What's the difference between shrub roses and bush roses?

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They only have shrub roses on the David Austen website, for instance.

Now the official answer for this is that there is no particular difference between the two, though some argue that bush roses are smaller, only rising to 2ft. I'd have thought it was the other way round but what do I know.

Me, I just don't get it. I bought a DA shrub rose a couple of years ago - Lady of Shalott I think - and okay, it has grown a bit. But - as with all the other five or so roses in my garden - has a very thin stem, you could use scissors let alone secateurs on the base to cut it. What is the name of those big thick stemmed bush rose structures you see, the kind that frame a front window, or rise up behind a front garden fence? Big, thick, thorny stems the size of your finger. They are not ramblers, they are not climbers, but to lump them in with some piffling shrub rose which while nice enough just isn't going great guns after a few years, what gives?

None of my roses look like growing into the kind of big rose bush I see in other gardens and there doesn't seem to be any way of antcipating how they will grow.

https://www.davidaustinroses.co.uk/blogs/inspiration/growing-into-trees

I have a rambler that I could not use scissors on. Finger sized stems at the bottom and it's only 3 years old.

But yeah, you'll need patience too.

Well, as I recall I bought a shrub rose from David Austin but a visitor last week said they thought it was a climbing rose. Here is the picture, and it's been in that place for two years or more.

I'd be lying if I said it had gone great guns although at least it hasn't died, like the small lilacs trees I bought.

I can't see it turning into anything substantial - is this a climber?

On the other hand, here is the sort of thing I am looking for - nice, sturdy 5ft or 6ft roses in the front garden of an attractive Surrey property. Blooms nicely out generally. Are these shrub or bush roses?

Here's one from the same garden, nice and tall, thick stems, a proper rose - well is it a shrub or a bush? This is the sort of thing I'm looking for...

DA claim to have invented English shrub roses, the difference from generic bush roses being that they are (supposedly) better at repeat flowering throughout the summer. I’m a sucker for their marketing and planted in 3 DA roses in 2019. This year, finally, one (the lark ascending) has really taken off and begun sending up huge thick stems (so thick I feared they were from the root stock). The bush roses in your photos look older, and well established. Do you prune, feed and mulch yours? Roses are tough, but also hungry plants which benefit from pruning. It’s coming up to bare root season, so I’d look for ones described as ‘vigorous’ and plan to plant over autumn, in plenty of well rotted manure.

Yeah, the nice thick ones the owner said had been planted by the previous owner decades ago. I did prune my roses but can't say they've roared on ahead as a result much, in fact some others I bought from a local garden centre and market have no blooms at all this year. Haven't done the manure and mulch thing I admit.

I’ve been around quite a few DA roses lately through a garden project and if you’re looking for something that grows quite tall but isn’t a climber then Queen of Sweden is the one I’d recommend. Ours were planted as bare root eighteen months ago and it’s already about 5 feet tall and strong.
It’s not my favourite of their roses but it’s definitely a bigger one compared to many of the others.