David Austin Rose Order

I came home a week or so ago and found a large box of David Austin roses waiting for me. This is my late Christmas/early birthday present. I have six new baby roses! After much consideration, I ordered Munstead Wood, Port Sunlight, Jude the Obscure, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Queen of Sweden and Young Lycidas. 

Those of you from Florida know it has been unusually warm and very dry lately. My plan was to try directly planting these bare root roses into amended beds, but for various reasons I wasn't prepared and the weather wasn't the best. On the Austin website I read that bare root roses may struggle to get established in temperatures consistently over 70 degrees. I just don't want to experiment with these expensive and dear treasures, so I decided to give them a year in large pots before planting in the ground. Maybe I'll try planting one of those cheap bare root Odd Lots roses to see if bare roots can thrive in Florida.

The order came wrapped together in a plastic bag. I think it benefits me to live close to the distribution center in Texas and to get one of the first shipments of the year. All of the roses were fresh and most were in good condition. One rose, Port Sunlight, had some pretty serious damage to two of its main canes. Poor little thing is sending up many basal breaks to try to replace them. It looks like a vigorous trooper. I did contact customer service though because I was worried it wouldn't make it, and they promptly took care of the problem to my satisfaction. All of my new babies have broken dormancy and have tiny sprouts all over them. I am all anticipation now!