which is a bonus. The greenfly seemed to love it, but last year I bought some mail order Ladybird Larvae (yes you can buy such a thing!!) and that seemed to sort the problem out fairly quickly.

I put in quite a big one (the £50 pot size) two years ago and I've been a bit disappointed with its growth. It doesn't seem to want to climb. It has bushed out at the bottom now and flowers fairly well, but I was hoping it would be to the top of the dance by now and it's nowhere near.

There are several GG climbers in the garden that I work in. Garden owner thinks they are not right for the wall they are climbing (trained) and are too vigorous-

They may well be coming out this winter (oh yippee, thorns for days)

Mine is a n the shady front of my house. The plan is for it to grow up and over the porch. It was a bare root last year, good number of flowers last summer but not much height. This year it has put on lots of growth, not huge amount of height (it's about 1m at the mo) but lots of buds again.

Am feeling a bit conflicted now - it sounds as though it’s not been a runaway success for quite a few. Plus points seem to be lovely flowers and great scent. Huge minus seems to be that it’s not really grown much for some.