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'Gabriel Oak ™' rose Reviews & Comments
Discussion id : 144-995
most recent 21 MAY HIDE POSTS
 
Initial post 21 MAY by Domenico 67
Just casually found a young (but very vigorously growing and nearly fully blooming) plant of "James Oak" at a local dealer in downtown Genoa (Italy). I already saw pictures of this new variety, but wasn't nearly as impressed as I was when I saw it in person. Believe me, this rose is an absolute stunner.
It's form is like a big, full, perfectly formed rosette, somewhat smaller on certain lateral buds. I'd describe it as a morphing of Charles de Mills and an older Austin rose (Gertrude Jelyll?), or maybe as a giant and fuller Rose de Resht. Never seen such a flower form in an Austin rose before, and all buds has unfolded perfectly so far.
Its colour is strongly reminiscent of Austin's "Othello" to me, including the yellow insertion of petals, but it beautifully fades to lilac pink on external border, like some old Gallica hybrids.
And the fragrance... it would be enough to buy this rose. A very powerful Bourbon smell (Mme Isaac Pereire), with some fine Gallica aroma and some ripe raspberry. Absolutely mouthwatering.
At the dealer, I had approached these flowers very skeptically, anticipating a likely delusion (it's not possible for such a beautiful rose to have also a beautiful fragrance"), expecting a slight unpleasant tea/meat smell like Pierre de Ronsard or some other modern shrub roses, or at best an almost undetectable rose fragrance... Instead, I put my nose into one of the most powerfully and beautifully fragrant roses I ever smelled!

P.S. I'd be not surprised at all if "Othello" would turn out being in its genealogy.
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Discussion id : 123-351
most recent 1 OCT 20 HIDE POSTS
 
Initial post 1 OCT 20 by Magnus95
Absolutely beautiful! But in it's first year defoliated completely from blackspot. Fragrance wasn't really there either. I think this is one of those Austin's that will take it's time to show off it's best performance.

Update: It smells exactly like Ribena to my nose!
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Discussion id : 120-123
most recent 5 FEB 20 HIDE POSTS
 
Initial post 5 FEB 20 by Daniel Alm
Scheduled for USA 2021 introduction with Eustacia Vye. Pre-orders available starting in November 2020.
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