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'Mary Rose ®' rose Reviews & Comments
Discussion id : 125-051
most recent 7 JAN SHOW ALL
 
Initial post 17 JAN 21 by happymaryellen
I have a Mary Rose that did not fare well the last couple years and I realize it was in probably too shady of a spot. I’m thinking about moving it to a sunnier spot, but the drainage is a little slow in that area. It does drain but it drains a little slow. Anybody have experience with planting Mary in such circumstances?
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Reply #1 of 2 posted 17 JAN 21 by ....
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Reply #2 of 2 posted 7 JAN by AndromedaSea
Hi, I only just planted it this past spring, but Mary Rose is doing very well in a very sunny spot in my slow-draining clay soil. I’m in zone 7b NJ.
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Discussion id : 153-486
most recent 15 OCT HIDE POSTS
 
Initial post 15 OCT by ParisRoseLady
Available from - Garden Roses LLC
www.gardenrosesllc.com
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Discussion id : 139-010
most recent 21 FEB 23 HIDE POSTS
 
Initial post 21 FEB 23 by Rosarian-du-Nord
At the bottom of the Mary Rose Description page, a note is given:

"The Plant Science Dept. of the Nova Scotia Agriculture College evaluated 58 English Roses to assess their hardiness and disease-resistance. Mary Rose was found to be reasonably tolerant to blackspot.
Some differences of opinion about parentage, see References."

This study is not shown in the Reference section. Does anyone know how to access it?
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Discussion id : 98-313
most recent 20 APR 19 SHOW ALL
 
Initial post 1 APR 17 by thebig-bear
One of my favourite of ALL roses, and in my opinion, certainly one of the very best ever created by David Austin - is it any coincidence that all my favourite English Roses are older varieties?! Personally, I think Austin's don't create roses with this type of character any more. A lot of the time, the newer ones seem to be the same rose in 12 different colours and shades, and all very much of a muchness. This rose, on the other hand, has a lot of the character of an old H.P. or some such, but better health, growth habit and repeat - i.e. all the things that D.A. aimed for in the first place - a repeating Old Rose with modern traits. And the scent is unique to this and it's sports, in my opinion quite strong and delicious, reminicent of a high quality perfume, face powder, soap or similar. I highly recommend this rose to any one with a love of pink roses, and especially for those with smaller gardens, as it takes up very little space in my experience.
First class in every way!
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Reply #1 of 9 posted 1 APR 17 by Andrew from Dolton
Many David Austin roses are quite disease prone in my garden and it is rather tiresome to see the same 30 varieties of rose for sale in every garden centre. You made a very good point that the older D.A. roses are more interesting, everything now seems a bit too "compact and free flowering", there are many more exciting and different roses you never see for sale. 'Mary Rose' is one of David Austin's best.
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Reply #2 of 9 posted 1 APR 17 by thebig-bear
You are quite right; it is very depressing to see such a lack of imagination and variety at most garden centres and the like. I am lucky in having a couple of places in particular near to me that have the foresight to provide a wide choice of varieties and types, including within the English roses.

I too have problems with disease amongst quite a few of the David Austin's, and they are certainly not the paragon of virtues that most establishments would have you believe. A lot of my old H.P.s are no worse! The only recent varieties that I have kept in my garden are Munstead Wood, Kew Gardens, Boscabel, and Wildeve (a fantastic and very underated rose). The Lark Ascending is currently on probation!

Our favourite and tried and tested old friends are Golden Celebration, Pat Austin (currently added to David Austin's "Supplementary List", and in danger of deletion), English Garden, Evelyn (both these two have, inexplicably, already gone from D. A's. catalogue), the ubiquitous Gertrude Jekyll (despite her sins) and Mary Rose. All these roses are distinct from each other, have varied habits and foliage, and a variety of scents and flower shapes, and without doubt much more character than most varieties of the last 10 years or more.

Mary Rose will get some blackspot here, but just ignores it like a real trooper!
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Reply #3 of 9 posted 1 APR 17 by Andrew from Dolton
'Munstead Wood' grows very poorly for me and 'Gertrude Jekyll' only slightly better. 'Scepter'd Isle' and 'Summer Song' grow tolerably well but aren't really happy but I grow them for their enchanting smells.
I remember in the 1980's when Austin roses started to become popular, everyone was raving about how they combined old rose fragrance with modern repeat flowering and disease resistance, it simply wasn't true. Give me 'Blush Noisette' any day!
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Reply #4 of 9 posted 2 APR 17 by thebig-bear
Funnilly enough, I haven't come across Scepter'd Isle or Summer Song - just typical of what we have been saying isn't it!
Absolutely, give me Blush Noisette, or indeed most well behaved Old Roses. Now they are roses with character.
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Reply #5 of 9 posted 7 JUN 17 by StrawChicago Alkaline clay 5a
Thank you, Andrew, for helping me realizing what I did wrong with Munstead Wood ... as OWN-ROOT hates acidic soil. I made my clay acidic with cracked corn (pH 4) and acidic leaves and almost killed Munstead Wood. I had to dig it up, put a bag of pH 8 top soil, before it got better. Then it kept having mildew during tons of acidic late fall rain. I had to top it with more alkaline clay to fix mildew. Last month, I made another mistake: top with Alaska pellets (fish & alfalfa meal) and that got acidic ... blooms get smaller.
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Reply #6 of 9 posted 7 JUN 17 by Andrew from Dolton
I replaced 'Munstead Wood' with 'Tuscany', and that is growing away much better.
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Reply #7 of 9 posted 7 JUN 17 by Jay-Jay
One of the best behaving Austins as for vigor and health is in my opinion A Shropshire Lad.
Another good old and "forgotten" one is Tamora. Very hard to obtain and it seems that Austin doesn't sell this rose any more.
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Reply #8 of 9 posted 8 JUN 17 by StrawChicago Alkaline clay 5a
Jay-Jay: Agree that A.S.Lad with glossy & dark-green foliage is best for alkaline soil. Tamora had lots of blooms & very healthy at nearby alkaline-clay rose park, until they spread whitish acidic sulfur granules around and BURNT many Tamora: they became 1/2 the size, diseased, then the rose park had to get rid of Tamora.
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Reply #9 of 9 posted 20 APR 19 by johnm99
Agree Austin roses are not particularly disease resistant. Mary Rose is quite good in this respect, and is a really good garden plant. Floriferous, vigorous, fragrance I have found to be moderately strong, rather than strong, great colour and pleasing bloom form. Downside - very thorny, not especially good as cut flower. But overall, I rate it very highly, amongst my favourite of the Austin roses. (Victoria BC, Zone 8b, cool summers, 20-30" rain, temperate)

As for disease resistance in Austin roses, they are NOWHERE near as good as Kordes in this respect. Kordes completely stopped spraying all of their roses including seedlings a long time ago - and most of their recent introductions are pretty bullet proof. On the other hand, Austin has continued spraying, and they have not had the discipline that Kordes had. Some are very prone to blackspot in my garden, less so to mildew. Graham Thomas and Gertrude Jekyll remain amongst my favourites, but I have to put up with their blackspot.

Austin roses are overly popular and the marketing was superb. David Austin has given the world some wonderful plants, and really deserves his place in the "hall of fame" but to be fair, the marketing claims are not quite accurate..... as with most other growers.....
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