David Austin roses

[Laurasanford111]

So my question is are they worth the hype? I have a long garden and a lot of fence, I'm after some rambling and a couple of climbers... I've never ordered roses before I only have two shrubs which I got from a local nursery. I know there is Peter Beales roses and j parkers do them but am I better off going with David Austin? Thank you!

Dont buy Parkers roses. Many of them come from China and are poor do ers in our recent experience. The rootstock may not be suitable for UK conditions?

David Austin and Beales are both still excellent as far as I know ( have bought a lot from them in the past). They were both pioneers in breeding roses for British conditions. David Austin was a particularly pleasant person, although that is of course irrelevant.

David Austin roses really are worth the hype in my experience.

We had 4 rose parterres in our last house with some very old roses that needed replacing. We are not particularly good gardeners I will honest but learnt a lot in a little time! We went to Chelsea and other flower shows and saw David Austin Roses and also Peter Beale. Costing up the David Austin ones was eye watering so we went for Peter Beale and they were excellent. They were delivered bare root and all plants (about 60) were perfect and flowered beautifully the first year. We have since sold that house but I was really pleased how they worked out.

David Austin roses are beautiful and I love them BUT I do find they are a bit disappointing for the first 2-3 years because the young plants tend to send up weaker, smaller stems that cannot hold the weight of the flowers easily. So they are often droopy. After that they tend to send up thicker stronger shoots that support the flowers a but better. I must have had about a dozen or more in different locations and gardens and found the same with all of them.

Peter Beale roses are also excellent and I usually find they look good almost right from the off. In all honesty, I think they are the more robust plant but they don't always have the same look of the DA - and I am always tempted by them instead.

Hi all, thank you so much for your replies, appreciated!

Trevor White is another good supplier. I have found DA roses take a few years to look good - DA recommends planting three of the same variety to get a good display sooner which soon gets expensive! If you have a large expanse of fence to fill it might be an idea to go for a vigorous old rambler, something like Adelaide d’Orleans?

DA roses tend towards the massive flower heads, so for the first few years tend to look droopy as the stems aren't strong enough to support the flowers. That said, they are stunning and often highly scented and I absolutely love mine.
PB look better from the start but in the long term aren't as impressive as the DA.

I would suggest a mix of David Austen and Peter Beale. Parkers were rubbish in my experience.

Definitely worth planting - they’re much ‘hardier’ now but I dose mine up on seaweed - keeps mist disease esp black spot away - hope we have a good summer to enjoy them ☘️👍

I had Googled this exact question two days ago, so very glad to find the answer here.

I'd like a New Dawn rose for a shadier spot and saw it in my local Garden Centre much cheaper than even bare roots from DA, but held out. I think I am going to go back for it though.

I would like a few more shrub/bush roses but I'm not sure I'm enough of a connoisseur (yet) to appreciate the DA factor.

Parkers is a generalist, buying in plants of all sorts and selling them on.

Both Peter Beales and David Austin are rose breeders.

Peter Beales take the money when you place the order, not when they dispatch. Or at least that’s what they were doing last time I ordered.