Neal ...
When people first started grown Austin's roses in San Diego, they were total monsters that always out grew their allotted space. My rose mentor, Kim Rupert, and I talked about this a lot at the time. Kim is always teaching the botany of the plant and the lineage of the plant. He also teaches about the "why" of how roses do what they do.
In the early years, Austin disclosed the parentage of the roses he introduced, but then started registering them as "seedling x seedling" because he didn't want others to follow the same breeding line he was using.
One of the monster roses was 'Jude the Obscure'.
Rose (Rosa 'Jude the Obscure')
In the registration and the patent, the rose was only supposed to grow to four feet. In San Diego, it grew much, much larger.
I checked the lineage of the rose and found that it contained at least four climbers going back just three generations and at least two more roses with tall/large growth habits, so the genes are there for the rose to be a large rose. In England, it stayed a mannerly four feet and that was how it was registered.
Austin did not state that any of his roses could be used as climbers until
after he opened his nursery in Texas and saw how large the plants grew.
Is your rose free standing or located near a structure ?
Smiles,
Lyn
