DA Rose Sceptre de Isle

[Mistymorin]

This rose has grown in a tangled mess this year, I have just hacked it. There are a few unopened buds, once spent, I will prune these stems as well.

Is it such a disaster?😫

Here is the rose

Did you prune it in winter? This is what you need to do to ensure strong growth, remove any crossing stems, any dead or damaged growth . Also, that pot looks too small for the rose. Sceptered Isle can get to about 4ft I think. 45cm pot is possible, but in reality I think you need one even bigger than that.

I find it one of my best roses, strong, healthy and never ending flowers.

can you put in a much bigger pot or the ground. Also feed it. Did you prune in spring as this ensure good string growth

Does it live in that pot normally as it's a tiny pot?

It needs to be in the ground or have a massive pot.

I am not sure what you mean by hacking or when you did it, my roses were all messy so I cut every stem back to about 6 inches over winter, fed them, and now they are all very grateful and growing like crazy.

I'd repot yours, leave it alone til winter and then prune it as per David Austin website guidelines.

Yes, I pruned in winter, DH did say I did not prune it hard enough.

Thank you for the advice, I will leave it and prune and repot/plant in garden and feed in early spring.

Your DH is probably right.

My DM used to do my garden every year and practically raze everything to the ground. I'd be stressed she'd killed it all but the plants loved it!

I find it very reliable, I have 6 of them. Hard prune, planted in the open ground, full sun, heavy feed in autumn.

Funnily, out of all our David Austin roses this is the only one to fail. It's still just alive (it has been moved to try a different position but made no difference). It's about 4 years old now. Our others are great.

My Spectre is also 4 years. Out of the DA roses, this is the only one that has 'failed' this year! I also have a Summer Song (5th year) which until now has been awful, it insists on growing as a climber! I gave it one last chance this year and pruned it very hard, it's done OK but still wants to reach for the sky!