Graham Thomas Rose

Hi guys wondered into my local B warehouse shop yesterday and was suprised to see the range of barerooted roses tey had on offer at very good prices.Most of the varietys werent common at chainstores.Anyhow after taing wonder around and reading a couple of ticets on the roses I settled on a David Austin rose called Graham Thomas for $8.50 grower from SA.Has anybody got this rose??. If so how is it health wise,flower wise and it's perfume which on the card it's say a strong fruity spicey frangrance.Cheers

hi Danny, good choice with graham Thomas , it is one beautiful strong yellow coloured rose . it is a vigorous bush or you can train it to climb over a pillar or a fence or trellis , I've had graham for four years , it gets a bit of black spot only minor at first nothing to worry about , other then that I've had no problem, perfume wise hmmmmmmm I have to wonder is it my nose? cause I cant smell it at all , very faint if that and I have two bushes to compare . good luck with your Gt

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It can get a bit rangey but it is a very good, about the perfume, Jordan your nose is ok, compared with a lot of other DA its perfume is very light.

thought so ozroz, as every book you read it states very strong perfume lol

you got to wonder sometimes is it nose or authors kinda exaggerate a bit

There are a lot of rose which are suppose to have strong perfume , but to me they are very mild. A lot of mine have intense perfume compared to these , and when I first rate them, alot of them give me bad hay fever, which is good, because only strong perfumes do that to me.

well I will be buying some of your roses in the future hopefully I can get headache from the perfume

I would to Dan, if he would sell them to us.

haha

Is it me , or do those two photos are different roses of GT....
top photo is light yellow, while bottom has a tinge of apricot......

also petal count where top one is almost twice that of bottom one and also petals are of different shape between the two.......

or is it two early in the morning for me.....

same rose ,

one growing in full sun . one in part shade

that's cool....just looking at the petal count(top 120-bottom 80) and shape of them that look different

Thanks guys for the response.That's what I gathered to from online that the frangrance is nothing like the card says on the rose.Is is it a good repeat bloomer.They also had charles austin there to.

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Danny, here are 2 to choose from

dannyboy wrote:Thanks guys for the response.That's what I gathered to from online that the frangrance is nothing like the card says on the rose.Is is it a good repeat bloomer.They also had charles austin there to.

Danny , both roses that David sent you the link two are good , both with good perfume . graham Thomas is a good repeat. I find Charles Austin not so prolific repeater as GT.

What is the best way to create a bushy plant, rather than long and lanky, when pruning GT? I don't really want it to climb. Is it possible to have GT as a well shaped shrub? I planted it last year and it is healthy but flowers only on the end of its long canes. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Silkyfizz alot of David Austin roses show this trait of lanky growth, there is not much you can do as it is in its genes to grow this way. That is the reason why i cross them with more rigid types in a way of improving this type of growth

Thanks Ozroz. Yes crossing with more rigid types makes sense. In the meantime, I will try to contain it via pruning. If that doesn't work, it might have to go?

No do not dig it out

Why not, it's just a gawky and lanky horror so far. Flowers are nice but bit droopy drawers. I should give it more time but so far it hasn't done much to rock my boat. I thought some clever pruning might help? Also read in latest Vic Rose Society booklet (I think it was) about tip pruning roses, so that's something to try next season.

silkyfizz wrote: I thought some clever pruning might help? Also read in latest Vic Rose Society booklet (I think it was) about tip pruning roses, .

Is this the pruning article from Ross Heathcote, silky?

Neptune, the article is 'Basal Shoots' by Pat Mason (NZ) in which tip pruning of young basal shoots (while they are red and soft) is suggested as a way of producing a strong shapely plant without the problems of die back that can occur after pruning basal shoots.

I have never heard of this. Is it a large article and or are you able to copy it on here to the forum?

John, there might be an electronic copy/form of this article, silky might know or anyone that is a member of Vic Rose Soc.

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Silky, most plants and I say most, not all plants have this. David Austins breeding lines are shrub roses and climbers, he has placed these in the group which now refers to as the 'Leander Group', not so much climbers. If you check the background to GT and his descendants you will find tall plants.
The idea of 'tip' pruning will retard the height of GT, if you take out the apical bud on the stem reaching for the sky, you should end up with more buds. If you want o retain it to a height that suits your garden, I would prune it like one would a hedge type plant, possibly with shears. I would not prune it the conventional way, these are just my thoughts.
As a side note, I have mentioned this before, any plant with what we call multi headed flowers or even just foliage, the idea of pinching out the centre bud will encourage the entire head to flower together.

Thank you Roseman, your ideas are very helpful.
Neptune I have contacted the Rose Soc Vic to see if there is an electronic form of the article or any problem in copying it and am awaiting a reply. I'll let you know when I hear back.
BTW I was amazed when I looked closely to find it was reprinted from the Aust NZ Rose Annual 1958!